1. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
Centralized Class Scheduling Pros & Cons for Space Utilization Improvement
Presented by:
Conroy E. Kydd
Associate Director, Office of Admissions, Records and Registration
The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)

2. UTA History / Current Ranking
Established in 1895 and has had 8 name changes since then.
Finally settled as the University of Texas at Arlington in 1967.
Awarded R-1 designation in Highest Research Activity designation.

3. UTA- Location / Landmarks
Located in the downtown city of Arlington
AT&T or Cowboys Stadium
Rangers ballpark
Population of Arlington ≈ 365,000
Located precisely midway between Dallas and Fort Worth

4. UTA Campus

5. Academic Offerings/Research Funding
180 degree programs
10 different schools and colleges
Research centers in every discipline
Total funding for research exceeded $85 million for the fiscal year

6. Academic Programs Distribution
Degrees Offered (Fall 2016)
85 Bachelor’s
74 Master’s
26 Doctoral

7. Enrollment Summary Fall 2016
28,218 Undergraduate
10,153 Master’s and Certificate
1,343 Doctoral
39,714 Total on campus
Total global enrollment exceeds 55,000

8. Diversity Distribution Fall 2016
10.2% Asian
12.3% International
15.1% African American
24.6% Hispanic
37.8 % Whites

9. Primary Responsibilities
Manage the scheduling of classes (estimated 9,000 sections each semester excluding Summer).
Manage the allocation of academic and events scheduling in designated classified and non-classified rooms.

10. Space Usage History
Prior to my tenure, UT-Arlington used a decentralized process to schedule academic classes
Utilization scores were low, compared to other schools within the UT-System.
Fall’2011 with a history of lower utilization scores, we migrated to a combination of centralized and decentralized scheduling.

11. Steps Towards Improvements
In 2010 UTA hired a consulting group to perform a Utilization Analysis and reported the following:
Classrooms and Class labs were not being used efficiently.
Campus had a surplus of classrooms.

12. Steps Towards Improvements
25 classrooms were taken offline and or reclassified to meeting rooms.
Implemented the centralized classroom scheduling and kept the class lab assignments with the academic departments.
Made technology a key standard in areas where it was most desired.
Started the process of streamlining approval of request for pedagogical circumstances.

13. Steps Towards Improvements
Created a workflow to accommodate these special needs with a listing of approved categories that were processed several months prior to general scheduling.
Received buy-in from the provost office who took a mandated approach and made these changes become policy.
The opportunity loss from not having excellent utilization score was relayed to deans, chairs and other academic leaders.

14. Current Academic Space Distribution
General classroom buildings = 18
Classified classrooms = 169
Classified class labs = 78
Classified special class labs= 85

15. Examples of Special Requests
Department
Term /Session
Subject
Catalog #
Section #
Room Request Option
Additional Info
College of Liberal Arts – Department of Art & Art History
Spring 2017
ART
2304
001
Specifically Designed Classrooms
FA 411
College of Liberal Arts – Department of Communications
Fall 2016
COMM
3303
All
Software
Need MAC labs –
Suggest
FA404

16. Examples of Special Requests
Department
Term /Session
Subject
Catalog #
Section #
Room Request Option
Additional Info
College of Engineering - Department of Electrical Engineering
Spring 2017 EE
2320
001
Medical
Please schedule in NH due to instructor mobility issues
College of Science - Department of Physics
ASTR
1345
Non Transferable artifacts in room
Instructor stores needed supplies in closet

17. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Scoring Chart

18. Fall 2015 Space Usage Efficiency Summary

19. UT- System Schools (Space Usage Efficiency Score) Historical Comparison

20. CONS
Departments started making up reasons to justify asking for specific rooms that benefits them personally.
Section caps for classes were being manipulated to target certain rooms.
Department’s Administrative Assistants were under extreme pressure to find the rooms instructors wanted.
Complaints from Instructors grew as they were being forced to walk to other buildings to teach.

21. CONS
Even with centralized classroom scheduling in place we face additional issues during Fall and Spring:
Too many primetime classes being scheduled and finalizing the schedule is literally an ‘hair pulling’ experience.
Too many instructors teaching multiple back to back sections, which forces us to try and keep their classrooms close to each other - this has not been working very well.

22. PROS
We have shown a steady growth in our utilization scores over the years.
Capital improvement projects are being approved by the state.
Graduations rates have improved since more classes are available to the students.
With our targeted approach to reducing primetime classes, non–classroom spaces are slowly being restored to support auxiliary services.

23. PROS
Scheduling of rooms becomes less complicated when rules are set in place to benefit student outcomes and not centered around what the instructors want.
The event scheduling process for academic departments and student organizations is now more efficient and can be better accommodated in a timely manner.
Adding swipe access keys to all classrooms has saved academic departments $$ since physical keys no longer has to cut each semester.

24. The Outcome…Improved Graduation Rates

25. Graduation # by Years

26. New SEIR Building Scheduled to Open in Fall 2018

27. Thank you…
Any Questions?