Academic Classroom Scheduling

Academic Scheduling Guidelines 

Purdue uses a 55-hour academic week. Classes typically meet Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (until 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday), and Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. To support a conflict-free schedule and fair use of teaching spaces, departments are asked to follow the guidelines below when building their schedule of classes. 

1. Use standard meeting patterns. Standard sequences help students build workable schedules and stay on track to graduate. 
2. Spread classes throughout the day. Distribute courses across the week to increase student options and reduce bottlenecks at peak times, especially before 9:30 a.m. or after 3:30 p.m. 
3. Use classrooms and staffing efficiently. Improving space utilization benefits the entire campus schedule. 
4. Allow flexibility for large sections. Because large classrooms are limited, large-section courses should have as much scheduling flexibility as possible. 
5. No long-standing commitments are guaranteed. Long-standing time and location arrangements may not be possible each term. 
6. Requests and preferences are reviewed but not guaranteed. The Registrar works with department heads to accommodate requests made in UniTime at the instructor-, course- or program-level when possible. 
7. Non-standard times and weeks require approval. Requests must be approved by the college dean and the Office of the Provost. If a non-standard course requests a specific location, it may need to choose between the requested time or the requested space — not both. 
8. Schedule faculty meetings after the schedule of classes is published. Alternatively, align with standard sequences starting at 3:30 p.m. to avoid conflicts. 
9. Practice, study and observation (PSO) sections may be scheduled online at any time. In-person PSO sections with 50 students or fewer are scheduled in available daytime classrooms, while sections with more than 50 students are scheduled in available evening classrooms.

Class Transitions

Between classes, the first five minutes after the official dismissal time is a shutdown period for the outgoing class. This allows the instructor time to power down equipment and pack up materials. The following five minutes before the next class begins is preparation time for the incoming class. Plan accordingly and dismiss on time.

Schedule Build Process

Use the process below to submit scheduling requests for large lecture rooms, active learning classrooms, general-purpose classrooms and computer labs each term.

Schedule Deputy Contact List

Our Academic Classroom Scheduling team works closely with college and departmental schedule deputies to coordinate class scheduling. Find schedule deputies by subject, campus or name, along with office and contact information. If phoning outside of campus, insert “(765) 49” ahead of the five digits listed.

Campus locations are listed as follows: West Lafayette (WL) and Indianapolis (Indy).