What Time Is It at Berkeley? Ten Minutes Past Reality

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Pop quiz: It’s 9:05 am. Class was scheduled to start at 9. Are you late? Well, that depends on what campus you’re at.

Link to tweet

A-HED

What Time Is It at Berkeley? Ten Minutes Past Reality

The University of Michigan and Harvard scrapped traditions of starting classes later than scheduled; UC Berkeley sticks to ‘Berkeley Time.’

By Melissa Korn

https://twitter.com/melissakorn
[e-mail]

Dec. 3, 2018 2:16 p.m. ET

Students at Harvard University and the University of Michigan learned a new lesson this year: How to tell time. ... Both schools had decadeslong traditions of fudging the clock, starting classes and meetings up to 10 minutes after the official scheduled hour, but scrapped the policies this year. Now students face the harsh reality of getting to class on time.



This finally works at Harvard

At the University of Michigan, classes were listed as beginning on the hour but actually began 10 minutes later. That allowed students to leave a class that ended on the hour and get to another one that started at the same time, without technically being late. ... Only some parts of the university followed the old rule, causing “confusion and friction,” the school said when it announced the change.

For the first time in nearly 90 years, classes now start exactly when the course schedule says they will. They end 10 minutes before the published end time in order to let students get to their next class. ... To get everyone ready, workers began plastering the Ann Arbor campus in the spring with posters of the school’s clock tower that read, “It’s time to get in sync.”

Annareli Morales, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan, cheered the move. She was tired of never knowing which clock to operate on, having meetings where most people showed up on time but some came 10 minutes later. ... “The real world does not run on Michigan Time,” said Ms. Morales, who is studying mountain meteorology and atmospheric rivers.
....

Write to Melissa Korn at [e-mail]

Appeared in the December 4, 2018, print edition as 'What’s the Time on American Campuses? Ten Past Reality.'

[underpants]

1. This might explain why Michigan is so shocked when the Ohio Stare game is over

[Cirque du So-What]

2. When in school, I followed these guidelines

If professor had MA/MS, I'd stick around for 10 minutes.
If professor had PhD, I'd wait 15 minutes.

[dlk]

3. Showing Up On Time - What a Concept!

[petronius]

4. My school starts classes 10 minutes after the hour or half-hour (x:10 or x:40).

The class schedule and every other published document lists the actual starting time - it's not rocket surgery! (If this is really a source of confusion at Berkeley, I feel like my Cal degree just got seriously devalued... )