Let's face it: There aren't too many of us who like Fruesday.
Fruesday, the weird Tuesday-Friday hybrid implemented in Fall 2007, has never pleased students. On this unique day, Friday classes take place on Tuesday. This policy was implemented in order to equalize the number of Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes in relation to Tuesday and Thursday classes, as well as to get rid of Saturday finals. So when this special week rolls around, students get the added joy of attending their Friday classes on Tuesday, even though they had the same classes the day before.
It is such an exciting day that most students look for ways to duck out of their Fruesday classes so they can go home or teachers just simply cancel class. The problem with this failed Fruesday plan is that it shortens the Thanksgiving Break week down to three days plus the weekend.
If you're an out-of-state student, especially one from somewhere outside the Midwest, this weird schedule might make it so you are unable to travel home for the shortened break. And those who don't have far to go know it's simply ineffective.
If Fruesday was done away with, it would leave only Monday during the break week. And, if the one-day Fall Break on Friday was moved to the Monday of the week of Thanksgiving, we'd get a full week off, leaving plenty of time for travel and rest.
Various University Senate bodies have talked about exactly this scenario since October. However, Thursday was the day the Undergraduate Education Committee's proposal was finally sent to the Campus Council for approval. After being voted on in the Council, which probably won't happen for another four months or longer, it will go to the Senate Agenda Committee. And so on and so forth, up the food chain.
President Jo Ann Gora is unlikely to approve the measure, according to Provost Terry King, because the plan eliminates a day from the fall calendar. Yet, the spring calendar is already a day longer than the fall calendar. This proposal would even things out. Additionally, there is no state mandate for university days in session.
The earliest this plan could be implemented would be Fall 2011 if it is eventually approved. It's likely, at the glacial pace that change happens at the administration level of Ball State University - we're seeing it play out more prominently with the bugdet cut ordeal - that it wouldn't even take effect until well after that. There might even be a better chance that the university will complete construction on McKinley Avenue - which is entering its sixth year - before Fruesday is finally killed off.
This is no way to get things finished. While there are university bylaws about how changes happen, nothing completed will ever be enjoyed by those students who possibly helped fight for it.
Though, by the time anything actually happens, their grandchildren might be at Ball State when the plan for a full week off is finally implemented.
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