Winter break next academic year will be a week shorter as part of normal cycle

The academic year will start a week later next year, and winter break will be a week shorter, according to the 2015-16 academic calendar. Winter break will return to its normal length the following year.

The yearly variations in the start date of the academic year and length of winter recess is dictated by rules set by a faculty committee, University Registrar Polly Griffin said, noting that the academic year begins on the Wednesday between Sept. 10-16.

“If you look at academic calendars online, you’ll see that every fall the date for the first day of classes progresses until Sept. 16, and then it falls back to Sept. 10,” she noted.

A comparison of the available academic calendars reveals that a shortened winter recess leads to an earlier end of the final examination period, but there is no additional study time to complement the studying students might do over winter recess. The calendar is implemented such that fall-term examinations always end on a Saturday, which proceeds the mandated eight-day break.

This year there is a relatively late start date to classes in September and a long 24-day winter break, while in some years classes may start up to six days earlier and the winter break may be as short as 17 days.

Winter break begins after the conclusion of the last class exercise on the Friday between Dec. 12-18 and ends on the Sunday between Jan. 2-8, she added.

Winter break always varies in length from 17 to 24 days, she explained, adding that the midterm recess is nine days in length, Thanksgiving recess is always five days, fall reading period is nine days, the examination period is 11 days and the semester break is eight days.

The variation in the Gregorian calendar happened to push back the start of the academic year to Sept. 16 for 2015-16 at the same time as this variation reduced winter recess from 24 days in length this academic year — including the days on the calendar annotated “Winter recess begins after last class” and “Winter recess ends” — to 17 days next academic year.

These lengths were thus not determined by an individual or committee, however, the faculty defines the principles for the development of the academic calendar more generally, Griffin noted.

Nonetheless, some students have expressed concern about the scheduling situation next year, and some faculty members and then-University President Shirley Tilghman have expressed reservations to the ‘Prince’ in the past about the fall academic calendar more generally.

Dean of the College Valerie Smith, who chairs the faculty committee that defines these principles, deferred comment to Griffin.

“[The exam schedule] is the biggest thing for me,” Catherina Pan ’18 said. “If they move [winter recess] back one week, how does that affect our exam times? ... I don’t mind [the University's methods] as long as they provide actual reasoning.”

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Kevin Wang ’17 criticized the coherence of the fall academic calendar as a whole.

“I think our whole system with fall break could use improvement,” he said. “I don't like having finals after winter break ... It'd be nice if we started school a couple weeks earlier.”

The University's current system was first implemented in the 1939-40 academic year. Harvard's calendar closely mirrored the University's until 2009, when administrators at Harvard synchronized the calendars of its different schools and brought final exams from January to December.

“A lot of Harvard students were making this their biggest issue, whereas some Princeton students seem to be quite happy with what we have,” Nannerl Keohane, then-professor of public affairs, who is also a member of the Harvard Corporation, said in 2012. “There were petitions and visits to the President’s office. No one was being unpleasant, but everyone was saying that this really mattered.”

Winter recess will be 24 days long in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years. Classes will begin on Sept. 14 in 2016 and Sept. 13 in 2017.