This school owes me and the student body a day off. I would prefer a snow day because that would mean I get to go sledding, but really, anything will do. Why do I feel I’m owed some time off? Because university officials have had plenty of reasons to cancel class this past month, yet they have not.
Let’s start fresh and take a look at just the past week. Maryland’s primary election was held Tuesday. For the entirety of my education up until my career at this university, I have had school off on Election Day. Now you may argue that is because people have to vote at the elementary, middle and high schools in their neighborhoods, and young students never mix well with voters. It would be too crowded!
Well, guess what. The Diamondback reported that 623 people voted at Stamp Student Union on Tuesday. Have you seen how crowded the student union gets at noon even without an influx of politically minded citizens? Stranger-shovingly crowded! That’s reason enough to cancel school.
I’m just saying that it certainly would have been nice to have had a leisurely lunch at home this past Tuesday instead of having to weave through the masses and stand in the Taco Bell line for an hour.
Tuesday night was host to some of the most hazardous driving conditions we’ve seen this winter. Freezing rain? Icy buildup on roads and sidewalks? Millions of commuter car accidents? Awesome! Put your homework away and turn off your alarm clocks – there’s no way a school day can follow weather like that!
Or so I thought. No matter how many times I refreshed the university weather alerts website between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wednesday, I was met with the same message: “There are no weather alerts at this time.” It was like the university was mocking me. Really? Not one weather alert? Tiny droplets of ice fell from the sky all night, but you don’t want to alert me to anything weather related? Is the school asking for a lawsuit? (If any pre-law student could go ahead and take on this case, it would really help my cause of getting a snow day every time there’s some condensation on my windshield).
Not only is the university crowding me and getting my hopes up with the weather, but this month, the university is brazenly holding classes during several major holidays. For example, take Valentine’s Day. Classes continued as normal. Unbelievable. Valentine’s Day is a nationally recognized holiday. How do I know? I can read things. And I read that the National Retail Federation predicted the total spending on Valentine’s Day products to be more than $17 billion. This leaves me with one angry question: How much money do I have to spend to get a day off of school?!
Jumping back to earlier this month, I don’t believe we missed any school for Groundhog’s Day. Yes, it was on a weekend, but I really think it’s an important enough holiday for the school to allow time off. In fact, the school underplayed Groundhog Day so severely that I don’t even know what happened. Is it winter or spring? Should I be wearing a ski jacket or shorts right now? There’s no way to tell.
This coming Monday is Presidents Day, yet we’ll all wake up and go to school like nothing is different! If I’m in school all day, when exactly am I supposed to honor the fact that we live under the rule of a voter-elected official rather than under a cruel authoritative body that makes irrational decisions without listening to our muffled cries of outrage? I ask you, university administration, when?
George Washington University does not hold classes on President’s Day. All right, I get it. Their school is named after some president, and ours isn’t. But it still seems a bit unfair and illogical that they get to stay home and we don’t. By those guidelines, we should get school off for Maryland Day. But do we ever? No. It’s always on a Saturday.
Thus, I believe the school owes me and my fellow students not an apology, not an admittance of guilt, not a monetary compensation, just a day or two or 12 off from classes. That’s all.
Clara Morris is a senior English major. She can be reached at cmorris2@umd.edu.
