I’ll just come out and say it: I’m angry.
I love Mississippi State, and when someone attacks my school — especially without getting his or her facts straight — it makes me furious.
Friday, I was shown an article posted on The Stir called “Classes Cancelled for Football Game at World’s Dumbest College.” The university in question? Mississippi State University.
Jeanne Sager, the author of the article, called for parents of MSU students to ask for a tuition check refund because classes were canceled for a football game. And then proceeded to rip on the elevation of college football, especially in the South. And then spoke of how MSU students should be learning about “something with more real-world applications than how exactly the Bulldogs took down the Tigers.”
As a student of the university and a journalist, I’m insulted.
Sager has been given a voice to either critique or applaud actions taken by the people and institutions. The least she should do, as a responsible author, is research. If Sager had bothered, she would have known even though classes were canceled for the LSU game, students will receive the same amount of contact minutes in the classroom because an extra day was built into the schedule.
Last year, the Thursday night game against Auburn was a fiasco. Classes weren’t canceled, yet students were not allowed to park in their regular zones after 11 a.m. because most of the parking lots are reserved for fans with parking passes in those zones on gamedays, which proved to be a challenge for students attempting to go to class.
And MSU saw the problem and changed this year’s schedule to accommodate students. This allowed students to be able to have a normal gameday and not be faced with the choice of whether or not to skip class. With the change, students will probably get a better education because they won’t be distracted by a football game when we make up the day.
It’s not as if we are the first university to cancel classes for football games —the University of Utah canceled classes this year for its football opener and Alabama canceled classes for three days for the 2010 BCS national championship. Alabama made the days up, just like MSU is doing, so it isn’t as if these universities are choosing football over education — they’re merely accommodating for it.
Football is like Christmas — it brings a lot of people joy and the season fills the air with a magical excitement. What’s wrong with having a holiday, especially if it doesn’t affect my quality of education? Nothing.
Sager also fails to realize people at State take their education seriously. I certainly do. We have good programs, good professors and leadership who are in support of building a bigger and better educational system.
We have been nationally recognized for our educational programs. We have the highest retention rates in Mississippi. Our average ACT score of admitted students is going up. Clearly, MSU is doing something to attract smart, capable people.
Sager may have been citing the university’s decision to cancel classes for football as “dumb,” but she attacked the legitimacy of my education. I, and surely other MSU students, work hard in class and are actually here for an education, not football, though the football is a plus.
It is possible to find a way to balance education and football, and MSU officials did the best they could to do that. I think they succeeded, and I certainly don’t feel as if my education will suffer.
Maybe next time before attacking MSU, Sager should learn to research — something with “real-world applications.” Research, after all, is something valued at State … but she wouldn’t know that because she’s too busy trying to promote “Southern football is God” stereotypes.
Hannah Rogers is the editor in chief of The Reflector. She can be contacted at [email protected].