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• June 3, 2016

The results are in and more than half of the students, faculty, staff, and administrators who responded to the Cal State East Bay University Hour Survey support the implementation of a university hour.

“University hour,” or U-hour as it’s often called, is a period of time during the day in which lecture classes would not be scheduled to allow time for various activities to take place on campus.

The goal of U-hour is to increase campus engagement and help foster a sense of Pioneer pride. This could be done through campus-wide events, programs, teach-ins, and symposiums that would give students, faculty, and staff a chance to share out-of-classroom experiences.

The U-hour survey, distributed by the Semester Conversion Co-Curricular and Student Support Subcommittee, was sent to 17,000 students, faculty, staff, and administrators and had a 17 percent return rate. Of those who returned the survey, 54 percent indicated that they were in favor of a U-hour, with most reporting that a time around noon to 1 p.m. would be preferred.

Dr. Diana Balgas, executive director of transfer student programs and co-chair of the Co-Curricular and Student Support Subcommittee, said that since semester conversion will change the schedules currently in place, it made sense to explore U-hour and see if it was something members of the campus community were interested in.

“Semester conversion provides an opportunity to discuss time modules, and we felt U-hour was an important discussion to have, especially knowing the wide variety of opportunities it can provide,” Balgas said.

Two of the three class schedule models recommended to the executive committee of academic senate allow for a University hour. Model one allows for a U-hour four days a week (1:45-2:45) and model three allows for a U-hour twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays (12:15-1:15). Model two has no University hour. If academic senate approves a model with a U-hour, it would start in Fall 2018.