Over the past decade Friday classes have become a rarity at many college campuses around the country. Now, however, administrators are beginning to reconsider this trend.

While a compressed schedule is beneficial to faculty, who get an extra day for research, and to commuting students, who pocket the savings from reduced travel, there’s a downside for full-time residential students: Facilities are under-utilized on Fridays and overcrowded on other days.

Moreover, say some experts, a four-day school week (in which partying often begins after the last class on Thursday) may leave this generation ill prepared for the five-day work week that awaits them. In an attempt to reverse the pattern, some universities, including Syracuse and Duke, have bolstered their Friday schedules.

In the meantime, parents should encourage their college-age children to schedule a regular obligation, whether a job, an internship, or a long study session, on days they have no classes. “That way,” says Peter Vogt, a partner in College to Career, a Bloomington, Minnesota-based consulting firm, “they’ll get some idea of workforce basics.”

Copyright 2006 by Ladies Home Journal Magazine. All rights reserved.
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