Mechanical engineering sophomore Robert Breaux will wake up on Saturday, at about 6 a.m. for his first class. He will get to campus for his 8:30 a.m. class, likely stop by Highland Coffees or Inga’s during breaks and then go home and change before work at Zippy’s Burritos, Tacos & More.
His shift at work starts at 4 p.m., and it’s called the ‘late night shift.’ This is because it runs for 12 hours, ending at 4 a.m. early Sunday morning. By the time he gets home and gets in bed, it will likely be 6:30 a.m.
He will have spent almost 25 hours awake, all so that he does not miss his mandatory makeup class on Saturday.
“Even then, I still have to try to get to sleep,” Breaux added.
LSU won the College Football Playoff Championship on the night of Jan. 13. The Mercedes-Benz Superdome along with surrounding bars and restaurants were filled to the brim with LSU and Clemson fans.
The University anticipated students traveling to New Orleans or watching the game with friends. To accommodate these students, the LSU Board of Supervisors voted to cancel classes on Jan. 13 and 14.
Now that students have begun to settle down from the historic win, the University’s administration announced in a Jan. 17 email students must return to school on Saturdays Jan. 25 and Feb. 8.
Student, teacher and fan reactions were not happy.
“The University seems confused about the difference between ‘cancel’ and ‘postpone,’” Lafayette Attorney Kathy Hurst commented on Facebook. “If [classes] were canceled, they shouldn’t have to make them up.“
Many professors have already canceled class for this upcoming Saturday, since faculty members already had to work the day of the championship.
“I certainly won’t be holding Saturday classes,” Mass Communication Professor Robert Mann said in a tweet.
Students complained about the announcement for a variety of reasons, including prior conflicts and being forced to attend Saturday classes even if they are not football fans.
“Would have went to class during the days that got cancelled instead of going to Saturday classes,” interior design sophomore Tabitha Douzat wrote on Facebook.
Political science sophomore Claire Lynch said she is frustrated because the University is not taking into account other conflicts that students have, like work.
“For a lot of students with jobs, this announcement wasn’t made far enough in advance for them to request off,” Lynch said. “I can’t just say, ‘hey, I’m not showing up’ because LSU decided to hold class that day. It’s not fair to my job, and it’s not fair to me.”
This isn’t the first time that students have been forced to attend classes on Saturday to make up for cancelled school days. The most recent example was in spring 2018, when classes were cancelled on a Wednesday and Thursday due to winter weather. Make-up classes were scheduled for about a month after the day classes were supposed to occur.
Classes were also cancelled due to winter weather in spring of 2014, and a piece by the Reveille offers a telling satire of students’ attitudes that year:
“Harold, a senior majoring in Flappy Bird physics, said, ‘Of course I’m going to my snow day make-up; what else would I rather do on a Saturday morning?’
The most extreme schedule change in recent history was in the fall semester of 2008, in which the entirety of fall break was cancelled after Hurricane Gustav hit campus.
Based off the history of make-up days at the University and current student opinion, though, it’s unlikely that classrooms will be filled during Saturdays’ classes.
“Not having class for those two days was nice,” coastal environmental science junior Cressy said, “but I imagine that most students that had already planned on skipping class that Monday [or Tuesday] won’t feel very obligated to go to class on a Saturday instead.”