When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go Downtown ‘ and if you’re planning to take three-hour classes next fall, chances are, you will be going to Downtown Binghamton regularly.

The administration has adopted plans to use 11 state-of-the-art classrooms in the new Binghamton University Downtown Center for course scheduling next fall.

According to a memorandum issued by Provost Mary Ann Swain to faculty, most once-weekly three-hour classes that begin before 3:30 p.m. will meet at the Downtown campus, scheduled to open in August 2007.

The Downtown Center, which will house the new College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA), is located between Stuart and Washington streets. The Center cost $29 million and has been under construction for a year.

Only three time slots have been created for course scheduling at the Downtown campus: 8:15 to 11:15 a.m., 1:40 to 4:40 p.m. and 5:50 to 8:50 p.m.

In the memorandum, Swain noted that ‘there is sufficient time to make needed adjustments before we finalize the fall schedule’ and that deans will be able to authorize exceptions to scheduling guidelines. Three-hour courses requiring specialized equipment and space, like science laboratories and music performance, will remain on the main campus.

With the adapted restrictions, three-hour day classes will begin at either 8:15 a.m. or 1:40 p.m., getting rid of current 9:40 to 12:40 p.m. and 10:05 to 1:05 p.m. time blocks.

The time slots at the Downtown campus have also been shifted to avoid conflicts with standard meeting times on campus, allowing faculty and students to teach or attend a course during the next standard time slot on the Vestal campus.

For instance, after finishing a three-hour course at 11:15 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday or Friday, you could make it back to the main campus for a 12 to 1 p.m. class.

‘My primary objective is to maximize course availability given the space we have available,’ Swain wrote in the letter.

However, on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is only a 25-minute break between the morning three-hour class and the next standard time slot on campus, 11:40 to 1:05 p.m., which might not be sufficient to get back to the Vestal campus.

Also, students taking afternoon three-hour courses, which end at 4:40 p.m., will not make the next standard meeting time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (4:40 to 5:40 p.m.) on the main campus.

Next semester, the provost is also looking to enforce the scheduling of courses during standard time slots on the main campus.

She wrote that there is an increasing tendency to schedule courses during non-standard meeting times. For example, PLSC 387D Epistemology meets from 2:20 to 3:50 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday when the regular slot is 2:20 to 3:20 p.m., which limits students’ opportunities to enroll in courses and causes classroom shortages.

‘Presumptions are that two-day per week courses will be confined to Tuesday/Thursday time slots,’ Swain wrote.