Perfesser Whitehead responds to a reader of his blog:
But, I digress. Back to the Hokies:
Some faculty members interviewed for this story said that while there has been no official mandate handed down by the school, it has been implicitly suggested that they cancel afternoon classes before Thursday night games in order to clear campus parking lots. While students may welcome an early start to the weekend, such a notion does not sit well with those who say it sends a message that athletics are more important than academics.
Isn't this confusing marginal and total? There would be no college football without the college. A school can shut down its football program but not vice versa. Therefore, the total value of academics exceeds the total value of athletics. But, a Thursday night football game is a special event with a large marginal value. The marginal benefit of that game is likely greater than the marginal cost of an afternoon of canceled classes.
Here is the article that John's reader is referring to. Yes, the reader confused marginal and total. When Mizzou played Nebraska on a Thursday night game 4 weeks ago, a similar scene played out. Mizzou's football stadium, Faurot Field, is located on the far south side of the campus. The old basketball arena, the Hearnes Center, stands across the street and to the east of the stadium. There are huge parking lots just south and east of the Hearnes Center that are used for general parking during the school week and tailgating on Saturdays. The university opened up the parking lots to RV's the evening before the game and to cars on the afternoon of the game. The university relaxed some of the policies regarding parking garages near the stadium so that students and professors would have some place to look for a space, but they also suggested that professors cancel their Friday classes.
Friday classes? BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Now that's funny.
Anyways, the idea of diminishing marginal utility says that scarce events are more valuable at the margin than are common events. This was the first Thursday evening game since 1992 (and the second ever), so such games are extremely rare events at Mizzou. It was also the first conference game of the season against a traditional powerhouse, Nebraska. Never mind the recent struggles that the Bug Eaters have had. The white helmet with the red stripe down the middle and the red N still carries weight with Mizzou fans. It was a big game.
Asking professors to cancel classes does not say that the university administration thinks that athletics are more important than academics overall. But for that one particular game, the marginal value of the game was probably greater to the university than the marginal value of the classes that would be canceled which, incidentally, was probably expected to be less than 100% of all Friday classes.
You know, if they taught at a Division 2 university, they would never have to worry about this stuff.