A glance at the University calendar reveals the reason for those extra days off of class on Monday and Tuesday: Reading Holiday.
Yet what started out as chance for students to study -- and breathe -- prior to midterm season has morphed into a freebie extended weekend known to students and faculty alike as fall break.
"The original intent, if my memory serves me correctly, was to give students an opportunity to not have class to decompressurize -- is that a word? -- to play catch-up on their reading, and sort of take a mental health break," said Angela Davis, associate dean of students and director of residence life. "For some reason we cannot seem to throw off the old language of 'fall break.'"
The break was initially targeted to first-year students, Davis said, who might feel overwhelmed at this point in the school year.
"I think people in CAPS [Counseling and Psychological Services] and the Dean of Students Office started talking about trying to take some of the pressure off of students during the first semester," Davis said. "And so we came up with the language of fall Reading Days. I'm always correcting my colleagues, some of whom weren't here in the language change. 'Not fall break, fall Reading Days!' I asked my interns 'Are you catching up on your reading?' They said, 'No, we're going away.'"
What may have encouraged this evolution is that the bulk of students' exams have shifted to pre-break (or pre-holiday, if you prefer) week instead of post-break.
First-year College student Shi-shi Wang said she has two exams this week and only one after the break.
Put in situations similar to Wang's, many students treat the long weekend as a compressed vacation instead of a time to study.
Wang, however, is treating it as both.
"One of my suitemates invited me to go to D.C. with her, but of course I'm bringing my books with me because I have a lot of things to catch up on," Wang said.
She said the break is a good idea, even if students don't use the time to study.
"There's just so much to do here, and you have to manage your time," she said. "It's not like there's a specific schedule."
Some faculty members agree that transforming study time into resting time isn't a bad thing.
"The exams are now clustering before the break, which I think is a good idea because people can get it over with and crash," Anthropology Prof. Marion Ross said. "The faculty has to work all through fall break, but at least they're not grading papers on top of teaching"
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