UWG Tradition “Fried Chicken Wednesdays” Renamed to “Deep Fried Wednesdays

On Aug. 24, University of West Georgia students gathered together at West Commons on campus to honor the tradition of “Fried Chicken Wednesdays” (FCW), a celebration UWG is renaming “Deep Fried Wednesdays” (DFW).

“Fried Chicken Wednesdays” is an age-old tradition dating back over 20 years at UWG. Each Wednesday, West Commons serves a selection of their famous fried chicken with all of the fixings: macaroni and cheese, collard greens, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes and even waffles! Students look forward to this every week and flood to West Commons to enjoy food that feels like home.

“Deep Fried Wednesdays” was created to celebrate this great tradition. Along with the traditional FCW food, the University also had a DJ, a caricature artist and free t-shirts with the DFW logo.

“It was so much fun,” said student Zowie McCarty. “They really went all out! While I was there, me and my best friend Heather got our caricature done wearing our ‘chicken t-shirts’ as we call them now. While we didn’t dance, we loved watching everyone else get so into it. We even got to see some of the Divine Nine Organizations stroll which always mesmerizes me. It was the best time!”

Within the first hour the shirts were distributed and mass amounts of food was handed out. Two dance floors had emerged and the caricature artist had a line rounding the wall. Students filled West Commons, packing it to the brim to celebrate what began as a recurring menu item because of student enjoyment, to now a large part of UWG’s culture.

This was not just a celebration of delicious food but also what FCW means to students all across campus.

“‘Fried Chicken Wednesdays’ made me feel less homesick as a freshman,” said student Heather Wright. “College is about four hours from home for me and one of the things I miss most is the home cooking. This is the closest thing I’ve had to that since I moved here and I loved celebrating it with all the other students. I haven’t seen campus so full in a long time and it finally is starting to feel like it did before Covid.”

The celebration of  “Deep Fried Wednesdays” was the perfect way to introduce the incoming freshmen class to this long-standing UWG tradition and all students to celebrate a small part of their college experience.