Spring Break
EDITORIAL: University schedule too restrictive
Break schedule inconvenient
Editorial | 4/7/09
Posted online at 1:00 AM EST on 4/7/09
According to the regulation behind federal Title IV funds governing financial aid, Brandeis needs to hold classes for 15 weeks to qualify the school to receive federal funding, according to University Registrar Mark Hewitt. Brandeis toes that line, staying open for 65 days per semester divided evenly among days of the week-hence our "Brandeis Thursday" after break-in addition to the final exam period, which is only a week long but technically spans two academic weeks. The Office of the?Registrar, which is in charge of writing up the academic calendar, must carefully guard these 65 days. This locks up the academic calendar and limits scheduling options.
Case in point: our Passover break this year, which causes us to essentially lose two scheduled days of class because they inconvenience students hoping to have a coherent break schedule. We think it's time Brandeis started giving us more than just the barest minimum of class days. This will grant us more flexibility in scheduling our academic calendar.
This year, our Passover break ends on a Thursday, giving us a single Friday of classes wedged between a weeklong break and a weekend. It's a safe bet that classes that day won't be especially well-attended.
Also, the Passover holiday begins the night of the Wednesday before break. Observant Jews and nonobservant spring-breakers alike will be needing that Wednesday for travel time, especially if they plan on arriving before sundown, when the holiday begins. That amounts to a waste of two days because the University was unwilling to take a Wednesday or Friday from its tightly packed academic calendar.
Our suggestion is simply to hold more days of classes. We can't just tack another full week of classes onto the beginning or end of semesters because the University needs this time for summer sessions and to prep dormitories for incoming students-but a few days at the beginning or in the middle of the semester would make a world of difference. For instance we could glean a few days by shortening the winter or February breaks. We realize that there are logistics to be worked through, but the necessity of the change merits the reworking.
Case in point: our Passover break this year, which causes us to essentially lose two scheduled days of class because they inconvenience students hoping to have a coherent break schedule. We think it's time Brandeis started giving us more than just the barest minimum of class days. This will grant us more flexibility in scheduling our academic calendar.
This year, our Passover break ends on a Thursday, giving us a single Friday of classes wedged between a weeklong break and a weekend. It's a safe bet that classes that day won't be especially well-attended.
Also, the Passover holiday begins the night of the Wednesday before break. Observant Jews and nonobservant spring-breakers alike will be needing that Wednesday for travel time, especially if they plan on arriving before sundown, when the holiday begins. That amounts to a waste of two days because the University was unwilling to take a Wednesday or Friday from its tightly packed academic calendar.
Our suggestion is simply to hold more days of classes. We can't just tack another full week of classes onto the beginning or end of semesters because the University needs this time for summer sessions and to prep dormitories for incoming students-but a few days at the beginning or in the middle of the semester would make a world of difference. For instance we could glean a few days by shortening the winter or February breaks. We realize that there are logistics to be worked through, but the necessity of the change merits the reworking.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Sophomore
posted 4/07/09 @ 1:04 PM EST
Here here! It is a common oversight of the university, which goes out of its way to recruit students from across the world, to neglect to factor in travel time for student who don't have the convenience of living in Massachusetts or New York. (Continued…)
Gideon Klionsky
Gideon
posted 4/08/09 @ 5:26 AM EST
It's not just Pesach.
One other article in today's paper mentioned the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as a comparable situation. Absolutely.
Furthermore, if there's a policy of not giving off for all of the possible Jewish holidays (which was what we saw in 2007 and 2008 but fortunately not the next two years, when most of the Fall holidays are on Sat-Sun), there should be better evaluation of which days do have school. (Continued…)
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