By TYLER DALE

Recently, many students have noticed some sort of blocking frenzy. 

Various websites have been blocked on campus, in the dorms and academic buildings alike. Some have been unblocked, and some of those blocked again. 

But this week, Piedmont has done what nobody could have anticipated: they’ve blocked themselves. All across Piedmont campus, access to piedmont.edu is completely denied. 

Piedmont administration has released a statement about this decision, saying, “Here at Piedmont, we pride ourselves upon being a small, intimate school, where hands on, face-to-face learning is encouraged. And so, we’ve determined that every aspect of Piedmont College should reflect that. If students have questions for the Registrar, they should go there. If they want to know the athletic schedule, they need only ask an athlete. There is no reason they should have to access our webpage to look these things up. Because of this, piedmont.edu is now blocked campus-wide.” 

Students are outraged over the blocking of Piedmont’s website, and have described it as “the final straw” in regard to this year’s Internet woes. 

One student went on record, saying, “Take away my Netflix: that’s fine; I’ll make it. Take away my… ‘adult content’ whatever; I’ll improvise. But what on earth am I supposed to do now that I can’t get online and access the catalog? Now I’ll never know what classes to take next semester.” 

Another student, equally outraged told us, “Now that the library databases are blocked, I actually have to go inside the library to do research. Do you know how scary it is in there?” 

It’s even more difficult for the faculty. 

With no access to course information, they’re forced to guess when it comes to advising students. 

If Piedmont doesn’t revoke the ban of their website, who knows what anarchy could ensue? 

And if they continue to so closely control the content students have access to, what kind of impact will that have on our education? 

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.