After 3 p.m. on Feb. 12 in the University Foundation Building, LSU Interim President Tom Galligan introduced himself to the LSU Faculty Senate at the beginning of their monthly meeting. He expressed a deep gratitude and appreciation for the University’s faculty and staff and the pivotal work the University has done throughout the past few years. He professed a commitment to “stability and progress,” with a heavy emphasis on the University’s responsibility as a flagship institution to lead the way for Louisiana.
English and comparative literature professor Kevin Cope felt the University has not fulfilled this responsibility.
On Jan. 10, the LSU Board of Supervisors canceled classes on Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, the opening days of the spring semester, in response to the LSU football team’s participation in the national championship game in New Orleans.
Cope wrote a four-page resolution which he presented to faculty and staff at the Faculty Senate meeting, urging the University not to cancel classes for sporting events, especially on such short notice.
“The LSU mission statement presents the core duties of LSU as ‘offering a broad array of undergraduate degree programs and extensive graduate research opportunities designed to attract and educate highly qualified graduate and undergraduate students,’ and as ‘contributing to a world-class knowledge base that is transferable to educational, professional, cultural, and economic enterprises,’” Cope stated in his resolution. “That seems unlikely to be advanced by canceling of classes for a sporting event.”
The movement to push back the start to the semester was fueled by extensive support from the student body.
A petition was started on Change.org to garner support from students in hopes of swaying the board’s decision on whether classes should be canceled; the petition has roughly 5,000 signatures.
Though make-up classes were scheduled on two Saturdays within the month of the championship game to alleviate the disruption caused by the decision, many students found the event to be a circumstance worthy of class cancellation.
International trade and finance sophomore Kyle Suarez said the location of the game was likely the University’s deciding factor on whether to cancel classes.
“I believe the school’s decision on canceling classes for the national championship game wasn’t due to the school going to the final and having the biggest chance to be champions, but how close to campus and unexpected the championship was,” Suarez said.
Human resource management senior Vince DeSimone also said the University made the right decision.
“I think it was a good thing that LSU decided to cancel classes for the national championship because it allowed students to witness history,” DeSimone said. “The school would have had record low attendance because a majority of the student body would have skipped class for the game.”
While the Board of Supervisors’ decision was met with elation from the students, it left a bad impression on many faculty and staff who felt the decision made a mockery of the University.
Cope’s resolution mentioned other disparaging facts regarding the circumstances surrounding the cancellations. The resolution acknowledged that LSU’s opponent in the national championship, Clemson University, did not cancel classes for the event. Clemson sits at No. 70 in academics in the U.S. and World News Report, whereas LSU is No. 153, according to Cope’s resolution, suggesting that decisions such as the one made in January greatly impact the integrity of the University in the public eye.
Cope’s resolution also points out some of the more social incongruities of the decision.
“The values embedded in Title IX that call for gender equity were not evident since no cancellation of classes has ever occurred for LSU women’s sports teams that participated in national championships,” Cope wrote in his resolution. “The disparities between men and women or between minority and majority populations continue to be evident.”
The resolution also tipped its hat to the professors who spend weeks or months developing lesson plans for the new semester and had to completely alter their lecture schedules to accommodate the sporting event.
The resolution was closed by a request for LSU Leadership to “take immediate action to reaffirm its commitment to LSU as ‘a leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development’ per the mission and vision statement.”
Cope also called for more interactive dialogue from the Board of Supervisors concerning potential cancellations and other matters further in advance to avoid short-notice tangents from scheduled operations.