Twisted Thursday

The modern work week structure includes five days of labor, those days including Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, with two days of rest, being Saturday and Sunday.
Friday is not, as you may have discovered, part of the weekend. Most IU students have five days of classes, and five week-nights of studying and homework. Why, then, are so many students treating Thursday night like a night on the town?
In the lobby of my dorm, every Thursday night, it is more popular to see guys and girls getting dressed up to hit the frats than it is to see students returning from the library. This, in and of itself, would not be a problem for me. It is none of my business how someone chooses to spend their evenings. I am not anyone’s mother.
The problem arises in the morning. Friday is, contrary to popular belief, a day in which we have classes that are just as important to our education as any of the other four. When those students who are working hard to do well in college, have to go to class with their hung-over, half-asleep peers there is a breakdown in the education system. How can a class that is based on discussion and participation function when attendance drops on Fridays because of hard partying.
Additionally, the way of quantifying attendance levels is not necessarily most accurately depicted by the number of students in the seats. The better answer is how many students are attentive and ready to participate in class.
It is hard enough to get engaged in a class on Friday morning when sober. I desperately want to be back in bed, having nothing to do with drinking. When it is already hard to get out of bed and be a valuable member of the classroom environment, it is even less valuable to be there if your hangover is too intense to even raise your hand.
Students have two nights to do their drinking. If a person in the University community is looking for a chance to go out and get wasted, it is not hard to find someplace to go on Friday and Saturday nights. Using a third night, Thursday night, to drink is offering up the opportunity for further trouble associated with drunkenness, under-age drinking, and idiotic, bad judgment. When students have those three nights in a row to get themselves into trouble, it is increasing the likelihood of unnecessary harm to all involved. There have even been nights when Saturday will be a slow, lazy night because students are partied out by their Thursday and Friday nights. This is, put simply, ridiculous. Why waste your partying on a night when you actually have other things to do? Why would you lose out on a care-free Saturday night because you partied too hard on a night that you shouldn’t have.
As college students, we have the opportunity to make our own decisions without any interference from parents or guardians. That being said, we, as students, have a form of obligation to be acting somewhat responsibly, taking into account not only the choices one makes but the consequences these choices can have on others. When someone chooses to go out on a Thursday night and get thoroughly intoxicated, it is one thing to be effecting that night for that person; it is another thing when this choice negatively impacts the others around you in their pursuit of a valuable, meaningful education.