Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays in the United States, and students should reasonably expect to be able to travel away from campus to join family and friends on this festive day. Yet, because of Princeton's academic calendar, which includes classes officially scheduled to last until 10:20 p.m. on the eve of Thanksgiving, organizational and travel headaches abound. Professors frequently reschedule classes on the day before Thanksgiving, often resulting in reduced instructional hours as two class sessions are combined. Professors who do not reschedule class meetings face very poor attendance at their Wednesday lectures. As a result, the day is characterized not by productive learning, but rather by wasted time and confusion.
Scheduling classes on the day prior to Thanksgiving creates especially significant problems for students who want to fly home. To obtain reasonable airfares, travelers typically must book flights that leave before Wednesday evening, and they must make their reservations by the end of August. Before students arrive on campus and meet with their professors and classmates, however, students usually cannot know whether courses will be rescheduled. By the time they learn of their professors' decisions it is frequently too late to purchase economical plane tickets. These considerations are particularly important for students receiving financial aid.
Though the University has tabled discussions regarding significant calendar reform, the administration should take swift action to correct this small yet vexatious problem. Classes already begin on a Thursday to compensate for lost instructional days during the Thanksgiving holiday. If classes were instead begun on a Wednesday to allow for an extended Thanksgiving break, many students' holiday problems and professors' scheduling worries could be alleviated without causing any new inconvenience. The Housing Department could take the opportunity presented by this earlier start date to reinstate its policy of allowing returning students to move in a week before classes start. Finally, this change would allow all lecture courses to meet once before the first weekend of the semester and would thus enable professors who teach classes on Mondays and Wednesdays to arrange precepts for the first full week of classes.
Because this change promises to bring significant benefit at no apparent cost, the administration and the faculty should seek to implement this proposal with all reasonable haste. By eliminating all classes on the day before Thanksgiving, clarity and uniformity will be lent to class schedules, and students will be able to easily travel home to their families. With any luck, you will not be reading this paper on this day next year.
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