A fall break for freshmen is not a real fall break

Fall in Bloomington is nothing short of magical.

It’s the time of the year when the last vestiges of academic commitment and responsibility melt away so day drinking can begin in earnest.

The promise of Halloween, looming tantalizingly on the horizon, elevates petty vandalism into a community hobby.

Elsewhere, teams of fashion design majors, the unsung heroes of the holiday, work tirelessly to ensure that every costume worn Halloween night would scandalize the Mata Hari.

When I first heard that IU, in its infinite wisdom, had added a fall break, I was genuinely excited.

This meant I could take a well-deserved break from ignoring schoolwork to commit sundry misdemeanors and go about my drinking and petty crime undistracted.
I was so excited that I immediately forgot about fall break again.

Being a senior has many hazards, but perhaps the most serious is that you become so used to the way things have been for the last three years that you develop a tendency to ignore changes to campus policy.

The first four or five times someone reminded me about this new break, I felt a mixture of surprise, excitement and joy in much the same way a goldfish might feel after discovering a new corner of the aquarium. 

Unfortunately, I was foolishly operating on the assumption that this break was going to be implemented in a way that wasn’t asinine.

I don’t know why I assumed that.

My point is that nothing killed my enthusiasm faster than finding out what exactly our fall break entailed.

Also, goldfish are stupid.

The decision to give us Friday off boggles the mind.

Even Purdue got a real fall break, this Monday and Tuesday off.

Don’t get me wrong, I was planning on skipping those classes anyway, but I’m one of the rare upper classmen with a Friday class at all.

According to a survey taken last year, only about half of juniors and seniors have a Friday class, with that number rising to about 75 percent for sophomores. 

If we are going to have a fall break, it ought to be something that we as a campus and community can share.

We’ve endured for a very long time without a fall break, and there’s no sense extending the academic calendar for something a sizable percentage of the campus won’t be able to appreciate.

A single, token and comparatively meaningless day off just seems
insulting.

­— stefsoko@indiana.edu