Dalton State College will open its doors today for fall semester with a modified class schedule designed to reduce commuting time for students, College officials say.

The revised class schedule will compress daytime 50-minute Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes into Monday and Wednesday class periods lasting 75 minutes apiece. Tuesday and Thursday classes will remain the same (75 minutes per day) and one-day-per-week Friday morning classes (100 minutes) will also be available.

“We will have a five-day schedule just as we always have, but it will be restructured in such a way to minimize the commuting burden on our student population,” says Dr. Jim Burran, President of Dalton State.

“We have become increasingly aware that the continuing rise in gas prices has added a financial burden to the cost of attaining an education for many our students, some of whom commute from distances as great as 60 miles or more away from campus,” he adds.

The restructured schedule will provide greater flexibility for students, enabling them to reduce the number of days they need to commute to campus while maintaining the same number of “contact” hours per class, Dr. Burran says.

Registration and orientation sessions began on Tuesday of this week. While enrollment is ongoing and numbers for fall are not yet available, College officials say that applications are up and that fall registration has been strong, so far. Late registration continues until Monday, August 21, and C session (second-half-of-the-semester classes) registration will take place later this fall. Other students will take college classes through programs offered at their work sites.

New this fall is a program in Respiratory Therapy, a two-year program offered through the Division of Technical Education.

“This degree will add a critically needed program to our growing array of health-related degrees and certificates, marking yet another strategic development in the College’s efforts to meet the education needs of Northwest Georgia,” Dr. Burran said.

Respiratory Therapists work primarily with patients who suffer from impaired breathing or breathing that is likely to become impaired and are employed in hospitals, critical care units, physicians’ offices and home health care settings.

Also new this fall is the addition of a 25,000 square foot building, The James E. Brown Center, designed to provide space for the College’s public outreach programs and activities. It is located on the corners of Mt. Haven and College Drives. Classes, including non-credit offerings, will be offered at the Center this fall.