The idea of a four day school week was shot down last Wednesday, contradictory to recent survey results that revealed overall student and faculty support for the change.

President David Beyer says that while the move would save faculty members and students money, it would not be worth the hassle of reconstructing the schedule, nor would it have an impact towards the school saving money.

The preliminary results for the survey on alternative work schedules during fall, winter and spring quarters showed some very interesting statistics from both students and faculty.

Darryl Dieter, director of institutional research, created the survey to gain an understanding of how students and staff would react to a change in the school's weekly schedule.

Although Dieter says the current survey results are only about 80% of what the expected total results will be, there is enough information recorded so far to get a good idea of how the majority of the students and faculty feel about possible changes to the school's schedule.

"I don't think the responses were overwhelmingly positive or negative," said Dieter. "I don't think that alone would effect any policy change."

Dieter believes that the overall reason for the survey is to help with the decision process, rather than to make the final decision.

Approximately 65 percent of those surveyed said they would be either somewhat interested or very interested in this schedule.

As with the students, most of the teachers who were surveyed said that they would support this schedule, but they were a bit more interested than the students. 73 percent of the faculty members that took the survey said that they would be interested in this schedule.

"Everyone likes to have a three day weekend," Dieter said, when asked how he felt about the possible change to a four day work week. "I wouldn't fight the move to it. I have a few reservations personally, but when I think about some of the greater gains that can be had, I would be willing to make that personal sacrifice. It's a good idea, I think, for a lot of reasons."

81 out of a total 107 teachers and 266 out of a total 430 students surveyed agreed that having an alternative schedule would have a positive impact on the school.

Dieter says that there are some community colleges in Washington that have a four day work week in fall, winter and spring quarters or a four and a half day work week during the summer quarter.

"I don't know what the motivations are for that," said Dieter. "I don't know if they are motivations to save transportation costs [or] heating and cooling costs, those things. I think it's pretty minor, it's just in the summer compared to doing it throughout the whole year."

Beyer says that there is a possibility of having an alternative schedule in the future, depending on how stable the economy is.