Any student who is beyond their sophomore year at PSU remembers when we used to have classes up until 12:05 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving. Lucky us, Wednesday is now considered a travel day and classes end Tuesday nights at 9:00 p.m. How fortunate we are to have an administration that cares about us.
On the flip side of things, it is sorely looked down upon to skip Tuesday classes. “We are giving you guys an entire day to travel. You are expected to be in class on Tuesday.” Most of us hear some variation of this lecture during the days leading up to our giving of thanks. To ensure attendance, some professors even go so far as to give quizzes on Tuesday. We all pretty much understand that we are supposed to be there on that particular Tuesday by now. We get it.
Why then, we should ask, did the rest of campus shut down in the middle of Tuesday afternoon? Hypocritical much? This is not just our speculation either, rest assured. The following is a run down of the “modified holiday hours” (these hours had nothing to do with the snow) for some campus facilities, and what their normal Tuesday business hours are:
The Hartman Union Building – Open until 8:00 p.m. (normally open until 12:00 a.m.)
Commons Café – Open until 1:30 p.m. (normally open until 10:30 p.m.)
Mountainview Snack bar – Open until 1:30 P.M. (normally open until 10:00 p.m.)
The Woods Café – Closed all day (normally open from 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and again from 5:30 – 10:30 p.m.)
We might find sympathy if we were not strong handed into staying until the wee hours of Tuesday night when everything (including the slippery roads we drove on) is covered in snow. And if we, the students who-in being here-make this university possible, must stay until 9 p.m., should those facilities which were so established to serve our needs shut down mid-day?
Thank goodness for those marvelous bagel ladies who stayed open an extra 1-½ hours (until 3:00 p.m.) to fill our bellies for some of the afternoon. But who was there to aid those of us who abided by the rules and attended our night classes? Or better yet, what about the students that stayed all night on Tuesday? The campus did not officially shut down until Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. and only after that should operations have curtailed. Was this a lesson to show that following the rules is not always the way to win? Or was it just a lesson on the absolute and often unjust power of administration? Again, all we’re asking for, and all we’ve been asking for all semester, is a little consistency.
-The Clock Staff