Situated between the chaos of midterms and the impending stress of finals, Thanksgiving offers a coveted opportunity for Brunonians to visit loved ones and take time off from our campus commitments. But Brown’s academic calendar provides only three days off during the week of Thanksgiving. Although this break was extended by half a day compared to previous years, it still presents a frustrating obstacle for students hoping to travel home for the holiday, barely offering enough time for students to rest before returning to College Hill. By adopting a weeklong break, the University would provide all students and faculty with a well-deserved respite from academic life.
It is no secret that many students take the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving as an unofficial break. In response, some professors hold classes online or cancel them altogether. It is nearly impossible to know which classes will be held and which will be canceled, making it difficult to iron out Thanksgiving travel plans before plane, train or bus tickets get absurdly expensive. In effect, some students end up staying on campus without any classes to attend, while others leave early even if they still have scheduled classes. Furthermore, professors following the academic calendar and holding class before Thanksgiving may be left in near-empty classrooms, spending valuable time teaching only a handful of students. It’s a lose-lose situation.
The current calendar is especially stressful for the majority of students who are not from the Northeast and might have to coordinate long flights to get home for the holidays. Three days off is not enough time to make such tedious travel worthwhile, and as a result, many of these students — especially those who live abroad — may feel discouraged from going home at all. All Brunonians deserve to see their families during the fall semester, whether or not they celebrate Thanksgiving.
While most other Ivies, like Columbia and Harvard, give students three days off from classes, it would not be unprecedented for Brown to schedule a weeklong recess. Yale undergraduates, for example, get the entire week of Thanksgiving to travel home, visit loved ones and relax before finals. Princeton cancels classes for a week in October. In comparison, our academic calendar only provides a short Thanksgiving vacation and a single day off for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. An extended Thanksgiving break could be valuable in combating burnout, which accumulates more as we approach the end of the semester.
This past spring, the faculty voted against extending Thanksgiving break, citing limited instructional time and concerns about delaying finals. However, the University could easily offset two additional days off by starting the semester slightly earlier. That shift might mean adjusting New Student Orientation or convocation, but such a minor sacrifice would go a long way toward improving student well-being. A weeklong break would recognize the realities of travel, burnout and the simple need for rest — and it’s something many in the Brown community would be thankful for.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, and its views are separate from those of The Herald’s newsroom and the 135th Editorial Board, which leads the paper. A majority of the editorial page board voted in favor of this piece. Please send responses to this editorial to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
