While most students want to work less on Fridays, three Student Government members are pushing to work more.

SG representatives Cameron Crane, Adam Sacks and Tanner Long have composed an SG resolution asking the University to create more upper division Monday-Wednesday courses. Crane said this would give students Fridays off to work, intern or apply to graduate and professional schools.

“This isn’t [necessarily] adding more classes, because that creates an added cost,” Crane said. “This is just restructuring and shifting courses so that more Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes are offered on a Monday-Wednesday sequence.”

According to Crane, the resolution is being presented for academic purposes, not just as a way for students to have a free Friday. He said the free day would, ideally, increase graduation rates. 

“[Students] can pick and choose, so they can still work and still maintain full-time status,” Crane said. “Versus if they had to cram all of their classes on to Tuesday and Thursday, and not all of their classes for their major are offered that day, well then they might have to stay here an extra semester.”

Monday-Wednesday courses are currently offered in departments across campus, but, according to Crane, they are especially present in the McCombs School
of Business.

Leah Miller, director of academic services for McCombs, said that Monday-Wednesday courses are popular with students and faculty, but they limit the availability of a class and reduce the number of classes that can be scheduled on those days. She said they also create conflicts with Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes.

Marketing lecturer Bill Peterson has been teaching Monday-Wednesday classes for about seven years and said he prefers to do so because they allow the class to be more in-depth.

“I find that in Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes, typically they would be for 50 minutes each of those three days,” Peterson said. “It really isn’t enough time to get into any meaty discussions or exercises or even into a rhythm, in my experience.”

Currently, most Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday classes meet for 75 minutes.

After meeting with an official from the Office of the Registrar, Sacks said, for the sequence change to be made, the students would need to talk with faculty members, do extensive research and come up with a detailed plan of action.

“My current curiosity with this issue is how it would affect very specific programs, like upper-division engineering classes, Plan II and [Business Honors Program],” Sacks said. “Programs of this type are very specific in how they like to structure their classes.”

The proposition will be presented at an SG meeting Monday, according to Crane. If the proposal is approved by the SG assembly, Crane said the next step in implementing it would be to continue research and present the idea to Faculty Council.

“If this passes, then we now know this is the official voice of students and this is what students want,” Crane said. “Now we’ll take it to the next phase of having discussion with faculty and seeing what their input is.”