OUR VIEW: Common hour good, but not perfect
Every department at Utah State pays for speakers to travel to Logan and shed brilliant insight on topics varying from cycles of rain water to the connections between the Bible and feminists. With all the money USU pumps into these speeches, let us tell you, not nearly enough people are attending. More often than not only the first few rows are filled and the majority of those attending are faculty and staff. It appears as though students are not taking full advantage of their education, and therefore have been given the gift of one hour to do just this.
Common hour will surely give us the opportunity to cram a little more information into our skulls between classes, and honestly these guest speakers know their stuff. They have Ph.D.s, are thriving business owners, mad scientists, authors and professional athletes. Too bad the time these speakers will be scheduled is at noon – the exact time we tend to load up on soup and bread in the Skyroom.
In truth, we editors probably appreciate a good lecture more than the average person. We listen to many of them in order to tell the rest of the student body what they missed in our semi-daily issues of The Statesman. Even when not on the job, we appreciate the information and ideas presented and are sad when schedules do not allow us to attend.
Our question is: Why does it have to be slapped right in the middle of the day? What if we have jobs to get to? We’ve been told that classes will not be scheduled any earlier than they already are, and there will be enough rooms to accommodate classes that would have been scheduled at noon. However, we’re not really understanding where these empty classrooms will appear. Really, we shouldn’t be complaining, it’s the professors who should – 16 percent of them will need to readjust their schedules.
For the past week we have been asking students to vote in our online poll regarding their support for common hour. While the results are less than scientific – we got a whopping 66 votes – the numbers do talk. Of the 66 votes, 41 percent were in total opposition of common hour whereas 18 percent supported it in its current state. Furthermore, 18 percent said they did not have enough information to say yes or no and 23 percent agreed with us – that common hour has merit though we don’t see why it has to at noon.
Common Hour is not bad, that’s not what we’re trying to say. What is bad is tripping over it right in the middle of the day. Get ready for the zoo at noon, everyone. Hopefully, students don’t decide to run rampant for an hour, and do take part in the academic bonuses USU offers weekly.