Catching the red-eye

If you're reading this right now, chances are good that you are sitting in a nearly empty classroom, dining hall or some other lonely location on Penn's campus.

It is well known that much, if not most, of the undergraduate student body leaves campus at least one day earlier than when Thanksgiving break officially begins -- at the end of classes today.

This schedule poses a problem for many students who do not live within driving distance of Philadelphia. It is challenging for students who live near the West Coast to go to class and get home at a reasonable time. A 2 p.m. class could translate into a 2 a.m. arrival time. For those unfortunate enough to have late-afternoon or evening classes, even getting home in time for Thanksgiving dinner may be a problem.

Based on the number of students this affects, the University should, in the future, cancel classes on the day before Thanksgiving.

Many professors have already realized this and canceled classes on their own. This should allay fears about the most common objection to adding a day off, which is losing a day of instruction. The fact that those who actually do the teaching are canceling class on their own speaks volumes about the fallacy of the current scheduling policy.

There are intermediate alternatives that could be considered, as well. Some schools, including Brown and Cornell, are holding classes only until the early afternoon. This still gives students a large window of time in which to schedule flights.

It is obviously too late to enact this change for this year. But there is no reason that the situation cannot be fixed for next fall. For a modification such as this there is no reason for the University's calendar to be set in stone, as no student would be adversely affected.

If students know class should be canceled and the faculty knows that class should be canceled, it is high time for the administration to figure this out.

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