Admin Announces the Cancellation of Spring Break: COVID-19 Continues to Change Vacation Scheduling

There have been mixed reactions to the timeframe from this semester: cutting out all long weekends, and only having two days as breaks. Some students enjoy the prospect of having a longer Christmas/Thanksgiving vacation, while others are feeling swamped by the lack of breaks. Well, despite how you may have viewed this past semester, changes are coming!

Recently an email from our president announced that spring break is canceled. Unlike fall semester, we will still have breaks and even some long weekends. Spring break has been redistributed throughout the semester to allow for one long weekend on January 18th (Monday), one on February 12th (Friday), one on March 12th (also a Friday) and one on April 5th (Monday). In addition, there are three mid-week days: February 25th (Thursday), March 23rd (Tuesday) and April 21 (Wednesday). Basically, what this does is take the week of spring break, and distributes it more or less evenly throughout the semester, so events like finals week are not affected like they were this semester and graduation is still scheduled for approximately the same time as previous years. 

The stated goal of this schedule change is to “encourage everyone to stay close to campus in order to limit the spread of coronavirus and ensure the health and safety of our campus community.” (uGroups). Given how many students have traveled this semester without so much as a long weekend, it seems questionable if this is a viable solution. Also, many students take a long weekend as an opportunity to get off campus. So does this mean that Union should change their policies? No. This means it is our turn as students to make changes. We are adults, we don't need Union to make regulations for us to act safely. Make an effort to limit close contact with people. Wear your masks, even with your friends. Limit travel when possible, and when you have to travel, stay safe, use hand sanitizer, and wear your mask! As we work together as a community we can ensure Union can stay open and we can attend in person.

Jade Covel is a Senior

Religion Major from

Topeka, Kansas