Semester Allocations by College/Department

Section offerings should be scheduled as efficiently as possible. Even distribution should occur between Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Tuesday/Thursday offerings. The Office of the Registrar monitors meeting pattern adherence. For guidelines to assist in creating course offerings, please click here.

Course offerings for each department will be checked for adherence to allocation and regulations by the Office of the Registrar. Course offering submissions which do not comply will be held and the department notified with instructions for adjustments. Assignment of classrooms to the department will be delayed until the allocation overage is appropriately altered. Additional scheduling information can be found at Classroom Scheduling's Policy and Procedures page on our website.

To determine your department's course offerings class-hour allocation, please click here.

Class-Hour Allocations in University Classrooms

The allocation document included with the initial scheduling instructions is based on the number of class periods or contact hours offered by each department in university classrooms. This figure is derived from the previous fall semester course offerings at census date or shortly thereafter, relative to total overall use, and on the number of university classroom periods available during the next academic year. Thus the number of university classrooms gained or lost from the university inventory each session plays an important role in the final allocation figure provided to each department. These classrooms are available for assignment once each hour, each day, for a total of five times in an academic week. Once the quantity of class periods based on gain or loss of classrooms is determined, an adjustment to reflect the maximum anticipated utilization is derived from the previous fall’s utilization percentage and then reported to the Iowa Board of Regents. Using this formula, we arrive at the total expected fractional share of class periods to distribute per hour to departments seeking university classroom assignments.

Benefits of Class-Hour Allocations

Assessment of class-hour allocations to departments who make use of university classrooms in combination with these scheduling regulations should ensure equitable distribution of university classroom space for a given fall or spring session. Additionally, effective classroom scheduling benefits departments in their access to place sections in university classrooms as well as students’ registration efforts through a spread of course offerings during the instructional day. University classrooms not only support the credit-bearing course offerings for a given term but also supplemental instructional activities. Therefore, it is crucial that classroom flexibility exist after initial scheduling to support special event assignment throughout the daytime and evening hours.

Use of Departmental Allocation

• All instruction scheduled on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. through 6:20 p.m. for which university classroom space is requested will be charged against the departmental allocation. Departments that make little or no use of university classrooms are not included in the departmental class-hour allocations. Currently allocations are not assessed in summer sessions.
• Each department is restricted to scheduling no more than its class-period allocation at any one hour in university rooms.
• Once the allocation has been met for a given time slot, a department will not be allowed to schedule additional classes at those hours in university classrooms. An alternate time slot offering a lower allocation offering would have to be selected for any additional course additions.
• Currently, instruction scheduled during the evening (after 6:30 p.m.) or Saturday will not be counted against the allocation. However, if usage of evening hours increases, it may be necessary monitor evening hours in the future.
• To measure past departmental room use and to calculate allocations, all cross-referenced courses are applied to the contact hours of the designated Administrative Home. Coexisting courses will be charged once within the course grouping.
• Each department is responsible for calculating its own departmental allocation and adhering to scheduling policies. Course Offerings will be checked for adherence to the allocation and regulations. Course offerings which do not comply will be returned to the department with instructions for adjustment. Assignment of the classrooms to the department will be delayed until the copy is returned appropriately altered.

How to Distribute Instruction

Refer to column (b.) to tabulate how split-period instruction is charged against the departmental class-hour allocation in Tuesday/Thursday or approved Monday/Wednesday (in bold) spilt meeting patterns below.

a.  Split-Period Time Blocks

• 8:00 - 9:15
• 9:30 - 10:45
• 11:00 - 12:15
• 11:00 - 11:50
• 12:30 - 1:45
• 2:00 - 3:15
• 2:00 - 2:50
• 3:30 - 4:45
• 5:00 - 6:15
• 5:00 - 5:50

b. Charge Against Class-Hour Allocation

• 1 at 7:30 + 2 at 8:30
• 2 at 9:30 + 1 at 10:30
• 1 at 10:30 + 2 at 11:30
• 1 at 10:30 + 1 at 11:30
• 2 at 12:30 + 1 at 1:30
• 1 at 1:30 + 2 at 2:30
• 1 at 1:30 + 1 at 2:30
• 2 at 3:30 + 1 at 4:30
• 1 at 4:30 + 2 at 5:30
• 1 at 4:30 + 1 at 5:30

• Only administrative home courses will be counted towards the department's allocations.

Since the entire allocation of 9 has been used at 11:30 in this example, the TEST department would not be allowed to schedule additional classes at the 11:30 a.m. hour in university classrooms. Rather an alternate class time where lower allocation usage occurs should be selected for any additional courses. Furthermore, the TEST department will also be required to reduce their allocation at the 11:30 a.m. slot by shifting a course or two into a lower utilized class time slot.