Fall 2025 (1259) general purpose classroom assignments

Please review room assignments for fall 2025 and encourage instructors to view room assignments on the Class Schedule. Instructors may also view GPC (general purpose classroom) capacities and room layouts on OCM’s Room Search. 

Please notify ocmsched@umn.edu if you need assistance with any room change requests.

Right-sizing rooms in Blegen Hall

OCM has been reviewing seating density within our General Purpose Classrooms (GPCs) since 2022 due to increased instructor feedback stating classrooms feel cramped when at capacity and are then too small for group work.

There are several rooms in Blegen that effective for fall 2025 will be reduced in seating capacity to facilitate a better environment for learning. Below are the impacted rooms:

Room                                    Current Capacity            New Capacity (fall ‘25)
Blegen Hall - 120	60	50
Blegen Hall - 135	50	40
Blegen Hall - 150	85	70
Blegen Hall - 155	65	55
Blegen Hall - 250	85	70
Blegen Hall - 255	84	75

This will impact OCM as Blegen Hall is historically a very busy building. There will be some classes that will no longer fit in these rooms, and this will have a ripple effect. As schedulers, it is always important to do the following:

• Be mindful of enrollment capacities on classes.
• Best practice +/- 10%, using your previous terms’ enrollment as your guide.
• Use standard meeting patterns, utilizing ALL standard meeting times per week (including 8AM and Fridays).

Room Search will not be updated with the new capacities in Blegen until summer 2025.

Room Search

Room search is a tool used to find additional information on rooms in the various buildings around Twin Cities campuses.

There are filters on the left side of the page to search for a particular room. Once found, you can click on the individual room for additional photos of what the room looks like, features of the room, and contact information. 

Additionally, there are links and  photos that will show you:

• Campus maps: building location, hours, and accessibility information

• Equipment instructions: on how to use the classroom technology 

• Room and building schedules: a link to a specific scheduling grid in Astra showing if the room is available (depending on the date(s) needed)

• Print friendly room layouts

It’s a great resource for instructors to see a space they may not be familiar with before they begin teaching.

Photos added to Room Search tool

Over 1,500 photos have been added to Room Search to show more details about instructor pedestals in classrooms, including cable connections, cameras, and microphones that are installed in a classroom. You can use this tool to look at classroom layouts and technology in the room.