Curriculum: Wonderful Wednesday | TIME

One of the biggest challenges facing undergraduate education, says Dean John Stephens of Atlanta’s Emory University, is to give students “an incentive to educate themselves.” Emory thinks it has an answer to the challenge: “Creative Wednesday,” during which there are no classes or student activities, leaving the school’s 2,187 undergraduates free to unwind, read, study, take up hobbies, or just catch up on their sleep.

Instituted last January, the midweek free day has caught on so well at Emory that both students and faculty refer to it as “Wonderful Wednesday.” Initially puzzled by what to do with their unexpected leisure, some students turned Wednesday into a midweek Sabbath, spent their mornings sleeping off Tuesday night’s beer party. For others, though, Wednesday has turned out to be the busiest time of the week, and the library is always jammed with students catching up on assigned reading. “When I want to use a desk in the stacks, I have to get there early,” says Dr. Grant Kaiser, chairman of the romance-languages department, “or I’m out of luck. They’re all taken.”

Many students use Wonderful Wednesday to take up intellectual pursuits that have no direct connection with classwork. Math Major Beth Nash says the off day has given her a chance to go to “concerts, movies, and do lots of things” she never had time for before. Brenda Conner, a biology student, spends most of her day working on a pet project—a study of the distribution of histones (basic proteins) in chromosomes. One group of students organized a classic-films discussion group. Others spend the day tutoring children in Vine City, an Atlanta Negro slum.

Dean Stephens argues that there is some statistical evidence to prove that Wonderful Wednesday has paid off at Emory. Some teachers report that classroom attendance is higher than last year; during the winter quarter, 24% of the students made the Dean’s list, compared with 21.1% a year ago. Although initially reluctant about compressing their courses into a four-day week, most professors now feel that the new schedule forced them to prune, sharpen and ultimately improve their lectures. Last week the faculty legislative council overwhelmingly voted to continue Wonderful Wednesday for another year.

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