PHOENIX ÷ Students and employees in some colleges could start their weekends on Thursday night next summer if deans and other administrators agree to close down some campus buildings on Fridays to save on air conditioning costs.

The plan is just an idea at this point, said Facilities Management Director Al Tarcola, who would like to put some faculty and staff on four 10-hour workdays next summer.

Forty to 50 percent of the university's annual electricity bill comes from cooling buildings in mid-May to mid-September, Tarcola said.

But deans would have to agree to a four-day workweek for Tarcola's idea to get off the ground, and they weren't biting on the proposal when Tarcola brought it up in a March 24 meeting of deans and provosts in the academic council, said College of Humanities Dean Chuck Tatum.

At that point, Tarcola had proposed shutting down most of campus on Fridays next summer.

"He was not received enthusiastically," Tatum said.

Tarcola is now thinking of asking deans to test out the proposed schedule in one or two buildings, he said.

President Pete Likins could ultimately make a decision on the matter, but Tatum has concerns about the proposal, which he said would burden employees by either forcing them to work 10-hour days or take more time off than the unpaid vacations they are already required to take. Tatum said he has concerns that putting parents and families on a longer workday will disrupt family life and make it harder to get childcare.

"I don't think Al or the people who work with Al have thought this through," Tatum said.

Students in some colleges would either take four additional days of summer classes or have class for fifteen minutes longer each day to make up for lost Friday classes if some parts of campus were shut down, said Beth Acree, senior program coordinator for the Office of Summer and Winter Session.

And if some classes meet four days later into the summer, it could cut into planned August vacation time for some employees, Acree said.

If any part of campus were to be shut down next summer, the thermostat would be set around 88 degrees on Fridays in the few campus buildings that would be closed. However, there would be exceptions made for research laboratories, computer equipment and faculty requests.

Tarcola declined to name the colleges affected, but said it would most likely be those that hold classes in the larger buildings on campus.

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences offers 267 summer classes, more summer classes than any other college, according to information from the Office of Summer and Winter Session. The Colleges of Humanities, Science, Fine Arts and Business and Public Administration could also be affected.

However, Modern Languages, Harvill and Education are the buildings most likely to be shut down because of their size. The College of Education is bustling in the summer, offering classes to students who couldn't fit them into their spring and fall schedules and teachers who are looking for additional training or advanced degrees, said Interim Education Dean Terry McCarty.

McCarty would want a lot of data on how shutting down her building on Fridays would save energy and how it would affect students and staff, she said.

"To do something like that means that you have to pack your schedule during the rest of the week," McCarty said.

Moving courses around could be difficult logistically, Acree said. Tarcola originally proposed implementing his plan this summer, but classes had already been scheduled, Acree said.

The Senate and the House have both passed slightly different versions of a bill to require public universities, state agencies and community colleges to reduce the energy they use in public buildings by 10 percent by July, 2008 and 15 percent by 2011. The proposal received another House approval Monday.

The UA would be included in such a measure, but the university lobbied and convinced lawmakers to write the bill so that the university's energy-saving

Efforts from this year would count toward the requirement, Tarcola said. He doesn't know whether the university would still have to work to meet the new requirement if it becomes law, he said.

Facilities Management has been installing energy-saving lights, adjusting thermostats and asking janitors to turn off lights, among other energy-saving projects over the past years, said utilities management and services assistant director Bill Wilson.