By Delaney Runge
Copy Editor
As members of the Washington College Community look at the academic calendar for the 2024-2025 school year, they will notice that a well-known day off, reading day, is no longer included, instead Labor Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day are listed as days with no classes and closed offices.
According to freshman Secretary of Academics for the Student Government Association Zach Tipton, first knew about the change after reviewing next year’s academic calendar on the registrar’s page of the website.
“This calendar is accessible to anyone, and at first, I noticed the change but didn’t think anything of it, especially since I hadn’t heard anyone else say anything,” Tipton said. “I didn’t realize this was such a big deal until I added it to my committee minutes during our senate hearing a few weeks back.”
According to Tipton, this change was made in order to provide national holidays off such as Labor Day in September and MLK Day in January for members of the campus community such as staff who do not receive the extended breaks that students do throughout the semester.
Assistant Dean of Advising and Academic Advocacy Hilary Bateman feels that this change was likely a tough decision due to the give and take nature of these different days off from classes.
“I think it’s a tough decision,” Bateman said. “I’ve heard a lot of times students are like, ‘Oh, well, my friends have off for Labor Day. Why don’t we have off for Labor Day?’ And I don’t think that reading day serves the same purpose as it did 30 years ago. It isn’t used as a reading day, but it serves a different purpose for students now as a day I think to decompress before you guys hunker down to study over the weekend.”
Due to the nature that reading day has been taken on as a day to relax before the stress and work of finals week, Bateman says that moving forward there may just need to be new ways to offer this to students.
“I think that there’s ways that we can still support students,” Bateman said. “Having some distressing activities throughout the last week of classes, doing something, not a whole day thing, but having some things on Saturday or Sunday before finals to help students de-stress a little bit. That’s something that staff, student engagement, and the students in SEB and things will have to adjust to and work with.”
Sophomore Quinn Hammon notes that reading days always fall around busy times in the semester, and he usually uses them to catch up on homework.
“It’s nice to have those days, specifically at times that are busy with schoolwork,” Hammon said. “Also, having national holidays off is nice because I know my friends that go to other schools have had off those days. So, it can be a good time to sync up with them.”
Despite the change Hammon is happy that they are not just doing away with these days off from classes all together.
“I feel like it’s a good change, honestly because at any time, there’s going to be stuff to catch up on,” Hammon said. “I’m glad they’re not just like getting rid of them altogether, and they’re replacing them with something else.”
While these changes are set for the next academic year since the calendar has already been released, Tipton notes that they will be reviewed going forward.
“This issue has been noted by several key faculty members and administrators that will consider this in the future when writing the academic calendar,” Tipton said. “We are currently hiring a new registrar to replace our interim placeholders, and I am sure that once the position has been filled, there will be more consistency and transparency in the forthcoming academic calendar.”