I’ve never missed a class at Hillsdale College for sickness, or for any other insignificant reason, but I’ll take my first unexcused absence next week. But that’s the only way I can make it home for Thanksgiving.
The 850-mile trip to New Hampshire requires 14 hours of driving. I’ve got to start before the holiday break formally begins after classes on Tuesday.
I’m hardly the only student facing a frantic travel schedule and worried about courses. Students who live far away from Hillsdale must decide between academics and possibly seeing their families at all.
Yet there’s a simple solution to our common conundrum: Instead of squeezing travel time, family time, and turkey time into a brief recess, the college should change its academic calendar and create a week-long Thanksgiving break.
We don’t have to shorten the semester or lose any class time. By turning the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving into vacation days, the college could start Thanksgiving break after classes on the Friday before Thanksgiving. To gain back the extra two days, classes could start on a Monday instead of a Wednesday at the beginning of the semester in August.
Lots of other schools already do this, including Spring Arbor University in Michigan, Grove City College in Pennsylvania, and Valparaiso University in Indiana.
Even Hillsdale Academy, the K-12 school attached to our college, takes a full week for Thanksgiving break. Headmaster David Diener said extending Thanksgiving break in 2019 was one of the changes he made during his first year as headmaster.
“By giving up only two instructional days, the break is almost doubled in length (nine days instead of five) because it then includes two weekends,” Diener said in an email. “Having a long weekend is nice, of course, but it is much more restive to be away for over a full week.”
The college’s current schedule made more sense earlier in Hillsdale’s history when most students came from homes closer to campus. According to the class of 2025 catalog, however, just 30% of undergraduates in the 20-21 school year came from Michigan. That’s the lowest rate ever. In addition, more than 40% of students came from outside the Midwest. That percentage goes up each year as Hillsdale increases its national reputation.
Extending the break also would be safer, especially for students who travel by car. The day before Thanksgiving is notorious for terrible traffic on the roads. “You might want to avoid traveling on Wednesday altogether,” says the Washington Post, in an article that analyzes traffic data on Google Maps.
For those traveling by air, the relief may be even greater. According to ABC News, the two most popular days of the year to fly are the Wednesday before and Sunday after Thanksgiving. Priceline data says the most popular departure date for Thanksgiving weekend in 2019 and 2020 is on Wednesday, with the Transportation Security Administration logging 2.6 million travelers in 2019 alone.
It’s also expensive to travel. Prices for flights can quadruple during heavily trafficked travel times, according to CNN. College is already high-priced. Why make it worse with a holiday schedule that seems custom-made to cost extra?
It’s not like we can save money and hassle and stick around campus. The dorms close during the break and students must be gone by 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. If you have a 2:30 p.m. class, you must race back to the dorm, pack up, and find a shuttle or a ride in about an hour. Even if your Tuesday afternoons are more leisurely, you still have to leave.
Professors probably would enjoy a longer break. They travel, too. They also know that lots of students won’t show up for Tuesday classes. Some make attendance optional. Others make sure they don’t deliver a high-stakes lecture shortly before Thanksgiving. Many already plan their syllabi to accommodate students like me, who know in advance that we won’t be around. Others are less obliging. Whatever the specifics, this needless problem vanishes if the college lengthens Thanksgiving break.
The change would make sense economically for the college as well. Closing the dorms and dining hall sooner could save money on heat and staffing at a time of year when both are hard to come by. Other student services, such as the registrar’s office, could close when fewer students are using them.
If we’re dashing around and worried about costly travel and missed classes, we distract ourselves from the purpose of the holiday breaK: to stop and be grateful for what we have. So let’s extend Thanksgiving break by two days, and make turkey day a lot less stressful and costly for students and faculty alike.
