By Kaitlyn Rodriguez
After getting hit with back-to-back hurricanes these last few weeks, The University of Tampa announced that Saturday classes will be held for the rest of the semester because of the amount of missed days. This is currently a hot topic, and many students and staff have mixed opinions on this decision.
Because of Hurricane Helene and Milton, we have missed a total of eight class days and have to make up that time so learning outcomes can be met since it is a requirement of SACSCOC, the school’s accrediting body. The Saturday schedule was created, sent out in a global message, and put on UTampa’s website.
The global message states, “As you know, we have missed 8 class days and need to make-up work so that the learning outcomes can be met. This is a requirement of SACSCOC, our accrediting body. We have created Saturday schedules to facilitate faculty planning of their revised syllabi, since student course schedules and room assignments involve a complex orchestration.”
However, holding classes on Saturdays is not mandatory, and it is up to the professors to decide whether or not they will use the makeup days or not. If the professors decide they do not need it, they won’t have to make students come in on the weekends.
Every Saturday will be a different schedule. For example, classes missed on Sept. 26 will be made up on Oct. 26. So on that Saturday, you will have your Thursday classes at the same time and location where your class is usually held.
Many students are expressing their thoughts about this schedule, and many say that it is unfair for students and professors to show up on the weekends. There are students who would not be able to make it to class due to other responsibilities like jobs, volunteering, and catching up on the homework they already have.
Many professors do not teach full-time, and they have other jobs to attend over the weekends. Saturday classes would take away from that and cause conflicts of interest every weekend.
Although we have to meet a certain number of days, many students are expressing their opinions stating that this is unfair and that there should be an alternative. Some prefer to extend the semester another week and cut winter break short.
Even though Saturday classes would be up to your professor, many students believe that this should not even be an option in general. What student would want to show up to campus on a weekend? The weekends are sometimes the only free time students and faculty get, and Saturday classes would make plenty of students have school six days out of the week with only a one-day break.
There are also concerns about students not being able to have time to study or do homework for classes since there will be an extra day of class. Instead of staying up during the night to do homework, some students like to wait until the weekends since that is when they have free time to complete their work. Since many students work during the weekdays, the weekends are considered their catch-up time.
Having to move your schedule around because of now having classes on a weekend can be extremely stressful, along with making last-minute changes.
There also have been mixed feelings about how the University handled this situation in general. Students have been disappointed that they found out about it through sources like TikTok first and not from UTampa itself. Finding out you might have to go to school on a Saturday through a social media post instead of hearing directly from the school can be frustrating.
UTampa has been posting new updates after Hurricane Milton, expressing their understanding of students and staff getting back into the swing of things and returning to normalcy. There are also many resources listed for those who need it.