The University of Iowa is offering extra funding to departments that schedule more Friday classes, as part of an initiative to curb student partying that increasingly begins on Thursday nights and continues through the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 7.

Currently, only about 1,400 classes are held on Fridays at the school, compared to an average of 2,400 from Monday to Thursday. Students and faculty agree that the lack of Friday classes encourages an early start to weekend revelry. "Sometimes a Thursday will definitely beat out a Saturday," said sophomore Greg Meyer, 20.

Citing a University of Missouri study showing that early Friday classes cut student binge drinking, Iowa's liberal-arts college is offering departments $20 extra for every student in courses that are changed to include Friday classes. That could add up to $10,000 or more for some departments.

"It's always more effective to offer people more incentives to do the right thing," says Vice Provost Tom Rocklin. "The primary goal is to send a clear message to students on what it means to be a full-time [student] seriously."

Some professors, however, say they need Fridays for non-classroom work, and some students say that students will just attend early Friday classes with a hangover from Thursday night.