Spoiler alert: The chief academic officer for the university thinks students shouldn’t skip class for a football game. Wait, does he know the Gamecocks are No. 6?
We’re just kidding. We’d be more surprised if Provost Michael Amiridis didn’t send out an email telling professors not to cancel class. Making sure academics come first is kind of his job.
And he’s right. We’re students, and we pay good money to go to class. Will most students put that valuable education above tailgating and Sandstorming? We hope so, but we won’t hold our breath.
No doubt, Amiridis’ email has upset many students. We’re hardly surprised by that either.
But here’s the beautiful thing about college: What you do is up to you.
University policy generally allows you to miss 10 percent of your class meetings each semester, though it is ultimately up to professors to decide their own attendance policies. That means you ought to get three or four excused absences, depending on how often your class meets. What you do with them is up to you.
We’re not telling anyone to skip class, but we also understand how important a student’s first or last home season-opener can be.
Would you rather make the most of your tuition money by attending that 6 p.m. lecture or the 6 p.m. kickoff?
That decision’s up to you, but we think it’s hard to blame the university for what seems to be a pretty routine memo to faculty.
As students, we get to set our priorities, and we won’t blame you for heading to Williams-Brice. A lot of us will probably be with you.
But as provost, Amiridis gets to set his, too, and it’s hard to blame him for that either.