Common Hour

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What is Common Hour?

Preamble
“The College is committed to providing an intellectually rigorous undergraduate education with the context of a supportive, diverse residential community. We are also committed to educating the whole person through experiences within and beyond the classroom.”
--from the Muhlenberg College Mission Statement

Common Hour aims to achieve two goals:
1) To strengthen the Muhlenberg community by creating a common meeting time for “beyond the classroom” gatherings of students, staff and faculty;
2) To strengthen the Muhlenberg community by designating a common meeting time for hard to schedule meetings of students, staff and faculty.

Structure

The Common Hour is on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 1:45

  • No classes are scheduled
  • No other organized course or student-related activities are to be scheduled (independent studies, athletic practices, office hours, music lessons)
  • One day (i.e., Tuesday) will be devoted to “meeting activities” and one day (i.e., Thursday) will be devoted to Community activities
  • Initially no structure will be placed on reserving certain weeks of the month for department meetings, for committee meetings, etc. Based on the 2011-12 experience, this might be amended
  • On days when Community activities are scheduled students and employees (recognizing the necessity of keeping offices functioning) will have opportunities to attend campus wide events

Tuesdays: Meetings

  • A time for hard-to-schedule regular meetings: committees, student clubs, departments, task-forces
  • A time for spontaneous informal lunches and events that are now hard to schedule

Thursdays: Community Events

  • An additional time for guest lecturers and performers now scheduled in the evening
  • A time to schedule faculty, student, or staff “community interest groups” – e.g., FCT events, Reading Groups, student interest groups
  • A time for Muhlenberg faculty, students, and staff to organize events of interest to the entire community (e.g., artistic, literary, scientific, political)

Other Comments:

  • Some organized student activities with limited scheduling flexibility, such as service learning and education field-work, may still occur
  • Other uses of the common hour may evolve per our experience with it
  • A “clearinghouse” (e.g., web page) will list all events and locations during the common hour – hopefully scheduling will be done in advance so groups can plan ahead and minimize conflicts.



Common Hour Events