DU is a unique university in many ways, but nothing reminds us more of our singularity than returning to classes after a six-week winter break. While some students utilize the lengthy break better than others, many would forgo a week or two in exchange for a longer spring or summer break. However, there is no easy solution to switching the format of our academic calendar to satisfy these desires. Simply put, our winter break is too long, but we shouldn’t put great efforts into changing it anytime soon.
Before continuing, I should clarify that I am a transfer student who attended The George Washington University last year, which has a semester-based academic calendar. As a result, I’ve experienced both a quarter and semester calendar. From what I’ve seen, in addition to what I’ve heard from students at both universities, there is no great need for a drawn-out winter break.
There are some concerns that holding class after Thanksgiving would cause more stress in students over the holiday, however I never saw an issue with this. Professors often understand the holidays are a time for family and respect that. However, many students at The George Washington University (myself included) chose to remain on-campus during Thanksgiving break without much inconvenience.
Students also praise the long break as an opportunity to pursue work, travel, internship, and volunteer experiences. However, students can travel, work and volunteer in 4 weeks or 6 weeks. In fact, our later release date in the summer can be more of a hindrance to internship and work opportunities than the supposed gains in the winter. A shorter winter break would be a worthy sacrifice for an earlier release date for spring quarter.
Moreover, we have just a one-week spring break separating winter and spring quarters. Clearly, students could use a longer spring break if we truly need a recovery period between quarters. This could also be a time more worthy of a break than the already-lengthy winter break.
There is one compelling argument regarding a winter break, though, that shows exactly why our academic calendar has yet to change. Noreen Malone, writing for Slate, explains the argument while discussing the origin of the long winter break.
“In the 1970s, when many academic institutions found themselves in dire fiscal straits … administrators realized that if they altered the calendar, they could reduce spending,” said Malone in her article. “By shutting their doors for a month or more over the winter holidays, they saved significantly on heating costs at a time when oil prices were cripplingly high.”
Our extra week of winter break helps to increase these savings. Furthermore, adjusting the winter break would likely translate to an extra week of classes following Thanksgiving. Campus would accordingly have to remain open an extra two weeks compared to our current calendar to accommodate for students choosing to stay on-campus during Thanksgiving break. This would translate to even higher costs than adding just one week, in addition to a nightmare of administrative adjustments to move around Thanksgiving break.
It’s unlikely that DU could overcome these costs. One option could be to keep campus open over the entire winter break and either host conferences or allow students to pay extra to stay in the residence halls. DU could also pursue that option with the extra time early in summer break. Ultimately, though, a change to adjust our winter break would require a huge change in academic calendar.
A shorter winter break could be advantageous, but it should not be on the forefront of DU’s administrational plans. However, if intentions to change the academic calendar of the university appear at some point, DU administration should consider an academic calendar that favors a shorter winter break in exchange for a longer spring or summer break.
