by McKayla Holson, Editorial Editor
I am graduating in December, so this does not really pertain to me, but let us talk about spring break.
I have always looked forward to spring break in the years I have been in college. I have never gone anywhere, I actually usually work through the entire thing, but having a lighter load of responsibilities is refreshing and always helped energize me to finish the semester strong. Spring break allows for a mental recharge that students, staff and faculty desperately need.
My two cents might not matter to most, but I think it is dumb to take away spring break. Dumb in all caps. D-U-M-B. Hear me out.
I understand wanting to keep students safe and all, but they are all going to get together and do things anyway. The best way I can think of describing what I think will happen is by comparison. Ever watch an intense movie with no comedic relief? Or read a book like that? It adds an element of stress to the mind. That is what taking away spring break will be like.
It is not just for the students, but staff and faculty as well. You think they want to spend 16 weeks straight dealing with students? No, they would lose their minds. After everything they deal with, they deserve a break.
I know the university will do what they think is best, and I am glad for that, I just hope they choose to keep the break.
I believe Northwestern would face a huge financial hit if they take away spring break as well. Students do not want to deal with something like this and a lot of them will just take the semester off or leave school entirely. Having no breaks is a deterrent. Enrollment numbers would plummet even more than what they seem to already have done.
Northwestern could wait until the spring semester begins to announce the death of spring break, but then I think the dropout rates would skyrocket.
Now, back to me believing that Northwestern is doing everything with students, staff and faculty in mind. We recently received an email that had a survey in it. I know, we get tons of those all the time and we usually do not open any of them, but this one was different. This survey asked about spring break. We were asked if we would feel safe coming back from spring break, if Northwestern should have one and so on. This is huge. The university actually took time to create and send out a survey asking us what our thoughts and opinions were. I doubt many, if any, of the other colleges in the state, or even in other states, took time to ask for opinions.
If anyone making the decisions reads this, just keep spring break. Please. I know it will be a difficult decision on your part, I am thankful I am not in your shoes, but the students deserve a break, the staff deserves a break and the faculty deserves a break. The families of these people also deserve it.