Reducing Class Meeting Time
Colleges and University offer course credit based on units or semester hours. We are on
the unit system. Most SUNY schools are on the semester hour system. New York State requires
120 semester hours for a degree, so we provide a translation from our unit to the semester hour.
Currently St. Lawrence defines one unit as 3.6 semester hours. We have based this on the idea
that schools on the semester system get one semester hour for each 50 minute hour they meet per
week. At SLU students get one unit for meeting three times a week for 60 minutes. So the
conversion arises from the following calculation (3 meetings a week) x (60 minutes)/
(50minutes) =3.6. Carolyn Filippi has looked into this issue for us, and she has found that many
schools define how many semester hours their units are worth without doing a calculation. For
example, they simply declare that their course that meets for three 50 minute classes a week is
worth four semester hours.
As we look at the NCG we find that our class meeting time is longer than most of the
other schools. Below is a table summarizing the relevant data for the NCG. The column titled
units/hrs indicates whether the school uses semester hours our units for their course credit. The
column titled “class times” indicates how long a typical class meets. The final column indicates
the number of units or semester hours required for graduation. Of the 25 schools in the NCG 18
are on the unit system. Of those 18 schools on the unit system, 13 meet for 50 minute classes,
and one of the outliers is Kalamazoo who is on the quarter system, highlighted in red below. The
7 schools highlighted in green are on the unit system, meet for 50/75 minute classes and only
require 32 units for graduation
school
Allegheny College
Bates College
Bucknell University
Carleton College
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Holy Cross
College of Wooster
Connecticut College
Denison University
Dickinson College
Drew University
Gettysburg College
Hamilton College
Hobart & William
Smith
Kalamazoo College
Kenyon College
Macalester College
location units
or hrs
PA
hrs
ME
units
PA
units
MN
hrs
ME
hrs
NY
units
MA
units
OH
units
CT
hrs
OH
hrs
PA
units
NJ
hrs
PA
units
NY
units
NY
units
class times
Required for graduation
50 or 75 minutes
55 or 80 minutes
52 or 82minutes
80 minutes
50 minutes or other
50 minutes or other
50 minutes or other
50 or 80 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
50 minutes etc.
50 or 75 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
55 minutes
128 semester credits
34 course credits
32 BA, 34 engineering
210 hours
128 semester hours
32 credits
32 semester courses
32 courses required
128 semester hours
127 semester hours
32 credits
128 credits
32 course units
32 units
32 units
MI
OH
MN
75 or 110 minutes
50 or 80 minutes
60 or 90 minutes
16 (128 semester hours)
128 semester credits
units
units
hrs
Support Document: Reducing Class Meeting Time
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY:
THE REPORT OF THE RECESSION RESPONSE PLANNING GROUP
Copyright, St. Lawrence University, 2011. This report is intended for use only within and by the St. Lawrence University community
1
Middlebury College
VT
units
50 or 75 minutes
Muhlenberg College
Ohio Wesleyan Univ
St. Lawrence Univ.
Skidmore College
Trinity College
Vassar College
Wheaton College
PA
OH
NY
NY
CT
NY
MA
units
units
units
hrs
units
units
units
50 75 or 110minues
50 or 110 minutes
60 or 90 minutes
55 or 80 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
50 or 75 minutes
50 or 80 minutes
36 courses (2 winterterm
course required)
34 units
34 units
33.5 units
120 semester hours
36 course credits
34 units
32 units
Support Document: Reducing Class Meeting Time
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY:
THE REPORT OF THE RECESSION RESPONSE PLANNING GROUP
Copyright, St. Lawrence University, 2011. This report is intended for use only within and by the St. Lawrence University community
2