Professor holds student’s place in line for Taylor Swift tickets during class: ‘Please don’t be the anti-hero’

A professor has earned praise after revealing they fulfilled a student’s request to hold their place in line for highly coveted Taylor Swift tickets.

This week, Swift fans found themselves virtually queuing for hours for the opportunity to purchase tickets for the singer’s upcoming The Eras Tour, with many taking to social media to complain about lengthy wait times and delays accessing Ticketmaster.

According to a university professor of biology, the competitiveness of the ticket release meant that he was asked by a student to monitor their place in line while they were busy participating in a lab practicum.

Dr Austin Shull, an associate professor of biology at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, shared a screenshot of the request he received from one of his students on Twitter on Tuesday.

In the email, which was sent with the subject line “REALLY IMPORTANT,” the student began by noting that they were reaching out with the “question of the year”.

“If you agree, it will make my day and entire year,” the student wrote. “I am currently in line for Taylor Swift tickets but have my anatomy practicum at 1.30. Do you think it’s at all possible that you could watch my spot in line on my laptop while I take it?”

The student then informed their professor that they would be coming by their class “either way,” before concluding: “Please please please don’t be the anti-hero,” a reference to Swift’s new song “Anti-Hero”.

On Twitter, Dr Shull shared the email request along with a caption that read: “You have to serve many roles when you’re a professor and advisor…” where it went viral.

In addition to receiving more than 112,000 likes, the tweet also prompted hundreds of replies from individuals eager to see whether Dr Shull had fulfilled the student’s request.

According to an update shared by the professor, he had.

“For those asking did I oblige the student’s request…” the college professor tweeted later in the day, alongside a photo of the student’s laptop opened to a Ticketmaster screen, where it stated that more than 2,000 people were in front of them in line.

The sweet update prompted an outpouring of praise for the professor, with many describing him as a “legend” and a “hero” for agreeing to the student’s request.

“This is fantastic. Bravo,” one person tweeted in response to the update, while another said: “I love this so much.”

According to someone else, Dr Shull’s willingness to help earned him the title “professor of the century”.

“Congratulations on not being the anti-hero,” another person wrote.

In addition to the hundreds of responses praising the professor for agreeing to help, others were curious about whether he or his student were successful in securing the Swift tickets.

“You’re a real one for this. Did they get the tickets in the end?” one person asked, while another said: “It is important to know if they got the tickets.”

In another follow-up, the professor revealed to the joy of those invested in the story that his student was able to successfully purchase tickets for the upcoming tour.

“[She] got her tickets everyone!!! (Oh and I think she did well on her lab practicum too),” he wrote alongside a photo of the student huddled over her laptop.