It’s two o’clock on a Friday afternoon in Whitewater and a student goes to the university center to get lunch at the Down Under. During the trek, one question comes to mind, “Where are all the people?”

We’ve all experienced this in one way or another. The emptiness of the campus on the weekends has given the university the reputation of being a “suitcase school.”

It cannot be disputed that a good portion of students do go home on the weekends. Whether they are keeping a job back home, have a significant other elsewhere, or are visiting family, they are not alone.

Despite Friday being a normal work day for the rest of the world, Whitewater seems to check out a day early.

We have all had Friday classes at one point or another but those seem to be more rarities than regularities.

If the university wants to shed the reputation of being a suitcase school, then it must look into rebalancing the schedule so more classes fall on Fridays.

Yes, “thirsty Thursday” lovers, a sting to the side indeed. There are reasons to wait one more day before you get your hands on the weekend.

In the real world, they don’t have “thirsty Thursday” and that may be a harsh transition if many of us finish with our classes mid-week.

A well-balanced schedule is also more attainable over a five-day week as opposed to four. If a student is taking 15-18 credits in four days, grades may drop and we may not snag that dream job we are hoping for.

With classes held regularly five days a week, we may have a more positive experience on the weekends.

Instead of a student getting done at noon on a Thursday and going home at 1 p.m., maybe they don’t get done until 3:30 p.m. on a Friday, and decide the journey home isn’t worth it.

For those same “thirsty Thursday” participants who frown at the idea of Friday classes, maybe their Fridays and Saturdays will be more fun with more people in town.

But it really isn’t about having fun on the weekend in the end. We need to focus on academics first, as we are all being educated at a university with growing standards and facilities.

With Friday classes, staff would be available to students longer as well. Any opportunity to enhance learning for our students should be embraced.

That is the point of a university—to teach young minds. This proposal may come as a shock to some, but we must look around us. It is hard to find another school that embraces an early weekend as tightly as we do here at Whitewater.

Let’s do the right thing. We all love to have fun on the weekends but the right thing is to deaden our workload by having an extra day of class on Fridays.

We’ll have more fun with more people just like every other school does.