Tomorrow, the Western Church marks the Crucifixion of Our Lord, but for many, the observance of this momentous day in the Christian Church year will begin with the distractions of any other ordinary day. Unfortunately, this is also the case at Hillsdale.
Ideally, Good Friday ought to be kept as free as possible of any academic pressures which compete with proper concentration on Christ’s atoning sacrifice. To that end, we at Hillsdale might open this issue for discussion and earnestly consider options for a policy which would have no classes be held on Good Friday.
Hillsdale’s current policy ends classes at noon, which gives students the opportunity to observe the three hours during which Christ hung on the cross. While a good policy, this arrangement still allows the academic routine to detract from fitting meditation on the day of Christ’s death, a day which should be set aside for prayer and contemplation. It further opens the possibility of scheduling work, meetings, and other responsibilities on Good Friday. For some, the policy interrupts observance of the Triduum, the three-day liturgical period which begins on Maundy Thursday the evening before.
Such disturbances are, of course, an unavoidable part of life. At Hillsdale, however, if we have the ability to at least lessen these distractions, we should work toward that goal. Though not strictly a Christian college, our school has good reason to concern itself with observance of Good Friday — it still structures its calendar around the dates of the Western Church, employs a Christian chaplain, invokes the name of Christ at convocation ceremonies, and is even building a prominent chapel on its quad.
The chief argument against having all of Good Friday off, according to Provost David Whalen and Campus Chaplain Peter Beckwith, is that such a policy would lower the value of students’ tuition dollars, cause students to miss out on a day of their professors’ valuable lectures, and make it difficult for faculty to cover all planned material. This is a serious concern, but one that even the current policy does not adequately answer, as it currently allows students to miss out on the valuable class periods which fall after noon. Rather than unfairly permitting afternoon classes to be missed Good Friday while insisting on not missing morning classes, perhaps Hillsdale could consider and create a policy whereby no classes are held on Good Friday but also no periods of precious class time are missed.
There are two chief possibilities for remedying this situation, both of which undoubtedly carry the baggage of secondary effects and require careful weighing of the consequences, but which may at least be useful in sparking discussion.
One option might be to have two short breaks in the spring semester, as opposed to a long spring break and a few short days at Easter. As in the fall semester, which has both a fall break and a Thanksgiving break, the spring semester could have both a spring break and a slightly longer Easter break that would allow an entire day free on Good Friday. Unfortunately, this setup would not permit students much time for traveling far away as some currently do during spring break.
A second option might be to alter the second semester schedule so that classes begin on a Monday rather than on a Wednesday. This would keep the current system of breaks intact and also prevent students and faculty from missing a precious class period. According to Provost David Whalen, these extra days were first added to the beginning of the semester for last-minute schedule changes, bill payments, and final validation in the first two days back on campus. Now, however, when most changes can be made online before even arriving, there is less of a need for these two extra days. If we started classes two days earlier, there would be room to skip a full class period on Good Friday.
Clearly, no option is ideal, and there will be objections from some corner against any proposal. But then again, the current policy is not ideal either. We can begin, however, by at least being open to considering the possibility of altering the Good Friday policy in order to better allow students an observance of Christ’s Crucifixion that is unhindered by academic distractions.
