COLUMN: Make breaks easier on students

USD students get around 28 days of winter break per year. Unfortunately, only three of them aren’t spent stranded in airports.         

I’m exaggerating, of course, but by the time students finish exams and travel home, whether it is as close as Yankton, or as far as Anchorage, Akaska, there’s not much time left before Christmas. Rather than having students missing out on the holidays and risking travel while the rest of the country is traveling, it’s time to lengthen the semester break and relax.

Our break starts a week before Christmas, whereas most universities start their breaks two weeks before Christmas. USD also starts the fall semester a week later than most schools. By starting fall semester week earlier, we could add a week to the break without affecting spring semester. It would mean a shorter summer vacation, but it would reduce the hassles of traveling during the holidays.

The busiest travel day for the Chicago O’Hare hub was Dec. 23, a day some students may still be traveling. Even if they aren’t, that doesn’t mean that Dec. 19, 20 or 21 will be that much less busy. Shortening the vacation by a week will mean that students won’t fly at the same time as the majority of other holiday travelers. Students who live in state won’t have to drive during a week when other South Dakotans might be driving to other parts of the state, or neighboring states. 

Weather was a major problem this holiday travel season as two major storms shut down airport hubs all over the country. For student drivers, it was slow going depending on where they were. For students flyers, it was almost impossible to get anywhere on time. My trip home was supposed to take about 10 hours, leaving Saturday. I arrived home on Tuesday. It took four days and two expensive hotels stays to get home thanks to the storm. Pushing the vacation date up doesn’t protect us from the weather, but even if travelers are delayed at least they have more time with their families. 

The luckiest students got to go home on the 15th, for those of us who aren’t lucky jerks; we had maybe a week to be home before Christmas started. An earlier vacation means that even if have exams all week and we are delayed for days, we’ll still get back with about a week or so before Christmas, rather than three days.

South Dakota has some weird idiosyncrasies about how it schedules its school breaks.  Not only does the summer break end a week later than most other universities the spring break begins a week earlier than other states. If this plan changes the break length, students will have to decide if it’s worth it or not. It probably won’t affect spring break, as taking time from the first week of winter break and the last week of summer break will mean that second semester is completely unaffected.

For those interested in an earlier, longer winter break, a petition will be posted on The Volante blog and a resolution sent the SGA. Students will no longer have to worry about coming home a few days before Christmas, even after weather and exams, we won’t travel during the peak season, and Jewish students will be slightly more likely to be home during the holidays.  This is only the beginning of a long process to change the holiday break, but with any luck, soon our vacations what they’re supposed to be, relaxing.

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