College classrooms mostly dark on Fridays

Jennifer Knight

Monday, July 7, 2003 | 11 a.m.

With budget concerns bearing down on universities and colleges, higher education officials in Nevada want to make better use of classroom space by reintroducing a forgotten day of the week into their schedules -- Friday.

College classrooms are stuffed to the gills Monday through Thursday, but on Friday many classrooms go dark, leaving most students with three-day weekends, according to data obtained by the Sun.

"There is a big movement toward having more classes taught on Friday and on Saturday," Stavros Anthony, chairman of the Board of Regents, said. "Guaranteed in one year there is going to be a major shift in three-day classes going to two-day classes, and there will be more classes taught on Fridays."

Because of increasing pressure to maximize existing space, college campuses recently completed a year-long study on how often classroom space is used, and the results show room for improvement.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas on its fall schedule is offering 1,500 class sections on Tuesdays, a peak time for classroom usage, while offering just 825 class sections on Fridays.

The Community College of Southern Nevada has 1,435 classes scheduled on Wednesday this fall and only 318 on Friday.

According to a classroom utilization study presented last week to the Board of Regents, CCSN used 81 percent of its classroom space on Tuesday afternoons. UNLV used 92 percent of its space in that period.

That usage dropped to 24 percent on Fridays at CCSN and 38 percent at UNLV.

"Getting students to attend Friday afternoon classes is pretty difficult," James Frey, UNLV's dean of liberal arts, said. "Sections of introductory psychology or English on those days just don't get the enrollments. Faculty also don't like to teach on Fridays, though often they will."

University system officials say there are many reasons for the shift away from Friday. College administrators tend to use the day to hold committee meetings. Faculty members catch up on work and students use the day to hold down jobs.

"When you have a system of shared governance, if you didn't have a day to meet, you'd never be able to get all of the faculty together at one time on a committee to form a quorum because of the different teaching schedules," Joe West, CCSN's dean of institutional research, said.

John Kinkella, CCSN's dean of counseling, said students are often too busy with work to attend on Fridays.

"We've put up classes on Fridays, but they do not run as high of capacity because of the nature of Las Vegas," Kinkella said. "They usually work Friday through Sunday. They are voting with their feet."

Even though classes are not scheduled does not mean classroom space isn't being used, said Regent Howard Rosenberg, who is also an art professor at the University of Nevada, Reno,

"There's more to the operation than just classes," Rosenberg said. "That's what a lot of people don't understand. The reason is the kids need to be able to get into the studios, so that they can get in on Fridays. Otherwise, most of them won't have the space to do what they need to do."

Right now, institutions are looking for ways to use space more efficiently on Fridays by adjusting the schedule so that students can choose among classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday, Monday and Wednesday or Friday.

Frey said that the plan is to schedule classes on Friday that are most likely to be successful that day.

"Our plan is to use our classrooms to the maximum possibility," Frey said. "Every year the scheduling is like putting a puzzle together. We just hope that it all comes together."