Quinnipiac University’s Provost Debra Liebowitz announced a new “common time” for students — allowing for more university-wide events and club meetings during the weekdays starting in fall 2025 during a Feb. 4 information session.
Common time was created to have a break in class schedules for students and faculty to attend events, meetings and re-energize for the rest of the day.
During the town hall meeting that discussed the re-spacing plans on the Mount Carmel Campus, Liebowitz presented the plan for the university to not schedule classes between 12:30-1:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There is an effort to include undergraduate classes on the North Haven Campus and graduate classes on the Mount Carmel Campus for fall 2025 — but the focus for this upcoming semester is to incorporate the common hour for the undergraduate classes.
Clinical and internship hours will not be impacted by the common hour.
The addition of the South Quad on the Mount Carmel Campus and the reallocation of spaces on campus allows for more classes to occur simultaneously. This opened the opportunity to have a time block with no classes.
“One of the goals that was a long-standing goal on campus was to create a common hour in the schedule grid in order to facilitate campus-wide events and create more space,” Liebowitz said to The Chronicle. “It won’t make space for every single thing, but to create more space in the grid for events, meetings, those kinds of things.”
The plan is to hold university-wide events on Tuesdays, and clubs and other student organizations to hold meetings and events on Thursdays.
This could reduce the number of late-night club meetings and allow students to spend time with friends more frequently.
“I think common time is actually a really good idea, because it’s so hard to have people’s schedules lined up,” said Emma Talbot, a junior film, television and media arts major. “I think it could be really helpful to have a common time for everyone to be available, especially for clubs.”
Late-night club meetings can be difficult for the 28% of students who commute and live off campus.
“I’m a commuter, and a lot of club meetings are from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.,” said Kristian Skiendziel, a first-year health sciences major. “So I’m driving home for 30 minutes at 10 p.m. and I’m tired, and I have an 8 a.m. (class) the next day. So I think that time for clubs would be beneficial.”
In addition to allowing time for events, meetings and activities, common time will give students the opportunity to take advantage of the dining and recreational and wellness facilities.
Although these activities will easily fit into students’ schedules, there are drawbacks with potential overcrowding.
“If I’m trying to go to the gym, a lot of people would be using the gym at that time, so it would be super crowded,” said James Mitchenson, a first-year health science major. “Or if I want to go eat, the dining hall will be super crowded at that time just because everyone will be going for lunch there.”
Liebowitz and her team are working to incorporate the common hour for all Mount Carmel Campus undergraduate classes for the upcoming semester, but exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis in conjunction with the deans across Quinnipiac’s schools. Any exceptions will be brought from a dean to Liebowitz’s office.
