Winter break was great. I went on a trip with my family, saw my friends from home, caught up on sleep and had a great time. But then I still had two weeks left. That was fine, I still had other friends from liberal arts schools so I saw them for longer than I did in high school. Then they went back to school. But I still had a week left.
Winter break is too long.
After a semester of school and finals it only seems logical that students would want to get away from school for as long as possible, but in this case, more isn’t always better. Winter break should be a break, not an eternity, and the four week break here is too much.
Cutting two weeks off of winter break and adding it to the end of the academic calendar would be in the best interests of the students, staff, professors, and coaches.
The summer is a great time, and for many students it is the only time to earn money and start to chip away at the thousands of dollars in debt we are accumulating. In a competitive job market the ability to start working weeks before other college students have finished school for the year is a benefit too good to pass up.
Many private schools employ a similar winter break schedule. New York University uses a two week break.
“Two weeks is perfect,” NYU freshman Phil Rogers said. “I got to see friends and family over break, but it wasn’t too long. I’ve already gotten two job offers for this summer and I can make more money this coming summer then any summer in high school.”
The University of Michigan is another school that uses a two week system to the benefit of its students.
“At first I thought two weeks was too short,” University of Michigan freshman Andrew Suzuki said. “But I already have a job lined up because we get out of school at the end of April. My boss said that he wouldn’t have been able to hire me if I got out in the middle of May or later so the short break ended up being a blessing in disguise.”
Professors also benefit from an extended break. Two extra weeks of continuous vacation provides more time for research and writing while giving the school year a more continuous flow that is absent with the extended break in the current schedule.
The four week vacation forced the men’s basketball team to play seven games while school was out; the women’s team played eight. The swim teams had three meets over break. While less time off would not eliminate all of the games over winter break, it would reduce them and end the unfair requirement for winter athletes to give up their vacations.
The current schedule appears to protect spring sports while hurting winter sports. In reality, spring sports would be almost un-affected by a change in the academic calendar.
The men’s and women’s tennis seasons end April 16, the men’s and women’s golf seasons end April 23, the softball season ends April 17, the lacrosse season ends April 1, the baseball season ends May 1 and the crew seasons end April 30.
Participants in spring sports would be unaffected. Winter sport athletes wouldn’t be forced to give up their winter breaks. Students would have two more weeks to work over the summer and would be more attractive to potential employers as they could start earlier in the summer.
I spent the last two weeks of my winter vacation counting down the days until I came back to campus. There are only so many trips to the grocery store I can make. Wasting two weeks waiting for school to start when I could use them earning money or gaining work experience doesn’t make sense.