Starting in Fall 2025, PLU’s daily class schedule consists of 4-credit courses offered in MWF, MW, or TR time periods for 60- or 90-minutes. Graduate programs may have different schedules depending on their unique programmatic needs. Learn more.
Scheduling Best Practices
The weekly schedule of classes is too important to all members of the University (faculty, students, student life, and others) to not have agreed upon best practices. The scheduling process requires input from, and interaction among, all corners of the university and involves consideration of academic program needs, faculty availability and preferences, facility limits, finance and budget planning, and processes of the Registrar’s office.
Because faculty best understand the curricula and pedagogical requirements of their courses, attempts should be made to accommodate a department or school’s proposed schedule to the greatest degree possible. However, experience reveals that inevitably not all requests can be accommodated due to limitations of the physical facilities, overall student needs, equity across departments or schools in the workloads of faculty, and the need for coordination between them. Common recommendations for managing the extremely complex process of developing a semester’s (and academic year’s) course schedule have been drafted, with the goal of achieving a more effective schedule to better meet the needs of students, contribute to a sense of equity among faculty, and provide the best possible utilization of classroom spaces and physical facilities.
These recommendations apply to the scheduling of all classes.
1. Academic programs should provide a predicted course schedule at least one year in advance, in Spring of each year (i.e. when Chairs and Deans submit their Fall schedule, they also should submit a tentative schedule for the following year).
2. Academic programs should distribute their offerings as evenly as possible.
A. Academic programs offering both MWF and TR classes should aim to distribute classes amongst all available time slots. Academic programs may hold one time slot open for the purpose of having a program meeting time that everyone could attend.
B. Academic programs offering primarily MWF courses that meet more often for shorter periods of time, or primarily MW or TR courses that meet for longer periods of time with fewer class meetings, should distribute their offerings evenly across these available time slots.
C. Academic programs should offer no more than 84% (5/6) of any of their offerings in primetime.
D. Academic programs should offer less than 20% of their offerings in each semester in any one given time slot.
E. Academic programs should offer at least 16% (1/6) of their offerings in any given academic year either before primetime (An 8:15 a.m. slot) or in the evening (starting at 3:45 p.m. or later for TR courses and 2:00 p.m. or later for MW courses).
F. When possible, courses required for completion of the major that are scheduled at or through the 3:45 p.m. TR block should either be offered in multiple sections (where other sections are offered at a different time), or attempts should be made to offer these courses at different times in other semesters.
G. Offerings that meet one day a week (laboratories, studio courses, or capstones, for example), should abide by these guidelines when possible.
3. Classes should start at standard start times, and efforts should be made to keep class meetings in the times scheduled. Attendance requirements outside of normal class meeting times should be indicated in the course description provided on Banner at the time of registration.
4. Academic programs offering courses that require larger blocks of time should schedule these to cover no more than 2 normal class periods.
5. The onus of teaching courses in non-prime time slots should be distributed through the academic programs in an equitable manner.
6. Academic Program Chairs and Directors should submit class schedules to their College Dean, who provides process oversight in coordination with the Provost’s Office, for review before it is then submitted by the program to the Registrar’s Office.
1. Undergraduate courses must be scheduled in the regular scheduling blocks.
PLU’s daily class schedule was adopted in October 1993. 4-credit courses are offered in MWF, MW, or TR time periods for 65- or 105-minutes, starting at 8:00a and ending 5:25p. Evening classes are offered in 2 hour periods, two times a week. Graduate programs may not adhere to this schedule strictly.
Fall/Spring 65-min Class Periods:
MWF 8:00-9:05a
MWF 9:15-10:20a*
MWF 11:15a-12:20p*
MWF 12:30-1:35p*
MWF 1:45-2:50p*
Fall/Spring 105-min Class Periods:
MW 1:45-3:30p*
MW 3:40-5:25p
TR 8:00-9:45a
TR 9:55-11:40a*
TR 11:50a-1:35p*
TR 1:45-3:30p*
TR 3:40-5:25p
Fall/Spring Evening Class Periods:
MW 6:00-8:00p
TR 6:00–8:00 p
J-Term/Summer 140-min Class Periods:
MTWRF 8:30–10:50a
MTWRF 11:30a–1:50p
MTWRF 2:30–4:50p
J-Term/Summer 170-min Class Periods:
(M)TWRF 8:30–11:20a
(M)TWRF 11:30a–2:20p
(M)TWRF 2:30p–5:20p
(M)TWRF 6:00–8:50p
* Class periods considered ‘prime time’.
Starting in Fall 2025, PLU’s daily class schedule consists of 4-credit courses offered in MWF, MW, or TR time periods for 60- or 90-minutes. Graduate programs may have different schedules depending on their unique programmatic needs.
Fall/Spring 60 minute Class Periods:
MWF 8:15-9:15a
MWF 9:30-10:30a
MWF 10:45-11:45a
MWF 12:15-1:15p
Fall/Spring 90 minute Class Periods:
TR 8:15-9:45a
TR 10:00-11:30a
TR 12:15-1:45p
TR 2-3:30p
TR 3:45-5:15p
MW 12:15-1:45p
MW 2-3:30p
MW 3:45-5:15 (academic year ’25-26 only)
J-Term Class Periods:
TWRF 8:30-11:15a
TWRF 11:30a-2:15p
TWRF 2:30-5:15p
TWRF 6:00-8:45p
Summer Class Periods:
MTWRF 8:30-10:45a
MTWRF 11:30a-1:45p
MTWRF 2:30-4:45p
