Profiles

Renée Houser, Classroom Scheduling, Office of the Registrar

	Renée Houser faced the daunting task of revamping classroom scheduling for the fall 2008 semester after the June floods hit the University of Iowa campus. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Imagine you’re charged with putting together a 5,000-piece puzzle, one in which the picture makes for challenging assembly. After great deliberation, you complete the puzzle, only to have your mean older brother come along and knock the puzzle apart.

That analogy sums up the challenges faced this summer by Renée Houser, who is in charge of classroom scheduling at The University of Iowa.

Houser, now in her 15th year with the University, has a daunting task in a typical semester, as she must find homes for all of the University’s classes, all the while keeping in mind the technological and configuration needs that come with various curricula.

This summer’s flood—which occurred after the fall 2008 scheduling had been completed—presented incredible challenges to Houser’s department. But thanks to creative thinking across campus and generosity from the University and Iowa City community, all UI courses—including the displaced arts campus offerings—have a place to meet this fall.

Houser sat down with fyi to discuss her hectic summer, the technological upgrades that were made this summer in UI classrooms, and the evolution of her work routine from an elaborate note card system to the use of user-friendly software.

Can you describe the typical challenges of classroom scheduling, and then touch on the additional challenges caused by the June flood?

We’re fitting together this enormous puzzle, all the while keeping in mind as many departmental needs as possible. These range from times and days, special technological needs, and specialized space configurations as needed. Those are the typical challenges.

With the flood, so many courses from the arts campus had to find homes in the general assignment pool, which consists of 217 classrooms. We needed to use each of these classrooms to its maximum capability to make the semester work. That was difficult, to say the least.

We typically post hundreds of classroom updates prior to the start of a semester for routine departmental reasons—time, days, or location. But the flood alone forced us to make more than 1,500 updates to the arts campus courses before reaching their final meeting locations for the start of classes. This was done in fewer than two months.

We also are responsible for scheduling special events in our classroom spaces around the schedule of courses, and this summer was no exception. Since the Iowa Memorial Union was impacted, countless events were in need of meeting spaces—we’re still trying to accommodate approximately 100 events. We’re doing our best to schedule every meeting we can after meeting our commitment to the schedule of courses and supplemental activities.

Did you have to work around the clock this summer?

Thankfully it didn’t come to that—I know many others on campus had to go to those lengths. But I did work countless late evenings and weekends on flood response efforts. Since early June, when we received word of the impending flooding, every minute of my time has been dedicated to classroom details: scheduling, preparation for classroom refurbishing, making sure we had enough chairs and whiteboard markers ordered—everything that happens behind the scenes to make the semester start smoothly.

Did you think the summer would never end, or has the fall semester rush at you full speed ahead?

It was painfully slow in the beginning, because we had to wait for the water to recede and we had to wait for answers regarding the extent of damage to the buildings and classrooms. Waiting to respond to the emergency needs was difficult—it felt like valuable time was slipping away. Once we had all the necessary details in place, July and August just sped past.

Do you anticipate similar challenges in preparing for the upcoming spring semester?

Spring will present similar challenges, but the big difference between spring 2009 and fall 2008 is that fall 2008 classes were all scheduled when the flood hit. In spring 2009, we can be more proactive in meeting the creative space demands. We’ll be able to carry over the space we’ve acquired this fall in Van Allen Hall, Continuing Education Facility, and English-Philosphy Building.

Did you receive many suggestions on creative uses of space?

We worked closely with the Office of the Provost, administration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), and Facilities Management to obtain information about available departmental spaces. The departments were very generous with whatever space they could donate for class use. We also had a lot of community members and religious organizations come forward to offer space during off-times for courses and events. It was an incredible response all around.

Is it tough to meet the technology needs in a typical year?

We have been working steadily to incorporate technology into the general assignment pool over the past 10 years. In conjunction with an ITS division, Classroom Technology Support, and the CLAS administration, we have pushed forward an initiative for a three-year plan to fully equip all general assignment classrooms from a technological standpoint.

To provide the necessary technology to meet the additional needs this fall, we ramped up the technology installation process over the summer session. We had initially planned to outfit 20 classrooms over the summer; we managed to complete 45 rooms. That is a tremendous positive outcome from the flood that we will be able to reap for years to come, and it will touch every department in some manner.

How has technology affected your job?

We used to use a module known as “the boards” that was created by a former Facilities Management director. This was a three-sided module that had numerous index cards attached to it. It was a terrific system for doing the work manually. But as time went on, we knew we needed to move to a more advanced system for reporting purposes. So we moved forward with Astra Schedule, which is an event- and course-scheduling package. The software is very user-friendly. That’s not to say there aren’t some days when I long for the boards, but it’s safe to say I’ve moved on.

So what do you like best about your job?

It’s very dynamic—something new comes up constantly, causing us to rethink the way we’re doing something. I enjoy those challenges. I also get to talk with a wide range of people, from students to deans and the provost.

If you had to choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

Energetic, I suppose. I’m a go-getter rather than a procrastinator. I just find that it suits me better. I’m always multitasking.

What about you would surprise your colleagues?

I once rappelled down a mountain when I was a teenager at a youth camp. I was scared to death to do it. But when I got up there I was pumped up, so I volunteered to go first. That’s about as crazy as it gets with me, though.

by Christopher Clair

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