To many students, Thanksgiving is the one time of the fall semester during which they can leave Grounds and the greater Charlottesville area and head back for the delights of home. I question, however, the decision not to give students the entire week of Thanksgiving off. The two-day gap between the weekend prior to Thanksgiving break and the actual break means students must choose between affordable travel, attending class and/or a more comprehensive vacation.
Most importantly, the policy of having class on Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving disproportionately hurts students who are out-of-state or international. These students are already restricted on the number of times they can go home by transit time and travel costs compared to students from Virginia. Therefore, for many of them, Thanksgiving is the only time of the fall semester when they can go home. Furthermore, a shorter break means travel costs are more expensive for people who live further away. These travel costs are fixed, and starting break on Friday would mean these students can get better value and more flexibility on when they can leave so they can either leave as soon as possible or when it is as cheap as possible.
Under the current system, students are often forced to choose between actually spending quality time with family by leaving early or attending class on Monday and Tuesday. Many students and parents of students are not comfortable doing so and as such are forced to live with a three-day break because of the two days required for transit. Other Virginia colleges such as Virginia Tech and Liberty University give the entire week of Thanksgiving off. If the administrators at Tech are forward-thinking enough to institute a long break, University leadership definitely can and should.
A longer break would be beneficial because with extra time, students would be more likely to study over break. In the current five-day break, many students — including myself — forgo studying to spend the limited time available with parents, friends and family. There is no way that students want to study on what is for many the only time they get at home for a whole semester.
What is most striking is the perversion of “Reading Days” into a break for those who live close or are willing to buy plane or train tickets home. What was originally intended as a study break for students before midterms has become an opportunity to go home only if you can. Let’s make it easier for people who live far away; even international students could justify going home if break was from Friday before Thanksgiving to the Monday after.
Such an extended break would be a boon to students before the busy weeks of finals season and after all the midterms are finished. The week-long break would provide time to relax and more adequately prepare for the final exams that are going to follow.
An extended Thanksgiving break is an opportunity for reflection and the shortness of the break stifles the potential for critical analysis of the semester so far. As the only extended break of the semester, it provides an opportunity for students to make connections and think critically about classes and academic life in general. It is very easy to get caught up in focusing on the next thing continuously. The fact that this opportunity is before finals is critical because these connections are crucial for a deeper understanding of course material in the greater context of the course.
A longer break would empower students to think critically by giving them time off from focusing on their classes so they can process the information they have acquired both consciously and unconsciously. Stepping away from a tough problem can be beneficial to understanding it or seeing it in a different light, and a longer break would allow for more of these critical connections to be made.
The cancellation of classes on Monday and Tuesday would allow University employees to get more time with their families by allowing them to do maintenance around Grounds on those days, instead of having to wait until Wednesday for students to leave. Unappreciated as University and associated workers may seem, a longer break for us also means a longer break for them.
The University often stresses the emotional and physical well-being of students and faculty, but in this case it fails to capitalize on a prime opportunity to achieve that through a longer Thanksgiving break. Instead of providing an opportunity for students to decompress before finals, the hectic break schedule actually stresses many out even more than during normal weeks.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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