By Erica Brosnan Staff Writer
It’s Wednesday, I have my first of two classes for the day and I’m finally beginning to get over that early morning groggy feeling. My class ends at 11 a.m. and as I leave the building that my class was in, rather than just head to my second class as I would like to, I find myself thinking, “Now what do I do?”
It’s common hour: an hour and 25 minute break between classes on Wednesdays that is the most difficult time period for me to get through each week. As somebody who never really had the drive to get involved on campus, preferring to just go through my classes quickly, common hour is just a gap in my schedule I’d rather not have. Instead I would rather have more time to work part-time jobs.
I do understand why we have it. Common hour is meant for students and faculty to participate in extracurricular activities to strengthen the Hofstra community. But is 11:15 a.m. on a Wednesday the best time to do so? Also, why are we only doing it once a week? Other colleges, like Pace University, have a common hour every day in the afternoon, when most people would need an appropriate break in the day.
Few students take Friday classes and on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. there is a gap in a lot of students’ schedules adding two days of unofficial common hour. I can’t even begin to wonder how many hours throughout my college career I’ve spent wandering around campus through various commonly frequented places looking for a place to go just to get through common hour. If I don’t seek out a spot immediately, the countless other students on campus who are in the same boat as me – not participating in an extracurricular and simply waiting to go to their next class – have already beat me to it.
Now, I’m not advocating nixing it altogether, because I do understand that for those who do participate around campus, it’s a useful time for club meetings and fundraising events. However, I do think that there definitely needs to be a time adjustment for common hour.
If common hour is going to stay on Wednesday, it should be moved to the afternoon, possibly between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. In other words: the time of the day when you really need a break. (Ever heard of the “2 o’clock feeling?”)
This gives people the liberty to schedule classes during the morning and finish by the time the afternoon arrives. It allows for plenty of free time to participate in on-campus activities without having to worry about rushing across campus to get to your next class and giving students who choose to start their days later a more appropriate break in between classes.
Another option is to push it to Friday, a day when most people are looking for things to do on campus if they are here anyway. It will give people the opportunity to start the weekend early and take a break after a week full of classes rather than having a tease in between classes in the middle of the week.
I’m not saying common hour is unnecessary. All I’m saying is that it’s a bit of an inconvenience for those who don’t have any obligations for common hour.
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