LSU students, faculty and staff defended the University’s decision to cancel classes on for the National Championship game following a series of critical tweets from a New York Times editor.
Binyamin Appelbaum, a member of the Times’ Editorial Board, expressed his disapproval of the University’s class cancellations in Jan. 13. in a Twitter thread. Appelbaum tweeted in response to an article published by the Reveille about the cancellation of classes.
“LSU cancelled all classes, for everyone, for two days, because its football team is playing for the national championship,” Appelbaum tweeted. “Obviously LSU’s professional football players aren’t there for the classes, but this is some next-level stuff.”
Many LSU students, faculty and fans commented on Applebaum’s thread and defended the University’s decision, including Jonathan Earle, the dean of the Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College.
“LSU dean here: we’ll make sure we make up the class time,” Earle wrote. “And in the meantime, those Tigers sure look good :-).”
The decision made by the LSU Board of Supervisors gained national media attention. Major media outlets including Fox News, TMZ and Yahoo Sports featured stories on the cancellation.
Mass Communication Professor and political commentator James Carville spoke to his upper-level political communication class on Jan. 21 about Appelbaum’s tweets. The LSU alumnus and former political campaign manager read the Twitter thread to his class of 35 students.
Carville asked the class if it felt emotion provoked by Appelbaum’s words. One of the main objectives of the class is to learn how to use emotion to advance a social or political cause, he said.
Carville described the tweets as “arrogant and sloppy.” He said Appelbaum failed to do a simple fact-check and find that classes were later rescheduled.
Carville contacted Appelbaum to arrange a Skype call but received no response. Carville said he would be happy to give Applebaum the opportunity to set the record straight.
“Frankly, he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and can do whatever he wants,” Carvillle said. “Words matter.”
Appelbaum continued to criticize the University in another tweet on Jan. 13.
“Do the Warren/Sanders ‘free public college’ proposals include LSU, or would it only apply to actual schools?” he wrote.
Political science and political communication senior Andrew Searles said he felt comfortable missing one session of class in celebration of the National Championship game and did not understand Appelbaum’s frustration with the Board of Supervisors’ decision.
“I think it was pretty justified,” Searles said. “Most people miss, what, one session of the course? They took steps to make up those classes. Missing one syllabus day is not going to affect anything in the long run.”
Public relations senior Mason Ramagos believes it may be difficult for Appelbaum and others outside of LSU to understand why the decision was made.
“I feel like anyone who’s on the outside just isn’t going to get it,” Ramagos said. “How often do you have your school undefeated, going to the national championship and it just happens to be down the road?”
The University announced students will make-up the missed class days.