Students head for warmer temperatures

Students are heading for rays of sun and warmer temperatures as Saturday marks the beginning of spring break. Students have been looking forward to next week during the past months of an abnormally harsh winter in Bloomington.\nSTA Travel Manager Erika Funston said with the current world situation, students are taking more risks by travelling to farther and more obscure places. Funston said some of her customers have had the mindset of "I'm young, why not?"\nFunston said business has increased in the past month, and students have been tying loose ends this past week. \n"There have been a lot more last minute people in the past," she said.\nSTA Travel will still operate under regular business hours over break.\n"We're trying to push summer plans now," Funston said.\nFunston said an unusually popular place for spring break plans this year are the Bahamas. Mexico is also a prominent vacation spot, including Acapulco and a common college favorite, Cancun.\nSenior Erinn Thiele is spending her last spring break as a college student in New Orleans. Thiele said she is looking forward to the warmer weather in the South. \n"Anything is warmer than Indiana right now," Thiele said. "I'm sick of this weather."\nOther students are leaving campus, but headed home. \nSophomore John Palmer said the advantages of going home for spring break are home-cooked meals, sleeping in, few obligations and seeing old friends. \nMany professors who are also eager for a break sometimes cancel their classes in the remaining days before spring break. Assistant instructor Heather Haffner cancelled her comparative literature class Thursday afternoon.\n"Normally I don't cancel class," Haffner said, "but my students have been working pretty hard so I figured if I give them a day off, it gives me a day off."\nHaffner described cancelling class as a mutual advantage for both teachers and students.\n"I cancelled class the same reason a student would want to cancel class -- my spring break started early," she said. "Most people would skip anyway, you might as well cancel it than having to deal with it."\nThe residence halls close at 10 a.m. Saturday morning and will reopen at 8 a.m. Sunday, March 23.