Recently, while meeting with students to discuss plans for next year’s classes, counselors offered the option of allowing students to leave campus after lunch rather than taking unnecessary classes.

The option has been offered to most seniors who are on track for graduation.

The Californian  believes the new scheduling change that is being offered will be beneficial, given that the school and administrators make necessary changes for it to be effective.

The primary benefit of this change is it allows for more space on an overcrowded campus.

It is no secret that our classes are overpopulated with some reaching a student to teacher ratio of 35 to 1.

With the implementation of this change, there will also be significantly fewer students on campus during lunch and in afternoon classes, effectively solving part of the problem.

This option has been seen as a safer and more manageable option than open campus. While the school is still responsible for students in an open campus system, there is no liability if students are leaving school early.

In the past, it has been known that Cal’s lunch period is too short for students to be able to leave campus and come back in a reasonable amount of time.This led to several safety issues regarding transportation and the school’s responsibility for those not present on campus.

While the choice initially seems favorable, there are many issues that arise from it as well.

For one, administrators will have a lot more trouble controlling the students as there is no way to quickly tell if someone has opted to take the period off.

An easy way could be to mark student I.D. cards to identify if a student is participating in this schedule change.

Another student concern is how taking fewer classes will impact college applications.  It is unclear whether it is more advantageous in the eyes of colleges to take more, unnecessary classes.

A possible consequence to having to keep a 5/6 period slot open may lead to more crowded morning classes for courses that are offered to multiple grades. It could also lead to even more problems with student’s schedules getting messed up at the beginning of the year.

But the option of having a free period should help improve campus overcrowding, which would benefit everyone.