COLUMN: Standing up against common hour
ASUSU’s sudden decision to cancel all classes from 12-1:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting Fall 2012 is simply reckless and irresponsible. Instead of allowing students the ability to voice their opinion through our annual election, most of us found out after the fact and valuable faculty opinions were negated and neglected. Under the guise of the “common good,” ASUSU is forcing all 17,000 students and 1,000 faculty to be free during the busiest time of the day so we can enjoy watching our money being spent on events such as the spectacularly successful B.J. Novak.
The truth of the matter is that the common hour will make student life worse. By voting on this measure, our student leaders have shown that they are inept and out of touch with the student body. The real reason guest lectures and events are under-utilized by students is not because of schedule conflicts. Rather it is simply because we students have determined that we have better things to do with our time.
College students are, by their very nature, extremely busy and tired. During those miraculous breaks between classes and labs we do one of two things. Either we eat or we relax, and this is exactly what all 17,000 students will do if the common hour is implemented.
It may be surprising to some, but all of us have already experienced the common hour. Remember the lunch hour during high school? Remember how fun it was waiting in those long lunch lines and the experiencing the chaos in the halls? How about all the students that would flood the library to play on the computers when we had to study for a test? That is what we will experience if the common hour is implemented here at Utah State University. Tuesday and Thursday from 12-1:15 p.m. will essentially become the lunch hour for USU college students and student life will suffer as a result.
The unintended consequences will be immense. Places such as the Marketplace and Junction will be absolutely decimated. Thousands upon thousands of students will try to get some food into their system before their next class. We’ve already experienced going to get food during rush hour. Now just imagine every student unleashed for an hour.
Since getting food on campus will become treacherous, many students will opt to head out to Logan to grab something to eat. Parking and traffic will become appalling as students try to make runs before classes. Road will become dangerously congested and accidents are bound to happen. Once again, remember back to high school as students rushed to grab lunch during that golden hour. Now imagine that situation with college students. It’s okay to be scared.
As we approach winter we can expect these problems to become worse. As the cold weather comes in students will retreat to the inside of buildings. Without any classes running to absorb these students, high-traffic places such as the TSC or the Library will simply become overrun. The problem of long lines and packed facilities will become even more compounded as students are forced to pack classes back to back in order to accommodate the common hour. If you simply want to relax during this hour, your best bet may be to just go home – assuming you can get on the roads or on a bus.
We, as students, are having our free agency removed. We have less say about how we should run our education. There are many students out there who want to have classes during the common hour. We have jobs to get to, families to take care of, and a life outside of class.
ASUSU should have no right to tell me or you when we can take classes and they certainly should not tell our professors how to do their jobs. We are here first and foremost to receive an education, not to attend events.
Junior and senior students may not care because they’ll be gone before the common hour is implemented, but us freshman and sophomore students feel the full force. We must all stand together and resist the common hour. Next year I will hold a petition drive through College Libertarians to gather the required 15 percent student body petition to bring the common hour up to a vote. But our best bet is to talk to the candidates running for ASUSU this year. Force them to justify the common hour by questioning them. Ultimately it is the people who will hold their leaders accountable. If we do not, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Justin Hinh is a sophomore majoring in political science and economics and president of the USU College Libertarians. He can be reached at justintsn10@aggiemail.usu.edu.