This semester, SUNY Oswego edited its school calendar. Students arrived back on campus a week early compared to some other SUNY schools, and on the same page, are being released a week early. In addition to this, the school no longer cancels classes on Jewish holidays. Instead, Thanksgiving break has been extended to a full week.

I look forward to being able to return home over Thanksgiving break for an extended period of time. In past years, I’ve felt like I’ve barely gotten the chance to rest over Thanksgiving. As soon as I walked through the door at home, it felt like I was suddenly surrounded by holiday chaos, stacked on top of the academic work I had brought home with me. Then, I got to return to school and jump straight into finals.

Given this, I’m looking forward to the extended Thanksgiving break. I will have more time to connect with my family, and for students who live far from campus, it will hopefully make travel more worthwhile.

However, as soon as we arrive back to campus, we will be thrust into finals review week. Suddenly, work will pile on, and just as my brain will have allowed itself to relax, it will be forced back into full throttle. I worry that my brain will not have the capacity to handle all that information immediately after a full week off.

To alleviate this, SUNY Oswego should have made the decision to return to campus a week later, along with many of the other SUNY schools. This way, we still would have been able to have a week-long Thanksgiving break, but had two weeks of classes leading up to finals instead of only one.

As far as Jewish holidays go, in some ways, it seems like this has been a long time coming. Many other schools no longer cancel classes, and so it did not come as a shock when SUNY Oswego decided to follow suit. It is my hope that professors will be understanding with students who do celebrate these holidays, because it is important to respect students’ religious commitments. 

My worry as a whole is that this schedule is not conducive to academic success. With very few individual days, like Labor Day or mental health days, to recover and get caught up on stray work, the semester feel like a sprint to the finish line instead of a marathon. I hope that after the chaos of this quick return, administration will consider this when creating future calendars.