It’s fairly safe to say that students at the U lead fairly diverse lives compared with students at other campuses. The traditional college student-aged 18 to 22, living on or close to campus and receiving money from an independent source-is in the minority at the U.

Students here commute, are married and have families and often work full- or part-time to put themselves through school. Because students here have so many different constraints on their time, they need to be accommodated by their university.

Yet when it comes time to register for new classes, many students find themselves in a dilemma. Classes that they need for their majors are often only offered in a certain range of times-times that are not especially compatible with their already-packed schedules. There needs to be a greater diversity in the time slots available for classes at the U. Obviously, with financial, scheduling and personnel constraints, the U cannot simply increase the number of sections in every class. However, the U needs to make a sincere effort to create a broader range of time in which classes are made available.

Some people argue that early morning classes are not conducive to effective learning-yet many classes are only offered early in the morning.

While students need to take responsibility for the classes they choose, it is unfortunate that students must make a decision between their educational advancement and a necessity like night-shift employment or even a typical college social experience.

Furthermore, many students who work complain about classes that are only offered in the afternoons. Such classes are obviously not feasible for students who work or students who have children at home. Would it really be so hard to have a class offered once in a morning slot, once in the afternoon and once at night?

Obviously, not every student can be accommodated all the time-but it seems that sometimes departments disregard students’ needs at this university.

The fact that the U is not the typical college campus is not adequately reflected in its class scheduling. Students are spending their time and money to get an education here-and more effort needs to be made to help them achieve their educational goals.