Some want to go home for a three-day weekend, others simply find it too hard to pull themselves out of bed after a Thursday night out, but one thing is clear: Friday classes are not a favorite among students.
“Not scheduling class on Friday was just something that worked out for me, and when my brother went here, he didn’t have Friday class,” Daniel Perry, freshman, said.
Friday has become a popular day to keep open for students for various reasons.
In fact, the University offers significantly fewer classes on Fridays than any other day of the week.
The average number of classes offered Monday through Thursday is 1,349. On Friday, 928 classes are offered, which is 421 less than during the week. Academic departments choose when they want classes scheduled.
“Each department develops their schedule online, we check it for errors, and let them do what they want, as long as their schedules fall in line with our scheduling grid guidelines,” said Kathy Dean, Interim Assistant Director of Registration and Scheduling.
The different academic departments have reign on whether or not they wish to schedule Friday classes.
“I don’t schedule Friday classes to go home if I want to on weekends, because my Monday classes don’t start ’til 4:30, and because Thursday night is the night everyone goes out,” Maddie Revis, freshman, said.
Revis is among many students who try to make their schedules out to nix the possibility of a Friday class.
Changes in the Thursday night social scene play a role in this trend.
“I have seen an increase of activity on Thursday nights in the 21 years I have been here,” said Campus Police Sgt. Tim James.
The Thursday night social scene lures many students into bar hopping, and has even received a clever nickname from students called, “Thirsty Thursday.”
Senior Elise Adams doesn’t go out on Thursday nights, but she is aware of the craze.
“I know a lot of people that go out on Thursday nights, its like a college phenomenon – ‘Thirsty Thursday’,” Adams said.
And according to Bowling Green Police Division records, police get more calls on Thursday nights than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The total number of arrests on Thursday nights for 2006 was 737, total arrest averages for Monday through Wednesday was 648.
“Thursday[s], Friday[s] and Saturdays are the busy times for us,” BGPD Lt. Tony Hetrick said.
A variety of bars, including Kamikaze’s, Ziggy Zoomba’s, Skybar and Nate and Wally’s, offer drink specials on Thursday nights, which may persuade some students who are on the fence about going out to head to the bars.
“Typically, we are very busy on Thursday nights, that’s the night we have our best drink specials,” said Adam Cordes, Nate and Wally’s manager.
Next door at Kamikaze’s, $1.50 pitchers attract a busy crowd from 6 to 9 p.m.
“I think bars target students to go out Thursday nights, especially overage guys and girls of all ages,” Mike Ohlemacher, a bouncer at Kamikaze’s said.
Students who don’t use Friday to recover from a case of ‘Thirsty Thursday,’ may go back home to work, or just relax from a stressful week.
“For me, it’s nice to have a three day weekend, to recuperate from a week’s worth of classes,” Adams said.
