No school on Fridays: The University should consider a four-day school week for summer sessions

Four-day school weeks for the University's summer sessions should be seriously considered as a possible measure to lessen the effects of the budget crisis.

In Durham County community college officials will adopt a four-day week class schedule for the summer in an effort to cut costs.

Durham Technical Community College will stay open from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. so that employees would still work a 40-hour workweek with one fewer day.

The community college is expected to save $30000 dollars in utilities alone not to mention the additional savings from hiring fewer part-time employees.

The plan also has environmental benefits according to Durham Tech President Bill Ingram.

As commuters will be driving one fewer day a week carbon monoxide emissions will be reduced by 20 percent.

With budget cuts and layoffs on the rise UNC-Chapel Hill could look at this creative cost-saving move as a potential option for future summer sessions.

The four-day school week for summer sessions would certainly be a massive overhaul of the current system and probably couldn't be implemented as easily as at Durham Tech.

The sheer size of the University could make the implementation of this idea difficult.

But the idea ­— and others like it — should be taken into consideration.

With severe budget cuts the University should be open to any ideas that can save money.