Planning to go home for Easter? Think again. With the University in session on the Christian holidays of Good Friday and Easter Monday, students said they found the Easter holiday to be much shorter than it should be.
"I think having the Monday off after Easter would be helpful for people who choose to go home," third-year Engineering student Mimi Krauss, who is Jewish, said.
Third-year College student Davar Irvani, who is Muslim, said he believes there should be an Easter holiday for those students who wish to use the time for studying purposes.
"It would be nice to have another short holiday in the spring," Irvani said. "The fall semester has reading day as well as Thanksgiving. A short holiday in April would definitely make the semesters more balanced. A reading day on the Easter weekend would allow a lot more students to go home or catch up before exams in May."
Krauss said she doesn't find it problematic if the University got time off to observe the Christian holiday.
"I don't think having time off would be problematic for students of other religions," Krauss said. "But it would help if teachers would be more aware of other holidays like Passover, though, when assigning work. It is difficult to get all my work done on time and observe the holidays."
Irvani said having time off for Easter should not be equated with having time off for other religious holidays.
"I think it makes sense to have an Easter break due to its timing, not for its religious aspect" Irvani said. "Otherwise, I think it would be a bit ridiculous to get a break for every major religious holiday. If we got time off for all of the Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Shinto and Rastafarian holidays, I doubt we'd be spending very much time at college."
Second-year College student Austin Drake, who is Christian, also commented on the difficulty in managing the number of different religions and their holidays of the student body.
"I agree with not having an Easter break, because there are a lot of denominations here," Drake said. "During Christmas it makes sense to have a long break since so many religions have holidays around the same time, and that's why it is Holiday Break rather than Christmas Break."
Irvani also said the lack of a holiday on Easter weekend is an example of the University's usual treatment of holidays for scheduling purposes -- except for Thanksgiving that is.
"I think U.Va. has a reputation for being quite stingy about its holidays," Irvani said. "Being a public school, one would think that we would get the public holidays off. Perhaps the way for the University to give us an Easter break is for no one to go to class on Good Friday?"
Krauss said she does not find the University to be lacking in holidays, but rather sees the need to increase awareness regarding the meaning of the holidays.
"I think we are on equal footing with most public universities when it comes to religious holiday observances," Krauss said. "I think it's more important to have programs and activities about holidays than to necessarily have the day off."
Drake said he is happy with the University's policies on holidays.
"I don't think U.Va. is stingy at all, especially compared to some other schools," Drake said. "Compared to my friend at University of Georgia, we get really good breaks. It seems like he's at school all year round with these short breaks all the time. I'd much rather get long breaks, get bored and want to come back then get burnt out."
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