It goes without saying that students love weekends. It gives us a chance to catch up on our mountainous assignments, see our friends or even have a few precious minutes of downtime. But adding a day to the weekend is just a pipe dream, right?
Not for everyone. Currently, the business graduate school has in place a Monday through Thursday class system. Graduate students in the business school do not have classes on Friday’s, allowing them to pursue other things with their free time.
As working students, we understand not having enough time. There aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done, between work, classes, homework and extracurriculars — all of which many students need to get ahead. That’s not to mention the life-affirming commodity of time with friends and family, the thing that makes all of that other stuff worth it. That has to be fit in there somewhere, too.
The obvious solution to the problem is to maximize the efficiency of our class system. One way to accomplish this is through switching from a Monday through Friday class schedule to a Monday through Thursday.
But wait, you might say, that shorts teachers time in the class room. Not so. This solution could actually ensure students spend more time in class.
Many students, professors and administrators correlate grades to attendance — hence, it’s importance. In our current system, missing one Monday/Wednesday/Friday is less damaging to a student than missing one Tuesday/Thursday class — at least, from an attendance standpoint. This can lull students into a false sense of security, tempting them to miss the Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.
In a study by Dr. James Gussett published in Psychological Reports, students had a higher average GPA in Tuesday/Thursday morning classes versus Monday/Wednesday/Friday morning classes (2.17 versus 2.05). The students in the Tuesday/Thursday classes also missed fewer classes (1.35 versus 3.70).
Furthermore, we all know college is expensive. Many students work to support themselves. Balancing work on top of class, especially in non-work-study jobs that might not be very understanding of class demands, puts undue pressure on students. Extending the weekend by a day could eliminate scheduling problems and take some of the pressure off, allowing students to work more, if necessary. Work study jobs have a 20-hour weekly cap that, depending on individual students’ needs, may not reflect their actual cost of living.
Furthermore, it has come to our attention that some faculty do indeed commute to work in Waco during the week. It would be much more convenient for them to be able to be home for three days, instead of two probably hectic ones.
We believe the university as a whole should adopt the system of the business graduate school and switch to a Monday through Thursday system. Students and professors could both benefit, and we see no potential downsides to the equation. It’s win-win.
