A Local University Is Considering Changes to Its Class Structure

question 101

Essay

A local university is considering changes to its class structure in an effort to increase professor productivity. The old schedule had each professor teaching 5 classes per week, with each class meeting an hour per day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each class contained 20 students. The new schedule has each professor teaching only 3 classes, but each class meets daily (Mon.-Fri.) for an hour. New classes contain 50 students.
(a) Calculate the labor productivity for the initial situation (students/hour).
(b) Calculate the labor productivity for the schedule change (students/hour).
(c) Are there any ethical considerations that should be accounted for?
(d) Suppose that each teacher also is required to have 2 hours of Office Hours each day he/she taught class. Is the schedule change a productivity increase?

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Definitions:

Price Discrimination

The practice of selling the same product to different customers at different prices, typically based on factors like quantity purchased, customer demographic, or market location.

Robinson-Patman Act

A United States federal law aimed at preventing anticompetitive practices by producers, specifically prohibiting price discrimination among different purchasers of the same product, when the effect may harm competition.

Predatory Pricing

A strategy where a business sells products or services at a loss or extremely low prices to eliminate competition and gain market share.

Clayton Act

A piece of antitrust legislation in the United States, passed in 1914, aimed at promoting competition among businesses by prohibiting certain practices that restrict competition.