Labor Day may be a day off in the fall

Faculty and students share the same perennial gripe each fall: Why are there classes on Labor Day? It's not unusual for IU to receive over a thousand complaints about this one calendar issue in a year. \nThe Bloomington Faculty Council heard a proposal Tuesday that would grant students and staff a day off on Labor Day and week-long vacation over Thanksgiving.\nIn exchange, however, summer vacation would be a week shorter to accommodate the extra days. The fall semester would also be two days longer. \nThe BFC will open the vote on the proposal to all IU faculty members in a rare campus-wide faculty referendum. The final tally will be counted May 3. \nBFC member Barry Rubin said there seems to be a consensus for a Labor Day holiday among the faculty. They "consistently" don't like to bother with classes on the holiday, he said.\nBut Rubin was not convinced that lengthening the first semester in exchange would pass a council vote. He conducted his own informal survey of faculty in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and found opinion to be equally divided.\n"About half thought it was wonderful," he said. "The other 50 percent have a variety of good reasons to oppose it." \nHe said adding an extra week will impact the time usually reserved for freshman orientation. Also, it means one less week for faculty research, which is typically done in the summer. \nBFC member Abhijit Basu said the changes will interfere with laboratory scheduling in the science departments. A Labor Day respite occurring during the second week of school will make lab requirements difficult. \n"It is not the extra days, but the interruption," he said. "It breaks up the continuity of the weeks, and we won't have meaningful labs." \nBasu also noted the proposal forces the physical plant to squeeze its repair work of classrooms and residence halls into fewer days.\nAssociate Dean of Faculties Kim Smith explained some of the proposal's benefits to the BFC members. Many students leave early for Thanksgiving and skip the Monday and Tuesday before break, she said. Giving students the full week off would alleviate this problem. Because Labor Day is a national holiday, much of the campus services are limited as well. \nThe 2002-03 and the 2003-04 academic years are set to begin on Labor Day. Any changes in the academic calendar will not go into effect until fall 2003.