By Lee L. Benbow
The University of Puget Sound announced last Wednesday that, due to a meeting for the Board of Trustees, spring break is now canceled. Students were dismayed and some canceled their Airbnbs, while others debated whether to skip a week of class or lose the down payment for their rental in Cabo. The Flail sent reporters to investigate the disappearance of spring break, and the surprising correlation to Board of Trustee meetings and school occuring.
The news of this spread like wildfire, hitting students while they were down. Many students had expected a snow day earlier in February, but to no avail as there was a Board of Trustees meeting that day at noon. The Flail interviewed some of these students to see how they were coping with the loss of spring break. First-year Jackie Pence was disheartened, as she had plans to go to Canada. Pence shared with us, “I’m sad about not having break, but what made it worse was that I was still recovering from the day that should have been a snow day a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t done my homework, slept through my 8 a.m. and didn’t have time to water my succulent so it died.”
Other students were not as let down by the lack of a snow day, but focused their disappointment on spring break. Junior Michael Jackson spoke of how this spring break was going to be the time he finally started a bullet journal: “I had my pens set out and got some cool tape from JoAnn Fabrics, and then this comes along and now I will never get to start my journal and reach my full potential.” The common narrative running throughout the majority of students was one of stolen time and canceling of plans. Even a couple professors were seen grumbling over the change in plans.
The Flail understands that this is not an ideal situation, but in an effort to provide fair representation, we found a student who benefitted from this last minute change: Eventually, sophomore Jake Sartorius. “I’m honestly pretty stoked about the extra week; I was uber bummed to go a week without having my bowling class. Shout out to Trustees for having my back!” The Flail tried to be happy for him, but failed as he gave off an overly positive vibe, and we felt like he had been paid by the Board to spread this positive propaganda.
The Flail attempted to reach out to the mysterious Board of Trustees to understand the method they use to schedule meetings and gauge their reactions to this change. Unfortunately, none of the members were willing to go on the record. One member who wished to remain anonymous muttered, “This is all part of my elaborate plan to get back at the students of the University who didn’t invite me on their spring break trip to Canada freshman year. I got them so good.” The Flail didn’t really understand what they meant by that but nodded really quick and skirted out of that situation.
As spring break would have begun next week, students who had plans of sun and sand must mentally prepare for a week of rain and classes. Self care and meditation will be #essentials in order to prevent burnout and bad vibes. It is most important in this time of despair to reflect on how the students of Puget Sound just finessed a week of free classes without a tuition hike, jokes of the Board of Trustees.