By planes, trains, and automobiles, Hoyas from all across the country will be wending their way home for Thanksgiving in just a few short days. Too bad the University’s schedule only accounts for travel plans that involve going over the river and through the woods. In light of the far distances that many Hoyas have to travel during the holiday season, Georgetown should give students the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off to allow them enough time to get home for much needed doses of tryptopham, pumpkin pie, and pigskin.
Many professors already cancel class on Wednesday to accommodate their students’ travel schedules. Students unlucky enough to have a professor immune to the Thanksgiving spirit, though, are unfairly forced to choose between skipping class and having a truncated Thanksgiving break. Making the de facto policy of canceling Wednesday classes official would eliminate this unfortunate inequity between the haves and the have-nots.
Regardless of the University’s policy, many Hoyas are forced to make travel plans that conflict with their Wednesday classes because the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year in the United States. The prices of airplane and train tickets also soar to exorbitant heights, taking full advantage of the chance to milk homesick, eager travelers for as much cash as possible. By abolishing classes on Wednesday, Georgetown’s administration would be helping to lessen the already heavy financial burden that is placed on students, even only by a marginal amount. In these difficult economic times, every penny counts.
Not only is giving students Wednesday off the right thing to do, but Georgetown would be in good company. Our neighbors in the District, American University and Catholic University, both begin their Thanksgiving breaks on Wednesday, as does perennial rival Syracuse, while Yale gives their students the entire week leading up to Turkey Day off.
This small change in the University’s academic calendar could make a real difference in the pocketbooks of Hoyas, spreading a little goodwill to the student body. Georgetown should do the right thing and let us go home for the holidays the right way.
