April 8, 2003

The Doctor's Rx. for Hockey Fever

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Ladies and Gents, we’re only two days away. Two days away from arguably the biggest Cornell sporting event in the past 23 years, or more precisely, the last time the hockey team made it to the Frozen Four. But to my dismay, it really doesn’t seem like many people on campus care. The true diehard fans are out there salivating in their rooms counting down the seconds until the puck drops at noon on Thursday, but the casual hockey fans and Cornell students — those are the ones that need to be prodded and infected with hockey fever. And it’s the Cornell administration that has the right, ability, and duty to do something.

First things first, how about starting by canceling Thursday afternoon classes. Cornell drew the early game in the semifinal round, which in my opinion is good for the team, but for obvious reasons, bad for the fans. Some students who have the ability to get tickets can’t go to Buffalo because they’re stuck in classes (although that won’t stop me). In fact, a lot of my friends are in this predicament with classes and actually night prelims to boot. Come on professors . . . give your students a break.

Now, I know that the argument will come back to “Your parents are paying a lot for your tuition, so we have an obligation to teach.” Yeah, and that’s why we have to trudge through a foot and a half of snow and walk over ice sheets to get to class. But, parents are actually paying for the college experience, which for me includes classes, housing, food, and fun. In many cases, Cornellians can separate classes and fun (work during the week, party on weekends), but in this case, the two are clearly in conflict. So, just for once, can’t fun come first? Just throw a review session or a make-up lecture on Saturday morning. Please, just anything