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USF Plan For More Classes On Fridays Meets Resistance

Idle Classrooms Needed To Improve Graduation Rate

Tribune Photographers

The parking lot at the USF library was packed on Monday, Oct. 22. The previous Friday, not so much.

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

TAMPA - TAMPA - TAMPA -- A Friday afternoon at the University of South Florida is a picture of tranquility: Parking is plentiful; the lunch crowd is thin; and the line to the library Starbucks runs short and fast.

But Monday shows a scene more typical of a campus of 38,000 students. Cars jockey for any available space, and often there are none. Noontime lunches are boisterous and the Starbucks tables are taken.

The campus hums only until Thursday, which many students consider the true start of the weekend.

Come next fall, however, that will change.

To better fill its classrooms, USF administrators will schedule more classes on Fridays, a day most students and faculty consider free of instruction.

University administrators say they now must force a change that students and faculty at most colleges consider drastic. Classroom capacity at USF and most other Florida universities is maxed out. But officials say they cannot ask for state money to build more classrooms while most of their buildings sit empty on Fridays.

USF schedules hundreds of classes on most weekday afternoons – except Fridays, when just about 150 are offered at peak times campuswide, according to USF records.

The Tampa university is far from alone, however. Four-day weeks are common at universities nationwide, and Thursdays – dubbed "Thirstdays" by most students – are the true start of the weekend.

Students likely will resist a move to anything different.

"Thursday night is party night around here," said Anish Amin, 19, a sophomore majoring in biology.

Friday is more than just a day of recovery, students said. It's a day spent working part-time or on the road to visit family back home. Faculty members spend the time conducting research, engaging in meetings with colleagues or flying to academic conferences.

It's been that way for years. While science labs at USF run at capacity 12 hours a day Monday through Friday, most academic departments avoid scheduling Friday classes.

Officials overseeing Florida's public university system say that must change, and it must change by next fall.

"All of our universities are crowded, and USF is especially crowded," said Bill Edmonds, the spokesman for Florida's Board of Governors, which oversees the state's universities. "But it's both expensive and time-consuming to build new resources. You want to put that off as long as possible."

Graduation Rates

USF administrators say a move to more Friday classes will help improve graduation rates. Just 48 percent of USF's students graduate in six years, whereas the six-year graduation rates at the University of Florida and Florida State University are 79 percent and 68 percent, respectively.

Part of the problem lies with course availability, administrators say. Many freshmen and sophomores can't get into the classes they need to stay on track toward graduation.

The university is admitting students with higher grades and test scores who can handle a larger course load each semester and can graduate in four years by taking 15 credit hours each semester. However, many are unable to get the classes they need to take on that load, said Ralph Wilcox, USF's vice provost.

USF can increase its classroom capacity by about 15 percent by spreading the course load throughout the week, said Glen Besterfield, USF's assistant dean for undergraduate studies.

For instance, the university can use one classroom for three 50-minute classes offered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays instead of two, 75-minute classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Universities now are under financial pressure to graduate students on time. Without considering financial aid, the state bears about 70 percent of the cost to educate a student. In other words, the state spends about $2,300 each semester on a student taking 15 credit hours.

This month, the Legislature agreed to spend $4 million on universities that can improve their graduation rates.

Besterfield acknowledges that a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule takes students and faculty "out of their comfort zone," but adds that the university has long encouraged its academic departments to voluntarily schedule more classes on Friday to no avail.

Faculty members, however, say that one more class period on Friday means less time for research and for the extracurricular needs that benefit their work, such as attending out-of-town weekend conferences in their field.

"You talk to any faculty member, and they'll tell you the most critical resource we need is time," said Sherman Dorn, USF's faculty union president.

A 4-Day Culture

Student government leaders say they find the administration's arguments persuasive and they support the move to Fridays, but note that most students would not back them.

Garin Flowers, USF's student body president, said that most students don't understand the politics that underlie higher education funding in Florida. The Legislature won't spend money for more classroom buildings until the university makes better use of the ones they have every day of the week, Flowers said.

"There's a four-day culture here," Flowers said. "But it's a culture that has to change."

Students were generally warm to the change when told that classes on Fridays would result in an easier time scheduling classes.

"If this means more availability for classes, then I'm for it," said Kavita Napee, 21, a senior from Orlando.

Getting into core courses is tough for most freshmen and sophomores. Even landing a seat in organic chemistry is competitive. "My roommate can never get into that class," said Brittany Rowe, 20, a biomedical sciences honors student.

Some freshmen now worry that, because they're the last to pick classes, they'll be left with little that they need to stay on track toward graduation. Despite that, many still say they won't pick a class on Fridays.

"You don't want to have to get up on Friday morning and go to class," said Chelsea Dees, 18, a biomedical sciences freshman.

USF biology sophomore Heather Wampole, 18, said the Maryland university she formerly attended, Salisbury University, made a similar push to schedule more classes on Friday. When that happened, lecture classes were filled with dozens of students on Monday and Wednesday, but ran nearly empty on Friday.

"They just didn't go to class," Wampole said. "I know a lot of people go out on Thursdays. I think the general reaction here is going to be bad."

Besterfield said any negative reaction will subside after four years. Students now are too accustomed to the freedom of Friday-free days, but new freshmen out of high school in four years will enter a five-day culture and won't know the difference.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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