Monday is the start of the work week, and, by extension, the school week. Most Mondays, class starts back after the weekend and studies begin again in earnest (we are students after all), but without minimizing the importance of curricular academics, this Monday features an event worth postponing class over.
Monday will, as the vast majority of readers have most likely heard many times before this column, feature a total solar eclipse visible in much of North America, stretching across the United States.
While unfortunately not in the direct line of the total eclipse, Raleigh will experience a 97% eclipse which is presumably, 97% as good. Additionally, Raleigh is within relatively easy driving distance of the path of totality for the Wolfpack stargazer willing to travel (the closest point is around Columbia, SC).
Professors can, and should, table classes Monday afternoon in the general times of the eclipse (maximum coverage in Raleigh is expected at 2:44 PM). I cannot overstate the significance of this event.
NASA describes the total solar eclipse as “[O]ne of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights…[wherein] the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere — the corona — can be seen.” This occasion will not simply be a nifty-looking spectacle to squeeze in on a dull Monday, for which you have nothing planned besides watching TV and looking at dog memes online.
A total solar eclipse is a historical event in its own right, a revered and feared occurrence in ancient human cultures since the dawn of time and a rare spectacle. A total solar eclipse has not been observed in the contiguous United States since 1979 and one has not been seen from coast to coast since the year 1918 (when, at the risk of being somewhat ageist, the vast majority of NC State students — and faculty and administrators — were not alive).
That being said, it is quite justifiably a crying shame for large groups of NC State students to miss this very infrequent event of no small magnitude in the interest of holding a standard Monday afternoon’s worth of lectures on organic chemistry or interpretive dance.
I realize this may sound like a transparent attempt by some mediocre students at getting out of class for an afternoon, but I would note this is not an entirely student-initiated proposal; many faculty members have already rearranged their class schedules for Monday afternoon. I myself lucked out –– the professor for my class in the time block explicitly planned a related lecture with early departure for viewing (and agreed to excuse absences by people traveling to the path of totality with a minor follow-up assignment).
Other students are not so lucky. Classes are of course very important, and the vast majority of the student body is shelling out large sums of money to attend this university so it would not be ideal to constantly scrap planned class times on a whim, but this is hardly a whim. Barring such allowances, most classes have a certain number of allowable unexcused absences that a particularly determined eclipse-watcher could take advantage of, but playing hooky minimizes the significance of this rare and historic event.
Whether you view this eclipse illicitly or in a more proper manner, as Raleigh will not quite have a total eclipse, you will need some reputable glasses at all times or, failing that, don’t stare directly at the sun.
