If the University of Iowa
administration gets its way, students at the university had better
cancel their Thursday night party plans.

A new proposal would grant UI
departments $20 for each student in a class period switched to
Fridays, all in an effort to curb binge drinking on Thursday nights.

"We’ve talked about trying to
increase the number of classes taught Friday for some time," UI
Vice Provost Tom Rocklin said. "On our campus, we teach an average
of about 2,400 class sections Monday through Thursday, but that drops
to 1,400 on Fridays."

Rocklin said the University of Missouri
released a study last summer that included "some pretty good
evidence that Friday classes reduce Thursday night binge drinking."

In addition, Rocklin said the
university wants to emphasize that "being a student is pretty
serious business."

"We took all those things together
and said we would like to offer more classes on Fridays," Rocklin
said.

He added the proposed plan would also
maximize UI’s facility usage.

Rocklin said the additional funding
departments would receive will come from internal reallocation within
the College of Liberal Arts.

Feedback regarding the proposal,
Rocklin said, "has been pretty positive," although some
departments have said moving classes to Fridays simply will not work
for them.

"I’ve heard from new faculty members
who have said ‘Oh, sure, that sounds good. I’d like to do that,’"
Rocklin said. "We’re not telling anybody that they have to do it."

Sue Crowley, director of the University
of Wisconsin’s PACE — an organization with the goal of decreasing
high risk drinking and the consequences that come with it — said
she was doubtful UI’s strategy to limit Thursday night drinking would
be effective, or that a similar policy would ever be instated at UW.

"I think there are a lot of theories
as to why that happens. I think some of that is related to the
distribution of classes," Crowley said. "If you look at the
distribution, there are still a substantial number of classes on
Friday, but not as many as other days of the week."

Crowley said the reduced number of
Friday classes may send a message that it is acceptable to consume
alcohol on Thursday nights, adding UW students are "more willing to
drink excessively on a Thursday night because they probably have a
lighter academic load" the next day.

Crowley acknowledged that at UW, "the
weekend starts for many students on Thursday night." But she
worries if universities move more classes to Fridays, students will
be less likely to enroll in the courses.

"I’d be surprised if this will work
because there’s going to be some self-selection," Crowley said.
"Some professors are going to sign up and say 'Okay, I’ll take
the money and do this,'" but unless you’re doing it pretty
consistently across all the disciplines on your campus, then it seems
to me that students are going to self-select out of those classes
that are on Friday."