The few institutions that have implemented a formalized academic scheduling policy would almost unanimously report that the biggest challenge, after politics and culture have been addressed, is measuring and enforcing adherence to the policies. This simply can not be done without a series of rather complex, automated reports that must be run each scheduling period.

What specifically should these reports address? While there will be variations depending on the specific allocation strategies that make up any given policy, reports should address some of the following:

• Equitable allocation of bottlenecks across departments: This is usually done by capping each department’s allocated weekly hours that correspond to a department’s pro rata hours of instruction in the overall schedule. For example, department X offers 10 percent of the weekly lecture hours in an overall schedule. Therefore, it is given up to 10 percent (or 30 weekly hours) of high-tech classroom space during primetime.

• Minimum seat fill of large capacity bottlenecks: Seat fill is frequently calculated as enrollment capacity of a section to room capacity. More sophisticated reports might measure actual enrollment in historical “like” terms as a ratio to room capacity. The latter approach is more effective in that it “weeds out” sections with superficially high enrollment caps, but traditionally low actual enrollments. In either case, many policies concerning large capacity bottleneck rooms require a minimum ratio (e.g., 70%) to even request this type of a room during primetime.

• Objective section or instructor criteria: The allocation of bottleneck rooms that have specific technology or other equipment often focuses on the objective need for such equipment and technology. For example, some institutions have developed faculty training and certification programs for use of technology. Such institutions have successfully required that only certified instructors be allowed to use such rooms during primetime. Other examples include special needs of faculty, students, etc.

Next week, I’ll highlight leaders in the field who are using the space management techniques (some that I’ve discussed and some that I have not) to remove bottlenecks and improve utilization on their campuses.