Officials plan more Friday classes next school year

I think this is great because it gives us, students, more contact with the material and gives the classes more continuity. Of course, this will probably involve more work since the class will meet more frequently. But I think this is great and results in a positive learning opportunity. Also, less scheduling conflicts will allow students to have the classes they want and will lead, possibly, to a higher grad rate because students will not have to wait future semesters for required classes.

I also think this is a great idea, mainly because I’m graduating at the end of this year. I thoroughly enjoy my Fridays off.

Making a class MWF only really means that instead of meeting for an hour and 20 twice a week for a 3CR class you’ll meet for 55 mins 3 times a week – remember, the number of credit hours per class is directly related to number of hours met. 55 mins is not a lot of time to get into a good discussion especially in higher level classes where there more expectation of student particpation.

I had no idea that this was a problem.

I’m glad that they are doing this. As an engineer i know i will always have Friday classes. I find it absurd that certain majors never have Friday classes. Next semester for example i have 4 classes on Friday and i am only taking 4 classes and 1 lab. So if you want to complain, think about 8am Fridays and also think about the fact that college isn’t supposed to be easy, suck it up and learn to deal.

Having Friday off allows students to work, as stated in the article. Wilcox needs to understand that since they KEEP RAISING TUITION that students have to WORK MORE to afford MSU!!!

I agree with most of the posts above. Those who are complaining: Suck it up, your main purpose at MSU is to learn and get an education. Yes students need time to work, but students may as well get a taste of the “real world” — most jobs are M-F!! — so get used to doing work on Fridays. (Even high school is M-F, so why should college be any dufferent?) I suspect there are more than a few students upset about early Friday classes affecting Thursday bar nights. Would students prefer even greater tuition increases to pay to maintain the existing number of course sections?

DeeCee makes a good point on the class time. Just because you move class to Friday does not mean more class time, in fact it will most likely be wasted due to keeping class at 50 minutes. What is the real justification for the change in schedule? It most likely is not because of the scheduling conflicts. More than likely it has to deal with the administration wanting to dictate what students do…aka keep students from drinking a day early. What they do not understand is that implementing policy to keep a moral standard does not work. People are going to drink no matter what class they have tomorrow. As for DJ’s comment…I agree that a student attending MSU should want to get the best education possible and work towards it, but how do you expect a student to do so if they have to work 2-3 jobs just to support themselves. Keeping Friday open allows students to work a full 8 hour day which for many, like myself, is crucial in order to pay bills.

Do you guys need how to read?

The purpose of the change is not to increase class time, but to eliminate conflicts in scheduling for students and reducing costs of having multiple unnecessary sections.

I always liked having Fridays off while I attended MSU-those were the days for my internships. This had nothing to do with working to pay for tuition, or drinking, or studying, but ultimately in allowing me to prepare for a post-undergraduate degree. I had a four day week-I worked in the morning and had class in the afternoons. Then on Fridays I could spend an entire day in a campaign office or something similar. My supervisors always preferred me to work a whole day at a time rather than a few hours here or there because I had more time to complete complicated tasks all at once. It definitely helped my resume. Also, even when I did have Friday classes, it definitely didn’t stop me from drinking on Thursday nights. Would you rather have students leaving class to puke due to hangovers, or just have them come on Mondays and Wednesdays?

This is for engineer

Just because you have classes on friday and you’re bitter about it doesn’t mean other people should have to take them as well.

People need to stop worrying about what other people are doing and how they want to their lives and start focusing on their own.

I agree with Secondary Education. People are going to drink no matter what, the administration should just get used to it. Having Friday classes may deter a few students from drinking, but I have a feeling it will just make everything worse: students will just show up to class hungover more often, and hungover students DON’T work or discuss nearly as well as those who aren’t. I also agree that 55 minutes is not enough time to enter serious discussions in most subjects. The longer a class is, the more usable time there is, because you will always have to spend a few minutes introducing the topic and then time ending and wrapping up after the lecture or other activities. So in other words, we’d actually be losing class time. We’re spending money to attend this university and our administration shouldn’t be able to skimp on our education because they think it’s more budget-friendly.

Again…are you guys reading the article? This is not related whatsoever to extracurricular/social activities. This change is only a way of eliminating scheduling conflicts for students and reducing the money spent on having many sections due to difficult scheduling.

I don’t like how other students cry when they raise their tuition but then cry when they do something to not have to increase tuition. What do they expect? Low tuition while leaving everything the same?

Also, regarding the drinking and avoiding class on Friday’s, I think college students should be mature enough to know what they need to do. Personally, I consider college is not the place to have the high school mentality of being the best without work. Social pressures are tough but in the end the “cool” one is the rich one.

So, stop whining and do what you got to do to get your degree and go straight to grad school or a job.

Students hate paying for tuition increases, so why not concentrate on graduating faster and avoiding future tuition increases? That’s the question.

Personally, I think this is a HORRIBLE idea. This is almost like block-scheduling in high schools. Many teachers like them because they are able to have the students for longer periods of time only a few days a week. Ultimately they get more done.

To me, this has nothing to do with drinking. I think that I learn more when I can sit in a classroom for an hour and 20 mins versus 55 mins three times a week. I really think the administration needs to think this over.

While I try to work as much as humanly possible while taking 19 credits and I would appreciate having Fridays off for more work in the lab, I can honestly say that I, like “Engineer,” have never had that opportunity. You’re right; college isn’t a time to slack off and take it easy, it’s supposed to be difficult and challenging. Having Fridays off seems like a joke and a waste of time that could be spent being productive in the classroom. Wednesday to Monday is a long time to forget material and having only two days in between classes seems much more conducive for learning. Kudos to those science, math, and engineering majors out there, and anyone else who meets everyday of the week. Taking 18-19 credits a semester and meeting everyday is why I’m graduating on time (4 years) this May. Go GREEN!

This is in response to BiologyChemistry. I honestly don’t know who you think you are. Music majors have class every day of the week. And many education majors use Fridays to do their field work (a day which we don’t have class and actually have the time to get into schools). Every major does SOMETHING on Fridays other than just “slack off”. Every semester I have had academic things to do on Fridays. I’m a history/secondary education major, and while I don’t have actual classes on Fridays, I use that time to go into schools. Last year I took 19 credits both semesters and yet I technically did not have a class on Fridays, I did field work. So you should really be giving kudos out to EVERY major here, we’re all doing something on Fridays related to our majors.

I suppose I understand where the higher ups are coming from on this issue, but as a student I am not totally on board with this idea. In 50 minute classes, the prof is pressed to get through the material, and often can’t take the time to answer students’ questions. Meeting twice a week for 80 minutes gives the prof time to go over the material, AND address student concerns. Obviously, I enjoy having Fridays off, but my issue is more with getting through the material and making sure students understand it twice a week, rather than meeting three times a week and rushing through everything.

I have been a really big fan of online classes here at State and have discussed extending the offerings! However, with this new RULE I’m more convinced that this whole COLLEGE thing needs to be about 70% online. Hell, the Library, John Hana, Student Services and Olin would be MSU! Of course we would keep the Athletic Dept!

As mentioned by others, I used my Fridays last year to intern at the House of Representatives from 9am to 5pm. It taught me as much as any college class has. So much for doing that again next year…

And longer class periods are more productive, since about the first 5 to 10 minutes of class are pretty much wasted with settling everyone down and review. If you don’t get what I’m saying, do the math: 2×10min

I have been able to create a great balance between the school year and finding professional opportunities during the summer. I consider that working in the summer is the best option. College works like a loan, and many of us take one to pay it. The longer you stay in, the more you pay due to usual increases in rates. I think fellow students need to recognize that today it is a priority to graduate and then to work since, as much as you work, you don’t know if tuition will be raised next semester. So, many students work during college and they limit the amount of credits so they can work but what they are doing is paying and working more in the long run because they are paying more for school while working more to pay for it. Instead, they should study and find jobs during the summer or jobs that fit their academic schedule without changes so they can study more and, eventually, pay less than if staying longer.

I think that this is one of the worst ideas that the administration has come up with during my time here at the university.

Scheduling here is not the issue at all, I am in the business college and never once have I ever had a problem trying to enroll into a class due to the fact that it goes an hour and 20 minutes and not 50.

Taking a full class load of 15 credits is still a lot to handle and there is no difference on the difficulty of school whether you take those credits over 4 or 5 days. In response to Engineer, they are taking 4 classes and a lab, so 4 classes on Mon, Wed, Friday. Do you only have one class on Tuesday or Thursday? Has to be a day off somewhere.

Another problem with having Friday classes is that it doesn’t allow our excellent faculty to take part in a lot of useful seminars and conferences that for the most part take place on Fridays. It also doesn’t allow them the freedom to travel away for research over the weekend.

Overall this is a terrible idea by the faculty and an even worse article written by the StateNews. It completely sided with the administration and the idea that the provost said “I hope we recruit more serious students to MSU than those who schedule time based on getting Fridays off,” is egregious. Those words really make me want to be a Spartan, Wilcox.

I think the “scheduling conflicts” they are talking about is this: if you have a class that runs 1 hour 20 minutes (say from 8-9:20) then you are unable to get into a class that goes 9:10-10 on that same day. If class times stay within the 50 minute envelope for 3 days a week, you’re not trying to juggle 80 minute classes with classes that follow the 50 minute schedule.

To Grad Student:

Nope, I have a recitation on tuesday at 9:10, and my lab is on thusdays. Now add in my 10-15 hours of work and again no free time. Now I know youare going to say something along the line that I will have most of tuesdays open, but what is that gonna do my? Most homework is either due Friday or Monday.

To everyone complaining about 50 vs 120min classes, all of my classes over 50 min I lose interest in the material around the 45min mark, specially when all I do in class is take note, maybe because I am only a sophomore but anything 120mins and up is way to long to be in class.

Also sorry for any typos, I was in a rush

I’ll be the first to say that I really benefit from only having had one Friday class. I do see the point that some majors are making that they will always have Friday classes. But it all depends on what you’re going into. With that said, I have learned way more in my classes that are an hour and 20 minutes or an hour and 50 minutes because it’s continuous lecture, for at least an hour. With all my classes that have only been 50 minutes, we never start on time, people always disrupt the class 10 minutes before it ends by getting up and leaving. Therefore, I get more benefit out of the longer class periods, due to other people not cutting into the class time so much by being a disruption. Because compared to 4 classes a week, with about 15 minutes cut off, to 2 classes a week, with the same amount of time being disrupted, teachers have more time to teach.

What about students who spend their Fridays working in an attempt to afford their college education? Students who take 12 or 13 credits can be just as serious. It’s apparent that the Provost sees things only from one dimension—his.