Fall break, for the past three years, has been the biggest sham on the long list of big shams at Penn. To those freshmen making plans for fall break, excited and eager to get away from here, please forgive this rude awakening: fall break is only one day long.
I, too, was once like you. My freshman year, I looked forward to fall break and anxiously made plans to spend time in New Jersey with my new friends.
It was my first chance to see the East Coast, find out whether Jersey really smells as bad as people said -- it does -- and just take some time off.
We left Thursday night, bowled, shot pool and ate in a diner the next day, completing the entire New Jersey experience.
The following day, I spent my first-ever day in New York, wide-eyed and with a kink in my neck. Even though I came from one of the largest cities in America, New York made me feel like a country bumpkin visiting the city for the very first time. The atmosphere was electrifying, and I felt alive to be a part of it, even for just a day.
However, I couldn't stay for long. Rather than chomping down on the Big Apple, with its juices dribbling down my cheeks, I barely got within sniffing distance. Fall break was only one day long.
I took SEPTA back that night to catch up on my work.
Unfortunately, Sunday wasn't enough for me to finish my work. I realized that professors weren't too understanding when it comes to compensating for fall break. After all, it was only one day long.
Not only was it just one day long, it also falls on the worst possible day of the week. Like most Penn students, I studiously avoid Friday classes, both during registration and on Thursday nights. As such, having Friday off had absolutely zero impact on my week. "Fall break" deceived me -- there is no break. I haven't had a Friday class since my first semester freshman year, and all of my weekends since then have been, and will continue to be, fall break.
Fall Break is a crock. It's only one day long!
But once upon a time, fall break was two days long, as recently as 1998. So what happened?
New Student Orientation happened. Four years ago, University administrators decided to cut a day off of fall break in order to add a day to NSO while keeping the academic calendar intact.
This is understandable. I liked NSO. It was one of the best times of my life. But did we really have to change fall break from Monday to Friday?
Fall break 1999 was a legitimate three-day weekend. More students have class on Monday, and so it made sense for students to have it, rather than Friday, off. But it was not meant to be.
The next year, fall break moved from Monday to Friday, and we commemorate the three-year anniversary of the death of fall break this weekend.
But I don't want to end here. I want to let you know that we may not have to deal with fall break-less-ness for much longer.
Deputy Provost Peter Conn asked a committee, on which I sit, headed by David Fox, the director of NSO and the Penn Reading Project, for input regarding the length of NSO. We recommended that NSO be shortened one day, to four business days centered around the weekend of Aug. 30, 2003. This recommendation will be submitted for review at the Oct. 15 meeting of the Council of Undergraduate Deans.
I'm not sure that cutting NSO is a good idea to begin with, but if the deans decide to go ahead with it, then we might be able to get our fall break back. That is, if we make it known that we want it back.
I've been pretty critical of the Undergraduate Assembly in the past, but now it has a chance to shine and really do something for its constituents.
Make the case for fall break. Get the student body some meaningful time off.
Prove me wrong. Prove us all wrong. And maybe next year, some naive freshman from Southern California will be able to spend that extra day in New York.
Jooho Lee is a junior History and Political Science major from Los Angeles, Calif.
