Guidelines for Requesting Section Space from the FAS Classrooms Office

The FAS Classrooms Office schedules approximately 30% of the classrooms in the FAS room inventory. The remainder is scheduled in the departments, centers, and houses (see Resources below). The FAS Classrooms Office schedules many sections during the start of the term as courses settle into their final classroom assignments. Courses receive priority over all sections. If a course needs to be assigned or reassigned, then we may have to move or cancel a room assigned to a section in order to accommodate the needs of a course. Review the guidelines below. We hope you will find them helpful.

Contacting the FAS Classrooms Office:

  • To submit a discussion sectionclassroom request, you may use the classroom request sheet posted on the Registrar’s website: Email the Classrooms Office at.
  • The Head TF must submit all correspondence about sections, including time and room change requests. We will process requests in the order in which we receive them. Classroom assignments will be sent via email to the Head TF a week before the start of the term. Requests received after at the start of the term are generally processed within 72 hours. The Head TF should be advised to consult others on campus for space while waiting for a response from the FAS Classrooms Office.

When Requesting Specific Time Slots:

  • Popular Section Meeting Times: Most requests for section space are between Wednesday afternoon and Friday at 1 p.m. You will greatly increase your chances of securing section space from the FAS Classrooms Office by requesting space earlier in the week, on Monday or Tuesday, or during the afternoon hours on Friday.
  • Seminar vs. Movable Chair Classrooms: The FAS Classrooms Office schedules 59 seminar-style rooms. If we cannot accommodate sections in this preferred classroom style, we may assign a different style in its place, when available.
  • Evening Requests: At 5:30 pm, most of the FAS Classroom Office room inventory is scheduled by the Division of Continuing Education. The FAS Classrooms Office schedules activities after 5:30 pm in the following buildings: Grays basement, five 15-40 seat movable chair classrooms; Barker Center, nine 8-38 seat seminar or movable chair classrooms, (for affiliated departments only); Boylston 110 Fong Auditorium, lecture hall seats 144;CGIS, six 16-35 seat seminar rooms, one 32-seat moveable chair classroom; 2 Divinity Ave, #18, Yenching Auditorium, lecture hall seats 275; Lamont Library, two 25-seat movable chair classrooms; Northwest Science Building, one 220-seat lecture hall and five seminar/conference style classrooms with 16-45 seats; andRobinson Hall, five 10-25 seat seminar-style classrooms.
  • Longer than one-hour sections: We schedule each section in a one-hour block of time, starting on the hour. The only exceptions are for those few courses that have required sections meeting longer than an hour as listed in the Courses of Instruction catalog. Also, no section can be scheduled on the half-hour.
  • On the half-hour: It is our policy that no section can be scheduled on the half-hour.
  • Electronic Sectioning: We encourage all courses with sections, especially those with 50 students or more to use the web-based sectioning tool. For more information, please visit our web site at
  • Rooms No Longer Needed: If you wish to cancel your room assignment, please notify us as soon as possible so that we will be able to re-assign that space to another Teaching Fellow.
  • Back-to-back sections: While we make every effort to accommodate Teaching Fellows’ schedules, we can not guarantee being able to schedule back-to-back sections in the same classroom.

IMPORTANT FAS CLASSROOMS POLICIES & PROCEDURES

  • Priority: FAS courses have priority over all sections.
  • Reading Period: You may use your assigned classroom from the first day of the term through the end of Reading Period. If you do not plan on using your classrooms during Reading Period for review sessions, please indicate so on the Classroom Request sheet.
  • Exams Period:“Following the Reading Period at each term’s end, there is an Examination Period. No course assignments, trips, or special events should be scheduled by instructors during the Examination Period. Like the Reading Period, Examination Period is considered part of the term and instructors are expected to be in residence throughout. At the end of the term, instructors should not leave the vicinity of Cambridge before submitting their grade sheets,” Information for Faculty Offering Instruction in the Arts and Sciences. All examinations during the Final Examination Period must be administered by the Exams Office. All FAS classrooms the are reserved for use by the Exams Office. After the final exam schedule is set, a limited number of classrooms become available for review sessions.
  • Review Sessions during the Exams Period: There will be only a limited number of classrooms available during certain hours of the day.
  • Days Preceding and FollowingUniversity Holidays and Vacations:“By vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, instructors are expected to hold regular classes on the days preceding and following holidays and vacations. Students should not be excused from class on those days or allowed to transfer temporarily from one section to another to accommodate a longer holiday or vacation,” as announced in Information for Faculty Offering Instruction in the Arts and Sciences. FAS Classrooms scheduled by the Office of the FAS Registrar are not available on University holidays without prior approval.
  • A/V & Basic Room Information: Audio-Visual equipment requests should be directed to Media and Technology Services (MTS) (617-495-9460) or . For Sever Hall Media Services: (617-495-9470) or . For CGIS Media Services: (617-495-9807) or . For Northwest Media Services: (617-495-5775) or . For a list of rooms with permanently assigned media equipment:
  • Problems with classroom facilities (heat, light, blackboards, etc.) should be submitted to the building manager or to Harvard Yard Operations for classrooms located in the Yard.
  • Emergencies: For classroom emergencies, contact UniversityOperationsCenter at (617-495-5560), 24 hours a day and seven days a week. If you are locked out of a building or classroom in the Yard on a weekend date, contact Widener Library Security Station, located at the Widener Library Massachusetts Avenue gate entrance (617-496-9370).

RESOURCES

Scheduling Offices:

CGIS (Center for Government and International Studies):

Memorial Hall/Lowell Lecture Hall Complex (evening hours and weekends):

ScienceCenter:

(SEAS) Maxwell Dworkin:

William James Hall:

Division and Departmental Rooms: Contact Department directly. (A partial list follows.) Other departments may have space available. Please feel free to contact them.

Anthropology: Penny Rew, 5-3814,

Astronomy: Donna Adams, 5-3752;

Chemistry and Chemical Biology, 495-4076.

Division of Medical Sciences: 617-432-0162

East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC): Susan Kashiwa, 495-2754;

Expository Writing Program: 617-495-2566

Germanic: Melissa Carden, 617-495-2347;

Government: Jaronica Fuller, 496-1512;

History: (for departmental space in Robinson Hall) Mary McConnell, 5-2545,

History of Art and Architecture (for departmental space in Sackler and FoggMuseums): 495-2377;

History of Science: Allie Belser, 495-9875;

Literature and Comparative Literature: Isaure Mignotte, 495-4186;

Medieval Studies:

NELC: 495-5757;

Physics: Bonnie Currier, 495-2866;

Residential Houses: Contact House directly

Romance Languages: Kathy Coviello, 6-3610;

Slavic: Judy Klasson, 495-0912,