Select colleges begin to offer midnight classes

It's midnight and students in community colleges across the country are headed to the classrooms.

Select colleges have begun to offer midnight classes from midnight to 2:55 a.m. once a week to accommodate the influx of student enrollment.

"The courses are no different than if they were offered once a week earlier in the evening," said Charles Miron, a professor at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland.

CCBC has offered midnight courses for three different semesters since 2004. Psychology 101 was the first midnight class the college offered, but the course was cancelled due to low enrollment. Last spring the college offered two more courses that were both cancelled due to enrollment reasons before trying again in the spring semester of 2012.

"I firmly believe there is an audience of shift workers, police, firefighters, nurses and others," Miron said. "The challenge is getting the word out."

Although the CCBC's success has been weak, other community colleges in Missouri, Maryland and Massachusetts have picked up the trend, and it may be only a matter of time before universities join in.

"We wouldn't be opposed, but we would need student demand and faculty willing to teach at that time," said Dr. Ronald Rosati, provost at Southeast Missouri State University.

Community college professors have speculated the class's success is due to high nontraditional student enrollment.

There are 1,718 nontraditional students enrolled at Southeast according to 2011 Institutional Research Factbook. The Factbook describes nontraditional students as being 25 years old or older with a full-time job off campus. The classes target people who are busy during the day and are more apt to sign up for the midnight classes.

"Some students come right from work, others are moms and put their kids to bed then go to classes," Miron said. "Others take it for the fun of a new adventure."

While the midnight classes may be more convenient for some students, it is important that students would be able to maintain the knowledge. Dr. Leslee Pollina, chair of the Department of Psychology at Southeast, explained how the mind retains memory.

"In order to actually learn something you have to give your brain the opportunity to sleep for a few hours," Pollina said.

According to Miron, students who are already on the night schedule wouldn't lack memory retention.

"There doesn't seem to be a loss of motivation or ability to function," Miron said.

The late-night hour has more obstacles than memory retention. Rosati said security, technical support and access to classrooms would have to be resolved before any midnight classes could take place. However, he does not believe the problems would be hard to resolve if students and faculty were interested.