Give students a break

W hile most other citizens of Philadelphia enjoyed a day off from work yesterday, Penn students and faculty continued to pile into classrooms and fill lecture halls. For yet another year, the University has decided to buck common practice around the nation and keep the school open on Presidents Day, while the banks were closed, stacks of mail sat undelivered by the post office and businesses were closed around the city.

This is just one of the many parts of the University's academic calendar that lacks common sense.

The period of time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day in early January and the beginning of spring break is one of the longest uninterrupted stretches of the school year. And with the cold weather, the stretch is even tougher.

Having Monday off would allow students time to catch up on any homework or simply take time to relax. The spring semester, especially February, can be incredibly stressful for Penn students; A holiday would do wonders for students' stress levels.

And more importantly, everyone else in the city gets the day off -- why shouldn't Penn students and faculty?

The administration would surely point out in its own defense that the only other one-day holiday of spring semester is also a Monday, meaning that Monday classes would meet fewer times than those that meet on other days if classes were canceled.

Yet classes end on April 21 this year -- a Friday, of course. That means that the University could simply take Presidents Day off and move the academic calendar forward by one day.

This could easily solve the dilemma.

Penn officials have previously claimed before that the three-year academic calendars are already firmly set and cannot be changed.

On the contrary, a change in the schedule would do little harm. But an additional holiday, right in the middle of winter when students -- and likely faculty, too -- need it the most, would be fantastic.

And having some time to honor American presidents wouldn't be so bad, either.

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