Reclaiming Winter Break

Princetonians, mark your calendars. Our 2015 winter break has been reduced to two weeks.

The debate on the length of winter break is annual; the Editorial Board and many opinion columnists have argued for an adjusted calendar during years when the winter break was three weeks long. With next year in mind, I call for the University to decide what is best for students; if the policy of final exams after break is actually beneficial for students, the University should give students the full three weeks of winter break.

The academic calendar is determined three years in advance and follows certain rules according to the Office of the Registrar: the fall term defines a “midterm recess of nine days and a Thanksgiving recess of five days.” The winter recess is defined “between seventeen and twenty-four days, beginning between December 12thand 18thof the ending year, and ends on the Sunday between January 1stand 7th.” Therein lies the discrepancy of one week. It is this metronomic rule that fluctuates by a whole winter’s week that should be reexamined.

This reduced break will unequivocally hinder all students. Members of the faculty have argued that the best written work comes in the fall semester because of the break and the time it allows students to truly work through their essay topics. This may be true, but now, with only two weeks, students will be held to the same standards without the same amount of time. Further, seniors wishing to conduct thesis research over winter break will have less time than their predecessors did. (As a rising senior, this is my most immediate concern.) Finally, international students whose longer flights and farther destinations will suffer logistically from less time at home, especially because most international students do not return home during fall, spring or Intersession breaks.

I personally believe our calendar should be revised to have final exams before winter break. There is no lack of examples of peer institutions whose calendars, once challenged, were changed. In 2008, Harvard moved its finals to December.

Some point to the opportunity of reading period as a reason to keep exams where they are, that students can thaw the freeze-dried studying we avoided during the break. However, the strange schedule we acclimate to during winter break — juggling free time, holidays and the gnawing feeling of impending deadlines — cannot be helpful for our sanity or test scores. Some argue that reading period benefits students’ ability to recall information by having a week devoted to studying. I contend this, especially for students in language classes; the break is detrimental as most students do not have access to the face-to-face speaking and listening time of the classroom during winter break.

Additionally, the month of January aligns with deadlines for internships and jobs, including many funding and fellowship opportunities offered by the University. While Princeton students are taking finals and working on independent work, our peers at other institutions are privileged with a head start on the search.

If our finals are to remain after the winter break, there should at least be consistency in the length of the break. If administrators agree that student happiness should be taken into account, then they should work with the Undergraduate Student Government and take a comprehensive look at student reasoning to revisit the calendar. If administrators argue that students benefit from finals after break, then they should give them enough time to semi-enjoy it. Two weeks is not enough. Princeton, take your pick.