The resolution to explore College Hour on campus was proposed by Student Senate Vice President Ryan Pearce to the Academic Senate on Friday.
The Academic Senate is a board of elected faculty that makes recommendations to improve education and campus participation in governance, according to the Academic Senate for Community Colleges.
College Hour is a time when colleges limit classes to create opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage, Pearce said.
“This is a systematic change in the structure of the college that I think is worth considering if it leads to better academic outcomes, better attention rates, better engagement and more vibrant campus life,” Pearce said. “I am a student here, I am only here for a short length of time, but it is really sad to see when I walk around campus at 3 o’clock, it’s dead.”
Pearce said he was the perfect example of a commuter student having back-to-back classes during his first two semesters.
“I come in and do my classes, and leave,” Pearce said. “I can imagine a pretty significant preponderance of my fellow students are doing the same thing.”
Pearce said the conversations he has on campus are one of his great joys from the day.
“You can’t have a really good conversation with someone in five minutes,” Pearce said.
The resolution died on the floor when initially proposed to the Student Senate, but passed after discussions with students at the Student Senate’s booth during Hawk Days, Pearce said.
Philosophy Professor Rick Schubert, the honors committee chairman, said he shared Pearce’s interests of supporting student engagement with academic activity outside of the classroom, but had concerns.
“My wife is faculty at Woodland Community College and the college is an absolute ghost town during college hour,” Schubert said. “It is an opportunity for folks not to come in.”
The campus had previously considered college hour but the motion never passed, Schubert said.
“In the abstract, I have enthusiasm, but in practice from what I’ve been able to believe from other institutions that it’s not effective,” Schubert said.
Academic Senate President Jacob Velasquez said he understood both sides to the resolution.
“I really thought the research from the vice president of the Student Senate was compelling and interesting,” Velasquez said. “There’s definitely some benefit in a college hour.”
Velasquez said students may also be impacted negatively because of their tight schedules.
“It’ll be those students in particular who will have difficulty in finding classes that they can take,” Velasquez said.
Pearce, along with Student Senate President Miranda Rocucci, will propose the College Hour resolution to President Edward Bush later this month.
Pearce said he doesn’t know where the proposal will go from there, but that if successful it would most likely be a multi-year process before any changes would be seen.
CORRECTION: The headline for this story was corrected to reflect that the College Hour was proposed by the Student Senate.