By. Aaron Kinnischtzke
ALAMOSA, Colo. – Much conversation and controversy has arisen over the proposition of a four-day school week for every department here at Adams State. The Mass Communications Department is the first to adopt a shortened school week, with there being classes only Monday through Thursday and all three-credit periods are an hour and fifteen minutes.
The proposition came from department head Aaron Abeyta, who pushed for the shortened school week because of the amount of student athletes at the university who travel for athletics on Fridays. The new schedule also allows the same time off between classes on a block schedule, where previously Tuesday and Thursday classes would have a four-day layoff following the weekend before they met again. The proposition allows for there to be an equal amount of class time (one hour and fifteen minutes), equal time between sessions after the weekend (four days), and as mentioned before, no classes on Friday so that those who are traveling will not miss crucial class time.
There are potential downfalls with classes only meeting twice a week with a long period of time off. The mass communications department was quick to choose the four-day week because of the structure of the classes. In departments such as math and science that require practice and repetitions with the material in the classroom setting, as well as lots of material to cover, only meeting twice a week could potentially be tough. Timothy Loosbrock, a student at Adams, is adamantly opposed to the new schedule proposition, stating, “I feel like it’s going to be bad. It’s just not enough time to engrain any kind of meaningful material. I can see why Mass Comm did it, but for almost every other program I don’t think it would be very successful.”
While there is no clear majority or minority at this point, other students such as HPPE student Andrew Vigil are all for the new schedule. Vigil understands the main reason behind the proposition, stating, “It would definitely be a good thing. People who travel for sports have really been known to get behind in their classes during their season, particularly because of the fact that they miss entire days of class for travel. You could have perfect attendance otherwise and really be a good, dedicated student, but you don’t have a choice as to when you travel. So, it would absolutely be a bonus.”
AS&F recently emailed out a survey back on February 5th, asking students their opinions on having a four-day week. While a campus-wide four-day week is still in the earliest stages of actually coming to fruition, depending on what students and faculty think on the matter may get the ball rolling quickly. Thus far, the mass communications department has had great success with the new schedule, and students as well as faculty are definitely pro-four-day week. If it ends up being in the best interest of all the other departments, Adams State University could wind up being innovators in adopting a four-day school week.
What’s Been Said…