By Julia Oller | Echo
The turkey won't be carved for another week, but many Taylor students start their holiday celebrations days before break officially begins on Wednesday.
Some students skip Monday, Tuesday or even Friday classes, choosing to miss or make up tests or projects in order to stuff in a few extra vacation days.
Thanksgiving break and other components of the Taylor academic calendar-the beginning and end of the semester, even the time chapel is held-are determined by the Academic Policies Committee (APC). They schedule all dates for the next five years and then submit the calendar to all faculty for a vote before final approval.
Connie Lightfoot, dean of the School of Social Sciences, Education and Business, said that merging the guidelines set in the Academic Calendar Policy with actual dates in the year is challenging.
"There are so many rules, it's amazing," Lightfoot said.
The APC considered removing fall break and adding the extra day onto Thanksgiving break. Because Labor Day and fall break already take a toll on Monday and Friday classes, however, giving a week of vacation would lead to a disproportionate number of Tuesday/Thursday classes. According to Provost Jeff Moshier, additional class days would need to be added somewhere else to make up the deficit.
Lightfoot said that even if Thanksgiving break lasted an entire week, students would still check out and leave early.
"There is no perfect calendar because whenever the last (day) is people like to push it back," Lightfoot said.
Manager of Technology Services Nick Corduan, who teaches a Tuesday night class, calls the phenomenon "vacation creep."
"I think if we were to give Tuesday off they would want to travel on Monday and if we were to give the whole week off they'd want to be traveling on the Friday before the weekend," Corduan said.
Four of his 29 students have told him that they won't be in class, but most who skip don't inform their professors in advance. Corduan scheduled an in-class assignment and two major projects for Tuesday, but he doesn't think that will encourage his students to stick around.
Sophomore Megan Harkness doesn't think the time slot for Thanksgiving break is unreasonable, although she wouldn't complain about more time off. Even so, she plans to head home on Monday night after getting permission from the professor of her Tuesday class.
Each professor decides how to handle the inevitable student exodus in the days before break. Some professors, like Corduan, allow students to make up missed assignments but continue class while others cancel class or allow students to skip.
Either way, Lightfoot said it's difficult for professors to deal with empty classrooms.
"It is frustrating for the faculty, especially in a smaller class," she said. "It's hard to move forward, but for the students who are there you want it to be worthwhile. It's really a quandary."
Whether students skip one class or 10, Moshier said their absence means more than missed assignments.
"I think students should ask themselves how their decision to skip classes impacts the learning community," Moshier said. "We come together to learn from each other, and that learning experience is diminished when students absent themselves from class."
By leaving early, Taylor students say school might be important, but for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.
