As if the Provost needed to give students another reason to make fun of him. Commence O’Donnell bashing?

worst idea ever. some of us have travel plans for the holiday; think we should just take our liberal leave. boycott anyone?

To my good friend the provost of Georgetown James O’Donnell,

Hello sir, I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is Chad Kroeger and I am of the Canadian stadium rock band Nickelback. Do you know why President’s Day was invented? It was for liberty. Now I don’t know much about liberty being of Hanna, Alberta (that’s in Canada), but isn’t it ironic that Georgetown students HAVE to go to school on the day that Abraham Lincoln defeated the Nazis and ended the Texan war for independence? Please sir, honor history. Do not make the students scream “Prison gates won’t open up for me/oh these hands and knees are crawlin’/oh I reach for you.” You have a day to consider my offer sir and would like to meet f2f.

TTYL,

Chad

really? take our holiday? what about the people that had plans? what about the hundreds of georgetown staffers at NAIMUN giving up a weekend to get high schoolers to learn about IR, work on community service projects, and explore our school? as if they don’t need a break. its stupid, inconsiderate, and too late.

Since we’ve regained one day from the Monday/Wednesday cycle, they’ll probably try to recover a Tuesday or a Thursday. Which probably means Easter Break won’t start until Friday now. That would make most sense (although really, canceling scheduled holidays because we missed a week of classes seems a bit much). Too bad he couldn’t make the decision himself so that we’d have ample time to adjust our plans…but I guess it makes life easier to deflect some of the blame for canceling holidays onto other administrators.

[...] other D.C. universities will also remain closed. To make up for the snow days, however, Georgetown announced they will hold classes on Monday, despite the President’s Day holiday. GW officials did not [...]

Liberal leave means you can miss Monday if you can’t make it, such as previous travel plans. And, Voice, your first paragraph is wrong. Liberal leave for academics is not the same as “open on President’s Day.” The academic world can be open without the administrative world.

‘Ello kids. Can I just say that in the midst of all this outrage of “improper” protesting techniques, the school has done a fine job of demonstrating to students how to really send a message. I, and the rest of Pitchfork media, congratulate Georgetown University on successfully protesting the historical injustices wealthy white presidents have perpetrated. What better way than to claw at the system by challenging the celebration of these evil men and making students go to class?

Hopefully you kids can take advantage of this educational opportunity and learn about the real heroes of the past, such as Thomas Albertson, the inventor of the fixed gear bike, or myself, for giving away an album for free as well as using clever word play to criticize people I don’t like. “Hail to the Thief”, get it?!?

even with “liberal leave,” having classes just makes it so that students who already made plans to be out of town monday get further behind. encourage teachers to cover new material on a day when lots of students planned to be mia? good plan.

steve, liberal leave means i can miss class but still am responsible for all of the work in class – that’s the same exact thing as being open. i haven’t had mandatory attendance classes since freshman year

The problem here concerns the many people who already made travel plans. Professors are probably going to condense as much information as possible into lectures on Monday. If you can’t make it to class, you’re missing multiple lectures worth of information–just because you wanted to get away for a weekend on what was a legitimate day off. That puts you at a huge disadvantage relative to your classmates that didn’t make travel plans.

What a joke. How can he do that in good conscience to students who already bought train and plane tickets home? What does he expect them to do? Oh, wait. We can spend our family time sitting on Skype with our professors and classes instead.

While liberal leave allows me to miss classes without official reprimand, what am I supposed to do about my travel plans home, Mr. O’Donnell? I happen to have 5 classes on Monday. Even with liberal leave, I cannot in good conscience skip those and miss all the make-up material professors will undoubtedly cover.

I understand the need to make up these days, but penalizing students for an act of nature by taking a scheduled holiday with 3 days notice is draconian and unacceptable! Who will pay for my tickets, sir? Will you? The university? Who will help me reschedule my family plans and commitments this weekend?

Being open on a national holiday (Presidents Day no less) is not something which seems appropriate for a university with a Congressional Charter.

I agree with C. I have plans home too and the cost to change my tickets is a bit daunting. This won’t go over quietly. We knew about Presidents’ Day being off since the beginning of the year, and planned accordingly. You can’t take away something many of us have planned for months away with 3 days notice! I don’t know about you, but my professors don’t plan on being lenient with Monday’s liberal leave. If I don’t show up because I’m in Atlanta, they’ll leave me in the dust. I refuse to be penalized for going home on a Federal holiday!

Good news guys! Just send your travel receipts over to:

Office of the Provost
Box 571014 650 ICC
37th & O St., NW, Washington, DC 20057

Georgetown will be willing to pay for cancellation/rescheduling of tickets! In fact, I hear Mr. O’Donnell will be paying for our flights out of his $332,500 salary!

Oh how I wish that were true, I’d but a few extra tickets just for him to pay up a bit more…

Now i don;t know about you, but I’m pretty reasonable. I only travel on days when I won’t be playing hookey, so I keep my commitments to my classes. As such, they should keep their commitments to us! C (above me) is right. You can’t give us 3 days notice and then open the floodgates of make up classes, hiding behing your liberal leave curtain! I’m going to be hammered with work if I don’t show up on monday, but does O’Donnell care if I have to miss my mom’s birthday? I think not!

GW is closed. They still get to keep their travel plans. Why can’t I??!!?!?

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LIBRARY?!?!?!?!?

E-mail the provost. I just did. What is he going to do, kick me out with a flowery e-mail?

Sitting atop his beacon of learning, Georgetown provost, Jim O’Donnell, is blinded to the fact that his recent decision costs Georgetown’s already extorted student body countless dollars in ticket fees or cancelled trips; ruins birthdays, valentine’s day, and even laymen’s plans; will unleash all sorts of work and missed learning for those taking liberal leave; and will only reflect badly on him, and the administration.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=296958919794&ref=ts

boycott classes

OUTRAGED!!!!!!

I stand corrected. My bad…

I support Georgetown’s decision to have classes on Monday. It has been an intellectual travesty to cancel classes for four days, particularly in the month of February, which we all know is the most fecund time for learning, as students are focused on classes until Spring Break. This university must protect its sterling academic reputation by clearly emphasizing that, at Georgetown, learning comes first.

Molly, can you please start an O’Donnell verbose-o-meter to measure just how fed up students are with his wordy, meaningless e-mails? Please?!?!?

I think “this university must protect its sterling academic reputation” by not discriminating against students who have (had) every right to travel this upcoming weekend. Who will pay for their cancellation fees? I’m not against making up class time at all. But having that day on Monday is unfair for students who aren’t going to be able to make what is likely to be 2-3 lectures in one day.

God forbid Georgetown ever record lectures for students unable to attend.

Dear Hoyas,

Please come take out your frustrations on some snow tomorrow by attending the Keep Georgetown Accessible Shovel Rally. We’ll be gathering in Healy Circle at 11:30 AM to help clear handicap and alternative building access routes so that all buildings are accessible by all Hoyas. Bring a shovel! More info here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=302163406362&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=302163406362&ref=mf

I think that’s a fantastic idea.

I’m frustrated with Monday classes. Can I hit anyone with the shovel?

I am going to meet Mr. O’Donnell f2f tomorrow. That’s fist to face.

Update on the Shovel Rally:

There will be pizza!

That is all.

The Law Center is NOT having classes on Monday. Instead it is allowing professors to reschedule classes on liberal leave for Tuesday and Wednesday, which were also supposed to be days off for a “Faculty Retreat.” Unlike the main campus though, those classes will all be taped and recorded for students who already had travel plans. O’donnell should follow their example.

No Monday classes for me anyways, but I’m still in solidarity with my brothers and sisters on this one

Whats up with all Georgetown students? If they don’t like classes, they can go to GWU or other places.

“If they don’t like classes, they can go to GWU or other places.”

Coming from “msb”…

@Law Student that’s actually a decent idea. Prof. Edelstein used to record his lectures in case students couldn’t come to class. It was a great study tool.

didn’t you die? i miss you :(

Mountain out of a molehill.

His decision to have class on Monday is totally correct. To those with travel plans, deal with it. What, you’ve never missed class before in all your time at Georgetown and had to make it up later? This is a tough situation for the university and obviously their decision won’t please everyone. Be fucking adults and just deal with it rather than starting some overly indignant facebook group. Oh yeah, you all REALLY cared about fucking President’s Day…

Goddamn, I’d give anything to be half as cool and edgy as you. How does anything that you said fall under the umbrella of being an adult? Look, I can be mature too! FUCK! SHIT!

If you had travel plans, you wouldn’t be sitting here as some asshole trying to tell everyone else to grow up. Instead, we all get to enjoy your wonderful response. Please continue to tell us all how to act.

I want to go to school because I have no friends to hang out with if we didn’t.

The travel plans thing is obviously an inconvenience, but I’m waiting with bated breath for your alternative. In your time at Georgetown, have you ever missed class? Everyone does, whether it because they’re sick, tired, or have plans that keep them from class. What do you about it? You fucking deal with it, get the notes from a buddy, and maybe go the Prof’s office hours. For those with travel plans, this is no different than simply blowing off class one day…everyone does it, its ok, you won’t fail, you’ll still graduate, your mothers will still love you.

Either way, the university is going to create an inconvenience trying to make up the lost time, its inevitable, whether it be cutting a day from Easter or study days. Frustration, if you’re traveling, is valid, but the mass hysteria that has resulted is pathetic.

Make up classes on a reading day, which is several months away and actually allows people to plan without needing to scramble. I also wouldn’t consider reading days to be a holiday, like Easter. And looking at the calendar, we have three reading days, going from Tuesday-Thursday, with class on Monday of that week and finals starting Friday of that week. I think that it wouldn’t be entirely too awful to sacrifice one of those days. Springing this with only days notice and asking students and faculty to “adjust plans” due to the “inconvenience” is incredibly callous.

Eh. People are going to bitch no matter what. If they took away a reading day, I imagine the outcry would be about the same.

By the way, that Facebook group currently has over 1,400 members. I understand that having to change tickets is expensive and inconvenient, and those people have a legitimate complaint. But I don’t think over 1,400 people (or however many end up joining the group) were going to be traveling on Monday. A fair number of people are just complaining, as usual.

The ridiculousness of this decision does not come from the fact that they are taking away a holiday. It comes from taking that holiday away 3 days before it occurs.

On top of the work we missed last week, now many student will be missing the chance on Monday to BEGIN that makeup work.

I booked my plane tickets home for President’s Day Weekend in JUNE 2009. JUNE! The university published this holiday on their calendar over two years ago fro the 2009-2010 school year, and it is absurd to take away this holiday at this point. Even though I alright have tickets for Easter, I would have been willing to change those plans with my airline if I had been given reasonable notice from the university.

This facebook group and other complaints are not simply “bitching” about the world. The university made this decision very rashly and without enough thought, as exemplified by the “humorous” and almost insulting tone of the Provost’s e-mail. Thousands of dollars in travel plans is not joking matter.

Perhaps the school should employ more meteorologists so they could have made this decision a month ago. What do you want from them? None of us knew two weeks ago that everything would be this screwed up because of a couple snow storms. First of all, the vast majority of students aren’t traveling and can go to class. The others should just go ahead and miss class, professors will be understanding.

and I agree with 432543, people would bitch if they took away a study day too. Plus, I’d rather lose a day now when my workload is light, rather than the end of the year when its going to be beautiful outside and no one will want to be working…

It is important to consider that it is not always at the student’s discretion to decide to miss class because of previously scheduled travel plans. For those of us with multiple exams on Monday, boycotting classes or missing because of travel is not an adequate option, unless, of course, one would prefer to make the final exam of greater weight in determining his final grade. To make matters worse, even this option is only offered by the “kinder” professors.

@@bird

I’m a phoenix, death is not but a glorious transformation into a new bird that eats Subway scraps and acts like a smartass in the Vox comments

I believe the decision process to hold classes on Monday went as follows:

Degioia: Hey Jimmy!
O’Donnell: Dude!
Degioia: We’ve missed an entire week of school and we probably ought to make it up.
O’Donnell: I know! Let’s fuck over the students by holding class on President’s Day. Not only will they have class on a day they’re not supposed to, they also can’t enjoy Valentine’s Day (night) fully. It’s genius!
Degioia: Nice! It’s not as if we get any anyway. But what about students who already made travel plans?
O’Donnell: We can put everyone on Liberal Leave. That way we can cover our asses but still force students to go to class.
Degioia: You just made me wet!

Multiple exams on Monday? How many kittens have you drawn and quartered to be blessed with that privilege?

Stop lying to us. And stop spending your Saturday nights in Lau.

They shouldn’t be taking ANY days away. Period. If James J. O’Donnell is so worried about missing days and having students actually work for their credit, then he should convince the university to stop accrediting classes that meet once per week for 90 minutes. Like Donna Brazile’s class. Students should be trusted to do reading on their own and keep up with material.

This is not elementary school. We’re not dealing with weekly spelling tests here. College students (should) have reached a level of maturity by now that allows them to continue to read Augustine or Plato regardless of whether or not class is in session. Professors shouldn’t have to take us by the hand.

At the end of the day, these self-righteous valedictorians have to get over themselves and enjoy this experience. THE WORLD WILL GO ON WITHOUT JAMES V. SCHALL’S LECTURES THIS WEEK.

You all do realize that you’re being mad fun of now in the dc media? Wonkette put up a post and the local NBC station had something too. Yes it sucks not to have a day off. Instead, you got 4 days off this week. Which I’m sure you have been spending studying in Lau constantly. As someone said above, there is no way all 1,400 members of that facebook group have travel plans that can’t be rearranged. Valentine’s day is on weeknights all the time, you’ll survive. (Shout-out to naimun staffers who I know could use a day to sleep after this weekend. But yall have had all week to get caught up on your work, so you also will survive)

I think what’s particularly hilarious about this entire situation is that the university seems to think that by missing a couple lectures of each class, our academic careers and possibly future lives will be irrevocably altered. It’s pretty haughty, really. I’m sure no one will suffer too much from missing CPS lecture or Spanish class. Sure, Georgetown may “hold itself to high academic standards” blah blah blah, but, really Mr. O’Donnell, the world will go on.

10 bucks says they’re also going to take away a reading day. Because President’s Day only makes up for a Monday. There are tuesday/thursday classes THAT MUST BE HAD OR ELSE—- 2012.

What about work on Monday? My bosses (I work on campus) have no idea what Monday’s liberal leave means for administrative offices or special libraries. While Lauinger, that beacon of our commitment to learning and inquiry, may be open 24/7, certain other libraries have different schedules. I think it’s time for another wordy email about exactly what a liberal leave policy means for students, faculty, AND STAFF.

[...] While the kids at JHU assumed Hitler would be outraged by the cancellation of classes, the Georgetown version—created by Vox’s favorite Tweeter, King Georgetown—takes the meme a different direction, showing the Fuhrer’s response to Provost James O’Donnell’s decision to hold classes on President’s Day: [...]

[...] to share about the Provost’s announcement that Monday would be a liberal leave day, too. L. [...]

[...] Hoyas out there, there are entertainment options aplenty. I’ve also heard that Georgetown plans to hold classes for a full week—good luck with [...]