Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

EDITORIAL: Give us a break
Staff Editorial
Cavalier Daily (U. Virginia)
03/19/2007

(U-WIRE) CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Having just settled in after a restful week of well-deserved vaca-tion (or for less hedonistic, humanitarian types, communityservice), students ought to be dismayed to learn that this coming fall, Thanksgiving Break will be considerably shorter. You may remember last semester's break, which spanned from Saturday to the following Sunday, providing ample time to schedule holiday flights and enjoy up to 9 days of relaxation with family. Next year's break, however, begins the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and ends the following Sunday — just enough time to go home, enjoy a few mouthfuls of stuffing and return to school as quickly as it takes to bake a turkey. To paraphrase Patrick Henry: Regarding vacation, give me one week or give me death.

Anyone who ever attempted to travel the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is certainly aware of the inconveniences. Irritating doesn't begin to describe the task of traveling just hours before most families sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. On one of the busiest transportation days of the year, flying or driving anywhere summons the sort of anxiety normally reserved for fluid mechanics midterms or biological warfare. We've all experienced it: That dreaded Wednesday, interstate traffic resembles downtown Cairo. Airports begin to look eerily like refugee camps, packed with students eager to return home. A few more days off make a significant difference in the stress associated with Thanksgiving travel (and subsequent therapy bills).

Longer vacations allow students to avoid peak travel days, not to mention provide more time to sleep late, procrastinate studying for midterms and binge on comfort food. Depriving students of the weekend preceding Thanksgiving Break effectively cuts the vacation in half. A break from Saturday to Sunday gives students nine days of rest, while a break beginning Wednesday provides only five. It may seem trivial, but for out-of-state or international students, those four days often determine whether or not they can spend Thanksgiving with their families.

Pardon the rude question, but what heartless, Scroogesque fellow thought students wouldn't miss the extra four days? Presumably, the Provost's office thought an additional reading day in early October would offset the truncated Thanksgiving Break, as though students prefer slightly lengthening a puny weekend to having an entire week for Thanksgiving. What nonsense. In stark contrast to last year's academic calendar, the calendar for fall of 2007 shortens reading days and Thanksgiving break into two brief vacations, rather than one short and one relatively longer one. This means, because both vacations provide so little time for travel, some students won't be able to return home for either.

As a practical consideration, extending Thanksgiving Break removes the overwhelming incentive to skip class Monday and Tuesday prior to the break, therefore eliminating the moral dilemma for students and professors' frustration from addressing half-empty lecture halls. Shortened breaks affect every student, especially those who have to travel great distances to visit family.It would be a shame to sacrifice their hard earned vacation for scheduling convenience.

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