General Assignment Classrooms & ROAR

www.uwm.edu/roar 

The Registrar’s Office manages the scheduling of GA Classrooms on behalf of the Provost’s Office.

What is ROAR?

ROAR, Room Optimization Assignments & Reservations, is the UWM acronym for 25Live Pro, the room scheduling software utilized by campus.

The primary function of the software is to optimize and assign General Assignment (GA) Classrooms to the requested class sections. Its secondary function is to allow the campus community to create and manage classroom requests for ad hoc events after classes have been scheduled and finalized.

Department-managed locations should be in ROAR if utilized for class sections and these locations can often be set up with specific location access, security, and workflow. For more information, visit Add/Update Department-Managed Location.

Need ROAR Access?

For more information on the following topics below, click the headings to expand.

Classroom & Location Contact Information

Milwaukee Campus 

  • GA Classrooms
    Managing over 180 GA Classrooms is a campus effort, which includes Building Chairs, Campus Space Management and Planning, Classroom Services (CTS), Environmental Services, Facility Services, and University Police.  

Washington County Campus 

The College of General Studies, CGS, manages their own locations. Washington County faculty and staff can request use of locations at their home campus via ROAR. Milwaukee faculty and staff must contact the campus directly to request use of their locations.

Waukesha Campus 

The College of General Studies, CGS, manages their own locations. Waukesha faculty and staff can request use of locations at their home campus via ROAR. Milwaukee faculty and staff must contact the campus directly to request use of their locations.

Credit Class Scheduling

Assigning General Assignment (GA) Classrooms to credit class sections is managed by the Registrar’s Office as part of the Schedule of Classes (SOC) Development for each term. Department schedule builders and the Registrar’s Office both play integral parts in the success of classroom assignments. Below are additional details for each SOC phase related to the room assignment process. 

SOC Development Phase  

During the SOC Development Phase, room related considerations are an important aspect while creating the class offerings for a term in CLSS. For detailed information on the topics below, visit Rooms: SOC Development Phase.   

Specific GA classrooms CANNOT be selected during development. Room preferential requests are NOT managed by ROAR or the Registrar’s Office. These requests should be managed by individual departments after room assignments have concluded. 

1 of the 6 ‘room’ types listed below must be indicated on all class sections in CLSS during SOC Development.

  1. Department-Managed (DM) Classrooms (i.e. ‘Dept – BLDG RM#’)
    Assign department-managed classrooms foremost and extensively, especially for non-enrollment sections and sections that meet during primetime, 10 AM – 2 PM. 
  2. Online Web
    Assign to sections conducted entirely online.     
  3. Off Campus (or specific off campus rooms)
    Assign to sections that physically meet at an off campus location (or assign a specific off campus ‘room’ if set up for the department).  
  4. ‘No Room Assigned’ 
    Assign to sections that do NOT physically meet in a set location on specific dates and times, such as independent studies.  
  5. Room TBA 
    Assign to sections where the specific location has not yet been determined or cannot be requested during development.  
  6. ‘General Assignment Room’ 
    Assign ‘General Assignment Room’ to sections requesting to be assigned to a general assignment (GA) classroom during the SOC Room Assignment Phase.   

Any class section, if requesting a GA classroom, NOT in CLSS and set up correctly during the SOC Development Phase has a significantly reduced chance of being assigned to a GA classroom. 

GA Classroom Request Considerations 
For each class section requesting a GA classroom, departments should consider the following aspects as they are key to ROAR optimization and the assignment of GA classrooms. For detailed information the topics below, visit Rooms: SOC Development Phase.
     – Requested Room Caps
     – Room Characteristics
     – Building Partition Preferences
     – Additional GA Classroom Request Considerations
       Also strongly consider the following during SOC development.
          – Time Utilization
          – Standard Meeting Patterns
          – Do NOT Overschedule
          – Sections to be Bound Back-to-Back (BtB)
          – Independent Studies
          – Tentative & Stop Further Enrollment Sections
          – Pre-requisites and Plans of Study 

SOC Room Assignment Phase  

During the SOC Room Assignment Phase, class offerings for a term that were validated and bridged from CLSS to PAWS are imported to ROAR via the LYNX interface. Class sections requesting a GA classroom are then optimized. The entire process typically takes about 4 weeks for the fall the spring terms; whereas UWinteriM and summer terms typically take no more than 1 week. For detailed information on the topics below, visit Freeze: SOC Room Assignment Phase.  

Room Optimization via ROAR
ROAR optimizes sections based on room caps, room characteristics, and building partitions in relation to all the sections requesting a GA classroom in order to schedule the most class sections possible for the term.  

Optimizer Considerations 
The primary considerations for the optimizer while assigning rooms to each class section.
     – Requested Room Cap
     – Room Characteristics
     – Building Partition Preferences
     – Additional Optimizer Considerations
          – Section Binding
          – Meeting Patterns
          – Number of Meetings Held (i.e. 3x a week vs. 1x a week)  

When all Aspects are Equal between Sections 
When all aspects between sections are equal, the optimizer assigns a room to one section over the other using a ‘coin flip’ method – 50% of the time it will go one way, 50% the other. There is no way for the optimizer to, nor should it, discern any priority between the two equal sections.  

Throughout the room assignment phase, the Registrar’s Office works with departments to resolve any outstanding sections that did not receive a room assignment whether due to incompatible data or limited number of available rooms. 

SOC Pre-Enrollment through 30 Days Phases 

After rooms have been assigned and the freeze concludes, during the SOC Pre-Enrollment thru 30 Days Phases, class offerings become available to the campus via the PAWS class search and online schedule of classes. As necessary, class sections can be added, changed, or cancelled in preparation for enrollment and the start of the term. ROAR can be used for all room related updates. For detailed information on the topics below, visit Rooms: SOC Pre-Enrollment thru 30 Days Phases.
     – View & Manage Room Assignments
     – ROAR for Room Changes
     – Room Changes for Sections Bound Back-to-Back
     – Room Rarities  

Final Exam Room Assignments 

Final exam room assignments are typically scheduled the third or fourth week of the term. This timeline allows for the add deadline to pass and room changes to occur. The final examination schedule is created before enrollment begins for Fall and Spring and can be found on the OneStop site.    

Final exams must adhere to and may not violate the Final Exam & Study Day Policies.  

Once final exams are scheduled, room assignments are emailed to department schedule builders. All instructors with grade approval access for a section will receive an auto-generated email from PAWS on November 1 (Fall) and March 1 (Spring) and then a reminder email again on December 1 (Fall) and May 1 (Spring). Also, instructor and student final exam schedules can be found each term in their PAWS accounts.    

For more detailed information, visit Final Exams: Scheduling & Communication.  

Event Scheduling

UWM departments and organizations may request use of General Assignment (GA) Classrooms for ad hoc events through ROAR and in accordance with the General Assignment Classroom Event Scheduling Policy. The Registrar’s Office does NOT provide event coordination but does oversee the scheduling of events. For more detailed information and instructions on creating ad hoc events in ROAR, visit the documentation site for Event Scheduling.  

All requests are subject to approval. Please allow at least 1 full business day for processing.  

General Assignment (GA) Classroom Requests: 

  • Requests are accepted and processed on a first-come, first-served basis, starting on:
    • August 1 for Fall terms
    • November 1 for UWinteriM terms
    • January 1 for Spring terms
    • May 1 for Summer terms
  • Early submission may result in denial of request, which will have to be re-submitted once processing for the upcoming term begins (see dates above).  

Department-Managed Location Requests:

  • Some locations are visible in ROAR, but not requestable. See location comments for contact information. 
  • Locations available for request in ROAR are accepted and processed based on the policies and procedures of the particular managing department. See location comments for contact information. 

Student Organization Event Contacts 

Room reservation contacts for student organization is dependent on which campus authorizes the organization.  

  • Milwaukee Campus: Student Organizations interested in requesting the use of a General Assignment Classroom must make their requests through Student Union Event Services at reservat@uwm.edu or 414-229-4828. If a student organization is renewed for the upcoming academic year, a listed authorized signer for the org can request classroom space by navigating to https://uwm.presence.io/form/classroom-request-for-student-organizations and fill out the ‘Classroom Request For Student Organizations’ form. If unsure as to whether an organization is renewed or who is an authorized signer, stop by Student Involvement before submitting a request.
  • Waukesha Campus: Student Organizations interested in requesting a room at Waukesha should contact Candace Decker at 262-521-5480 or deckerc@uwm.edu with Student Development.
  • Washington County Campus: Student Organizations interested in requesting a room at Washington Cty should contact the Solution Center at 262-521-5201 or wsh-cgs@uwm.edu. 
Service Providers

Service Providers are individuals who work with UWM departments that help manage General Assignment (GA) Classrooms and some public spaces, such as the planetarium. Service Providers include Building Chairs, Campus Space Management and Planning, Classroom Services (CTS), Environmental Services, Facility Services, and University Police. These departments can use ROAR to determine all classes and ad hoc events scheduled in campus locations through stock reports.  

There are two recommended reports to help manage locations on campus; the Location Unlock – Lock Times Report and Reservations by Date Report. Event and/or location searches must be created and saved before reports may be generated in ROAR. 

For more detailed information and instructions on creating and running reports, visit the documentation site for Service Providers.

 

For questions, contact ROAR@uwm.edu.