Who’s ready for a shorter school week?

Written by: Susanna Pehrson
According to unprecedented high gas prices, BCC is considering shortening its school week in the future. It is unclear when this would take effect, as well as how it would be organized, but according to Robert Adams, Public Information officer at Community and College Relations, BCC is looking into several different solutions. “We hope we could align it so students perhaps could only be here two to three days a week even if they are full time students,” said Adams in an interview on KIRO TV a week ago. That would mean the college would continue to offer full time classes with a shorter school week, as is the case during the summer quarter when a school week consists of only four days. Adams also said BCC is expanding the number of courses that are entirely online, and that there might also be a bigger selection of hybrid classes which meet on campus once a week and are based on online work the other days. According to Peter Maphumulo, the Executive Dean at the Office of Instruction, BCC is looking at a number of options, but has not settled on anything specific yet. Community colleges are hit particularly hard hit by the soaring gas prices, since a larger percentage of their students need financial aid. 2,000 of BCC’s students are on the poverty line, said Adams, and the number of students who have applied for financial aid has tripled during the last academic year.