The infamous Monday-Wednesday-Friday lunch rush after chapel may become a thing of the past next fall semester. After alterations from former Student Government Association presidents Garrett Fitzsimmons and Joel Ernst as well as two scrapped plans for a new schedule for next year, a third plan is up for approval by SGA and Academic Council.
Previous chapel times were early enough to evade the long lines in the dining hall immediately after chapel. According to Margery Avery, director of academic records, “Back when chapel was at 11:05, students either went to class after chapel or they went to lunch. Normally 65% of them went to class after chapel. And, lunch wasn’t open from 7:00 to 7:00, so there was just a certain amount of time. So, if 65% of people walked out of chapel and went to class, then you still had a number of students who could go to lunch. Students ate in shifts.” This pattern continued even after a time change to 10:15.
The current starting time of 11:30 was originally changed to fit in science labs or three non-lab classes prior to chapel and provide enough room to schedule four-hour credit courses afterward. However, for many students with multiple afternoon classes scheduled, the only window for them to eat lunch was between the 12:10 ending time for chapel and the 12:45 time for their first afternoon class. Avery states that the time period “was never intended to be lunch. The theory was they would go to class or they would go to lunch. They wouldn’t wind up doing both. But, the students tried to do both.”
A version C of next year’s campus schedule has chapel set from 11:00 to 11:40. However, Avery stresses that there is no guarantee this will be the official schedule for the 2014-2015. For now, the schedule is to be proposed to SGA for input from the student body.