Last updated on May 4, 2023
By Giancarlo Salazar, Staff Writer
In recent months, rumors have spread that the Post campus is considering adding a Friday class, starting in the fall 2023 semester. According to multiple sources, current Monday and Wednesday morning classes will be switched into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class schedule, making each class 45 minutes each instead of the current 80 minutes. Monday and Wednesday afternoon classes, as well as Tuesday and Thursday classes, are not currently scheduled to change. Common hour will also be shortened to 50 min.
“I first heard of it from one of my professors right before winter break,” junior fine arts major Elisabeth Buckley said. “She likes to tell us what’s going on since we don’t get any updates from the actual school itself. She told us that it would be a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule instead of Monday and Wednesday, and we all are pissed about it. She also mentioned [that] common hour would be shorter and it’s great because we already have trouble getting food with the long lines at Hillwood, any shorter and you won’t be able to get food.”
Students, especially commuters, have expressed their concerns about how adding the extra day may complicate their work and study schedules.
“It definitely works against me and a lot of students on campus,” sophomore business administration major Justin Patlias said. “I’m a commuter, so the extra day on campus will make me spend more money on gas. I have to come here on my off day when I usually work. So I’ll be spending more money and also losing a chance to make money with these Friday classes being implemented.”
Students have also mentioned that the reduction of common hour will hinder their ability to conduct certain extracurricular activities on campus.
“I had clubs that I spend time with during common hour, and not having those 90 minutes will severely affect our capabilities of doing stuff because it’s such an easy time for everyone to meet,” Patlias said. “By the time we get lunch, already half an hour is at least gone before we get to meet. So if you are only giving us 20 minutes to meet every day, what’s the point? I study during that time as well, so those 90 minutes are crucial to my learning. Taking that away is not helping at all.”
Some students speculate the reasons for Post’s administration pushing the change, one possible reason being that administration wants students to spend more time on campus to increase campus life.
“I think it’s going to decrease campus life because common hour is a very lively time,” Patlias said. “A lot of clubs meet, people hang out, people study, etc. It’s really the only time that if you walk around campus there’s other people around. After class time, it’s empty after hours, there’s no one walking around, common hour is the only time where I feel like this school is alive. Then the new Friday classes are gonna make people just want to go home quicker and not hang around. Overall, it’s just going to interfere with socializing on campus.”
“I don’t think they’re giving an actual reason why they’re implementing the change,” Buckley said. “I don’t, there’s a good reason. We all thought it was because they were matching Brooklyn’s schedule but that’s not the case because Brooklyn does not have that schedule.”
A change.org petition was started, which at the time of publishing, has reached 1,183 signatures. Students are not happy with such a change being talked about without being consulted about how it may interfere with their everyday activities.
“I feel like the administration is not listening to the students,” Patlias said. “A lot of students heard rumors last semester about it and we had a petition about it, and I think around a thousand people signed to not have a change and they kind of blatantly ignored it. It really does make the students feel like we have no voice on the campus, that we pay $40,000 a year to go to.”
Students took to the change.org petition to express their thoughts for signing the petition against the change.
“LIU continues to completely disregard the needs of students,” Courtney Smith said in the comments on the petition. “The incident in Post Hall with the lack of security, transparency (and a lockdown) on campus, the failure to follow through with academic programs (the failed PT program which was supposed to come out in 2019), status of on-campus housing and food, disregard for programs such as dance, and egregious costs are just some of the ways that students are ignored. Even further, we hear the complaints of teachers and recognize the discrepancy between professors salaries and one particular school administrator. If LIU cares about maintaining student satisfaction and outcomes, they would ask for feedback on these issues before they sink.”
“Due to my major I am required 14 hours a week in & off campus field work during weekdays,” Ang A also said on the petition. “Having Friday off gives me the opportunity to do so. Therefore, this change would hurt students pursuing degrees such as: teaching, nursing and more where hours are required. Shortening common hour would drastically hurt those who are going to extra help during that time and clubs/organizations who meet/or table during common hour.”
According to the creator of the change.org petition, Peyton LaFrenz, the LIU administration claims that they cannot verify that signatures on the website are real students.
The Student Government Association (SGA) recently put flyers around campus encouraging students to sign a new student opinion survey.
Signs with a QR code for the SGA survey are posted around campus for students to participate in.
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