Thanksgiving Break

At our college, we structure the fall semester to include a full week off of classes the week of Thanksgiving...this works quite well for us.

Marie, Administrative Secretary, at 6:45 am EST on November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving Pilgrimage Home

We run traditional undergrad. classes on Wednesday, with the understanding that many students will choose to skip. Most professors have established maximum number of “skips,” with corresponding reductions in attendance points. Students choose.

In the adult programs, we hold no classes during the Thanksgiving week. A few professors and their students choose to meet on a Monday or Tuesday class night to keep the flow of the course moving, but only on a group consensus basis.

Don Bouchard, Director, Center for Crown Adult Programs at Crown College, at 8:20 am EST on November 21, 2007

Have we already left, too?

Judging by the lack of responses, my guess is that many of us faculty aren’t around campus today to teach classes... Yes?My experience of this Wednesday is that it’s a waste. The kids and many faculty have already checked out mentally, if not physically. Let’s all give thanks for the idea of no school today.

Stefanie, at 8:35 am EST on November 21, 2007

This year at Penn State the kids have all week off. They weren’t going to class anyway so why fight it. Administration and staffs though are hard at work still today and Friday. It’s a great week in Happy Valley because all the kids have gone home and we have the town back to ourselves for a few peaceful days.

Paul, Penn State, at 8:45 am EST on November 21, 2007

Safety in Travelling

Asking students to rush home Wednesday night for a Thursday holiday is simply irresponsible, given the state of US roads on this night. So, if you are not taking the week off, at least make Tuesday the final class day. At the last university I was at the three days off at Thanksgiving were matched with having two days (Monday-Tuesday) off for Labor Day. Thus no day-of-the-week appeared more or less often on the semester calendar and student travel was removed from the busiest (and least safe) times on the highway.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 8:45 am EST on November 21, 2007

Let’s be honest

I have worked at institutions that follow three models: 1)Faculty are not permitted to cancel classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving; 2)Wednesday is an official university holiday; and 3)Wednesday is a “regular” class day.

From the point of view of good pedagogy, by far, number 3 is the worst option. Students are simply not engaged, or they are not present physically. I teach mainly first-year students, and going home safely and quickly far outweighs whatever academic pressure we might place on them.

Option #1 is baloney from the academic freedom P.O.V. That leaves option #2, and, in my experience, that’s the most satisfactory to all.

Dave Campaigne, Freshman Seminar Director at University of South Florida, at 9:25 am EST on November 21, 2007

The Thanksgiving Break

I have seen all aspects of Higher Education. For Undergraduate I went to a small private liberal arts college where they gave Wednesday as a day off so students can travel home. For Graduate I went to the largest university in the country, most of the professors gave us an assignment to post online instead of coming to class as no one wants to go to evening 3 hour graduate classes the day before Thanksgiving. In my first three years of employment I worked at a small mid sized liberal arts college. Almost always it was a ghost town the day before the holiday and if I could take a vacation day I would. If I was on campus on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, our directors usually closed the office by 2:00. Now I work at a large public community college and to my surprise it’s not a ghost town but many staff members are calling out left and right and many people are off today. The students who do come are the devoted ones not the ones who just are here to socialize. Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Jon A, at 9:30 am EST on November 21, 2007

Wednesday

When I went to college in New England, we had Wednesday classes before Thanksgiving. It was always a mad rush to get the three hours home and the highway traffic on Wednesday was, and is, horrible. My university starts Thanksgiving vacation with Wednesday off for faculty and students. When I taught my grad class last night, Tuesday, it was a ghost town, as many cancel Tuesday classes as well (I suppose some cancel Monday too).

We also have a “fall break” in October with a Monday and Tuesday off, so I suppose this balances it off. Now, if we could only not start school in stifling mid August...

A. G. Rud, Purdue University, at 9:45 am EST on November 21, 2007

revealing

Sometimes a comment here can be truly revealing about the disconnect between certain faculty and their students, and “Sally’s” struck me just that way.

First, this professor sets herself up as the arbitrator of what is “sacred” — “not sacred as everyone seems to be treating it” — well, Wednesday is the number one day for travel in the US year, and reports says that most of those people are — in some way — “going home” — so perhaps a society, and not one academic — should get to decide what is “sacred.”

Next she presumes that since “students do not live on campus” they are “not rushing anywhere because they either live at home or close to home.” Really Sally? None of your students have families “elsewhere"? None might find it important to get to their grandparent, or an aunt or uncle’s, or to their in-laws, or to a divorced parent far away? The presumption is remarkable.

Finally, there is the mixed whine about students not getting their money’s worth AND not wanting to come to her class. That’s a confusing combination. If the students feel that they do not get enough class time, why are they asking for more time off? Is it because the class time does not have enough value to them? I learned in econ courses about opportunity cost — if a student is choosing to skip your class it means they find something else more valuable at that moment. Getting safely home might be one reason a professor can happily hear. “Doing nothing” instead of showing up might rank your course uncomfortably on the value scale.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 10:15 am EST on November 21, 2007

non-class classes

Either have the class or don’t! What seems unseemly are the joke classes for those who stick around on student-selected get-away days, or worse, colleagues who cancel classes in anticipation of low attendance, thus allowing the fly-aways to modify the syllabus for themselves and those students who might prefer actually having an already paid-for-and-scheduled class over a blank page or an april-fool quiz.

Even in this day of customer-service pandering, (for favorable faculty evaluations and bureaucratic calm), what shred of integrety/dignity remains demands, (ok, suggests), that the one-two- or three-day awol ought be either legitimized, (not a bad idea considering the travel hassles, etc.) or denied.

Does any of this matter? Only if you believe that students learn as much or more from the behavior modeled by their teachers than what they glean from their texts.

j ranelli, visiting professor at connecticut college, at 11:50 am EST on November 21, 2007

Academic Freedom P.O.V.

I read, with great interest, the response that the administration should not require or encourage faculty to teach on certain days because it violates academic freedom. I’m interested if the faculty member from Florida is aware of the state laws and statues regarding contact hours, accreditation, state funding formulas, Board of Trustees / Regents regulations, and all the other “silly” administrative rules and processes that keep schools running. The reliance by faculty on the same old saw that, “the evil, stupid, inefficient administration is violating our academic freedom” gets really, really old. I understand academic freedom extends to teaching classes in shorts, sandals, and t-shirts; to allowing romantic relationships between faculty and students; to allowing faculty to individually and collectively attack their supervisors and employers; but does academic freedom include faculty ignoring the business, student, legal, and administrative processes that allow schools to function? Perhaps there are valid reasons why faculty need to teach on Wednesday. Perhaps the same faculty vilifying work on Wednesday before Thanksgiving are the same faculty who vehemently demanded starting the term later and ending earlier to maximize their break.

Or, it could just be the need for academic freedom to do whatever you want. That is why there’s tenure, right?

Academic Administrator, at 11:50 am EST on November 21, 2007

Points vs learning

I was a bit bothered by the instructor who gives points for the special quizzes asking such questions as the color of oranges, etc. Sadly, this fortifies the immature perception that it’s not what you (the student) learns but how many points you can accumulate. If there is concern for the students who do come to class on the pre-holiday days, then make the effort really worth their time by offering better a learning experience in some way, not by patronizing them with silly irrelevant points. And I wonder if students actually think these tests are fun.

B. Davis, Eastern Kentucky University, at 11:55 am EST on November 21, 2007

I do think all the faculty need to agree

I think the last suggestion by Mr Strahilevitz is fair and wise because I had some classes canceled and one not cancled, and it really was a drag to have to stay for just one class! Then that professor got all sorts of bad reactions from his students, but he was just following university policy. So I agree everyone on campus should agree on it and stick with it. That said, I would vote they agree to cancel the Wednesday! Universities need to listen more to student needs in general.

Mia Krenin, at 12:45 pm EST on November 21, 2007

Just-for-fun quizzes

As the professor who gave silly quizzes the day before Thanksgiving, I should add that the administration required me to teach classes that day. After the brief quiz, I taught substantive material. And yes, my students got a kick out of the short respite into pure fun.

Phylis Dryden, Professor Emerita of English at Lebanon Valley College, at 1:30 pm EST on November 21, 2007

I ran across this article because the college I attend is mentioned in it. I’m sorry I did, though, because I would have liked to continue to believe that administrators and faculty spent their free time thinking about and debating things that actually matter. I can’t believe you’re really this worked up over a Wednesday.

student, really?! at College of Wooster, at 5:30 am EST on November 22, 2007

Break Policy

This is a perennial problem at most schools. In my present school, we often reserve Mondays for special activities of various kinds, and the Mondays are built in to the college calendar. Many of the students live far away from the campus. This year, the college administration, foreseeing the “Day Before Thanksgiving” problem, moved all of the Wednesday classes to Monday instead. Students were informed that their attendance was expected both Monday and Tuesday. Student attendance was normal on both days. Larry M

Larry M, Providence Christian College, at 6:10 am EST on November 24, 2007