Utah Tech University students have been given an extra week in the semester, ending Dec. 16 instead of Dec. 10.
When the academic calendar was being made, an extra week was added to the semester. Whether it was a mistake or not is unknown, but it wasn’t fixed and now we’re left to suffer. Finishing the semester on Dec. 10, like we normally do, allows students who live away from home the time to travel and see their families after a long semester.
Now, we have less time and more stress.
There were easy ways to fix the mistake and finish the semester at the right time. Fall break was only two days and Thanksgiving break is only three days. University administration could have split the extra days between those or given us a week for Thanksgiving break, but instead Utah Tech admin chose to make our semester longer than it needed to be.
What are we going to do with that extra week? By that time, professors have gotten through everything they need to, and finals are looming ahead. There is no need for the extra time we’ve been forced to endure. It only keeps students at school longer than we want and doesn’t give us the break we need at the end of a semester.
It feels like those working on the calendar got too lazy to fix their mistake, and we have to face the consequences. If we don’t get the extra break this semester, it should be added to the spring semester. Give us a longer spring break to make up for the extra time we were given. It’s not fair to change the semester lengths on us after the work we put into our schooling. Only two days for fall break and three for Thanksgiving is not enough time for us to relax and catch our breath.
Non-stop schooling with only weekends of break, mostly filled with homework, will only lead to burnout and students not wanting to try anymore. We need time to recuperate and actually get rest after the semester. Students see the extra semester, and it only adds to the building hardship of class and homework.
Some students might not be able to get home to their families. With school ending so close to Christmas, flights are expensive and might be booked by the time they get to it.
Those who worked on the calendar should have fixed their mistake instead of letting the students deal with it.
