By Arianna Fromm
TAMPA, Fla. — After two major hurricanes disrupted class schedules, The University of Tampa introduced Saturday makeup classes to meet accreditation requirements. However, students and faculty have mixed feelings about the situation.
UTampa recently announced that starting on Oct. 19, weekend classes will be held on Saturdays and one Sunday for the remainder of the semester to make up for missed class time caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. These hurricanes led to a total of eight class days missed, forcing the University to find a solution to make sure students meet the required hours for their classes.
When Hurricane Helene struck as a Category 4, students evacuated days in advance, missing a full week of classes. Shortly after students returned, Hurricane Milton hit as a Category 3, leading to another evacuation and further disruption. With limited time to make up for lost instructional days, the administration decided that Saturday classes were the most feasible way to keep the semester on track.
For many students, however, Saturday classes are less than ideal. Olivia Wappelhorst, senior allied health major, expressed her anger with the decision. She said it’s not the best choice because it isn’t realistic for many people.
“I think Saturday classes are not the best option. I think that it is unfeasible for some students. Like some people work and can’t go to class on Saturday,” said Wappelhorst.
Molly Baker, senior political science major, suggested other ways UTampa could accommodate for missed days.
“Extending the academic calendar like a few days into winter break. Or I see the appeal of offering online classes,” said Baker.
Students also pointed out that living in a hurricane-prone region, the University could anticipate and prepare in advance. Wappelhorst reflected on her time at UTampa, noting her experience with hurricanes every year.
“We live in an area where hurricanes are prevalent heavily, and we know every year that. For every single year of my college experience here, we have evacuated for a hurricane and lost school time,” said Wappelhorst. “So they know this is going to happen. So why do we not have days built into our school year?”
Professor Ryan Cragun, UTampa Faculty Senate president, said that throughout his time working at the University, the school has never done something like this because of a hurricane because not many classes were missed. Therefore, nothing had to be done to make up class time.
“In my time at UT — I started in 2007 — we’ve only ever had to cancel classes for one hurricane. That typically has resulted in far fewer canceled classes,” said Cragun. “As a result, we have not had to implement such a makeup strategy during my time here at UT.”
Cragun said that weekend classes were necessary to get back all the hours that were missed and to keep the school’s accreditation according to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
“UT introduced Saturday and Sunday makeup classes because our accrediting body, SACSCOC, requires that students have a specific number of contact hours in order to earn credit hours,” said Cragun. “Because we had two hurricanes that resulted in the cancellation of a total of eight days of classes, we are at risk of not meeting the requirements of our accrediting body in providing sufficient contact hours for students. As a result, we had to come up with a way to make up for those missed hours.”
Meredith Elzy, a psychology professor, said that even though the faculty understands the problems that were created for students in the past few weeks but is appreciative to UTampa for finding a way to move forward.
“I am grateful to our UTampa leaders for providing us with a flexible approach to make up missed content so that we can accommodate as many of these challenges as possible while still upholding the value of our courses,” said Elzy.
Patrick O’Brien, a history professor, said that he understands the students’ frustrations because the faculty feel it as well because there are outside priorities like jobs, religious obligations, or just plans that were made.
However, students need to know that making up lost hours is important to the “universities accreditation, and thus, to the value of students’ degrees when they graduate,” said O’Brien.
“The administration had to make a tough call to solve a difficult problem, but they did so with the students’ best interests at heart,” said O’Brien. “My hope would be that students, faculty, and administrators rally together rather than looking to place blame. At the end of the day, our success is all intertwined.”