Photo courtesy of Ramapo College, Flickr
Ramapo announced a few months back that we would not be getting a spring break this upcoming semester due to COVID-19. Instead, we will get an extra week of winter break. I have heard some schools are petitioning for random days off throughout the semester, but Ramapo students, to my knowledge, have not done something of the sort.
Taking away a spring break was a good idea, just because it keeps people from traveling and possibly spreading COVID. However, having no breaks in the spring semester is honestly quite terrifying and stressful.
I do agree with the fact that Ramapo should take away spring break for the specific reason of stopping college students from traveling and spreading COVID-19, but they could have possibly moved the break to later in the spring. They then could have had everyone move off of campus and be completely virtual for the continuation of the semester. Of course, I do not know how difficult this would be for the school to actually do, but it could function how the end of the fall semester currently is.
Adding an additional week to winter break does not help many students. Spring break is often seen as a much-needed break, and an extra week in the winter does not really feel the same.
Some students from other universities have created petitions to have random long weekends rather than an extra week before the spring semester. I think that this would be a great idea; I would rather have a long weekend every couple of weeks so we can all get a break here and there.
The lack of a break in the spring semester sounds intimidating and stress inducing already. This just means that we as a student body will have to get through the semester with no breaks that give us a chance to breathe, take a step back from school and relax our mental health.
Stopping the spread of COVID-19 and giving people less of a chance to travel is a good reason to cancel the break, but college is no easy feat, and we need to have a break from our busy schedules.
One possible solution could be that individual professors could tell students that they can have a day off of class. All of this would be done on the professor’s terms. I am sure that professors would like a day off here and there as well: it would be hard to believe that they do not want a spring break.
I am just another student who wants a break from classes during the spring semester. But, if we get no breaks throughout the semester, we will make it through.
agiampag@ramapo.edu
