Friday-off class schedule could become a reality

Friday-off class schedule could become a reality

From the The Utah Statesman 01/15/04

What started as a casual discussion in a marketing class could revolutionize classes at Utah State University.

College of Business professor Michael Parent got involved in a discussion recently in one of his classes regarding a four-day schedule for classes.

Associated Students of USU Student Advocate Vice President Les Essig invited Parent to the ASUSU Executive Council meeting Tuesday to discuss the potential benefits of a Monday through Thursday schedule, or other scheduling models, at USU.

"Apparently, the current type of schedule creates some types of scheduling restraints," Parent said.

Parent said there are 300 classes at USU that are taught on Tuesday and Thursday, with 200 classes taught on the other three days of the school week. He said there are potential benefits to having classes taught on Mondays and Wednesdays and other classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but there is also benefit in moving to a bell schedule.

A bell schedule, Parent said, could potentially have classes taught Monday through Friday, but for 80 minutes each class. With the extra 10 minutes of class time gained each week with the increase from 75-minute classes to 80 minutes, school would be able to start after Labor Day, start later after Winter Break and create a longer Spring Break.

Parent said another benefit could be found in moving to the same academic schedule as BYU. Such a move would allow USU students to better compete with BYU students for summer jobs. There would also be benefits for out-of-state and foreign students.

"For students who are out-of-state or out-of-country, it creates the need to stay someplace during [breaks]," Parent said about the current schedule.

With a new academic schedule, those students would be able to stay at home before coming to Logan to start school after Labor Day.

Parent said he wanted to emphasize that the ideas he was presenting to ASUSU were not his own, but the result of what happened during the discussion in his class.

Essig said a similar schedule has been implemented for some classes at the University of Utah for the past seven years. Not all classes at the U adopted the modified schedule, Essig said, and it would likely be a similar case at USU, if the schedule were adopted.

Essig said he planned to do more research on the issue by meeting with the registration office and will present more information to the council at a later date.