Picture this: you have an 8:30 a.m. class Mondays in the Fishery Science Building that you desperately need to take to get your last remaining natural science requirement. However, the only time your last major requirement is offered is Mondays at 9:30. As if this wasn’t bad enough, your 9:30 class is in the Communications Building.
You think you have no choice but to accept the shame of walking in five minutes late every Monday to that second class.
While this scenario is a bit extreme, it seems like it is a rite of passage to have a horribly lined-up schedule that requires you to sprint from one building to another. This begs the important question: Is 10 minutes enough to make any distance on campus?
Consider this article an episode of mythbusters: UW Edition.
Before I dive into my highly professional myth busting experiment, I have a disclaimer. I am an individual with short legs who is 5 feet, 3 inches tall. I don’t consider myself a slow walker, but I am positive that if you have any height on me you could make these distances much faster than I did. Despite these circumstances, I collected some enlightening information during my experiment.
I decided to walk three different distances on campus to figure out exactly which distances are feasible in those 10 minutes. The first journey I made was from Hutchinson Hall all the way down to the Fishery Science Building. Google Maps predicted that it would take 18 minutes to get there, and I can confirm it took me exactly 18:11.
I think it is widely understood and accepted that if the Fisheries Building is involved, your journey to class is going to take more than the allotted time.
Proving this with my experiment was not reinventing the wheel, so I turned my interest to what I consider main campus rather than the picking on the boonies. Sorry, Condon, I’ll rip on you some other time.
I consider the main campus to be anything that is highlighted in light green on the UW map, or the areas of campus that you can travel to without crossing a major road, especially 15th Avenue, Pacific Avenue, or Montlake Boulevard.
I focused on traveling to buildings that actually have classes in them rather than the dorms, because if you are worried about the 10-minute passing period, you're probably going from class to class. If you’re leaving from your dorm and you’re still late to class, that's a skill issue and I can’t help you.
My second walk was from Anderson Hall to Dempsey Hall, which Google Maps predicted would take me 15 minutes. Although I was slightly intimidated, I am pleased to say that I made this distance in 9:51.
My third and final walk was from Loew Hallto Odegaard Library. Google Maps said seven minutes, and for once it was right: it took me 6:49.
I picked these two building pairs because they were roughly the farthest distances you would have to travel between classes on main campus. I am pleased to report that, if you are absolutely booking it, you can make any distance on main campus within that 10 minutes. You might be a little sweaty and flustered by the end of it, but it can be done.
Students are not the only victims of the messy UW time schedule. Michelle Liu, a professor in the English department admitted that she has even hit what she described as the “nerd run” to make it between classes.
“Because we can somewhat control our class assignments, I don't ask for back-to-back classes because I know there's no way I can get to class on time and prepare,” Liu said. “There's always time lost going from my office to somewhere on campus, and it always strikes me that it takes longer than I think.”
If the distance between buildings makes being late to your next class absolutely unavoidable, all you can do is try to alleviate the embarrassment of interrupting mid-lecture. Communication is key, and all it takes is one short email to your professor about your unfortunate situation.
“Usually [a student will] tell me if they have a class that's far away,” Liu said. “I know for myself I'm more lenient. I mean, it can be hard enough to get classes as it is.”
In fact, Matt McGarrity, a professor in the Communications department expects students to be late regardless of if they communicate ahead of time or not.
“You kind of plan for it,” McGarrity said. “At the start of class, you have to build in like three to four minutes of cushion time, so you're not covering content at that point. From a self-interested standpoint, if you put really important stuff in those first five minutes, 10% of the class is going to miss it, and that creates 50% of your problems.”
Does this mean we should extend the 10-minute passing period to avoid this problem altogether? I don’t think so. McGarrity believes that even changing from 10 to 15 minutes would create more disadvantages than benefits.
“10 minutes is always tight, and it's tight for everyone, but it works for the most part,” McGarrity said. “Trying to move away from it just creates a cascade of problems.”
Liu also believes that moving away from 10 minutes would be too much of a hassle, even though the idea of having more space built in between classes is appealing.
“On one hand it would be nice to get more passing time between buildings, but it probably would come at the cost of how many classes you are able to offer each quarter, and it's just not worth it,” Liu said.
While the 10-minute passing period sucks sometimes, it is a necessary evil that won’t actually affect you that often if you plan your course schedule accordingly. Showing up to class late isn’t the end of the world, because at least you showed up.
Reach writer Alexa Meyer at opinion@dailyuw.com X:@alexa-lindsay56
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