Upon walking into the academic resources room, my teammate and I had bought our dinner from the UC to-go. Once we got in, we were curtly told that no food was allowed and we had to eat it on the floor in the outside hallway. We had come to make a dent in our mandatory six hours of study hall per week on that Tuesday evening but instead, spent a chunk of it scarfing down our dinner with our precious time ticking away. As freshmen athletes, we are required to log six hours of study hall every week. Last year and years prior, the requirement was a meager two hours per week. And if you achieved a certain GPA, you were excused from study hall in the second semester. Those reasonable rules have been sacked and instead replaced with unfair and time-consuming regulations.
In these first few weeks of school, I personally haven’t had six hours of homework to do and have wasted an excessive amount of time walking to the opposite side of campus simply to cross some shows off of my Netflix list. The work that I have received, could easily be finished in the comfort of my own room instead of a crowded and hot room where food is illegal. When my workload inevitably gets harder, going across campus to do my work will just become a pain and a waste of time.
I don’t understand why the athletic department decided to make the jump from two hours to six a week. Regardless of their motives, the feelings among all of the athletes are pretty similar in that no one is happy with it. The bottom line is that it’s an inconvenience, doesn’t increase productivity, and creates difficult deadlines to meet for people who already have a time-consuming activity going on. I could go on with this rant but I have to go to study hall.
