CORRECTION APPENDED

While Yale, Princeton, and Stanford students have all returned to school this week rejuvenated by a clean nine-day vacation from school, Harvard students were caught in a pickle: skip class or be stuck in Thanksgiving limbo.

Unlike many of its rivals, Harvard only gives its students two days off for Thanksgiving. While this is the longest break in the fall semester, for most, it is barely enough time to justify the cost and hassle of traveling home. A full 83 percent of the Class of 2010 hails from outside New England—roughly 58 percent live beyond the Mid-Atlantic and about nine percent are international—and for this clear majority, four days is an unreasonably short allotment of time to make it home for the holiday.

To be sure, many Harvard students skip class on Wednesday—sometimes on Monday and Tuesday as well—and create their own weeklong break. But if the scheduling Gods aren’t smiling on you, if you’re learning a foreign language, or if you’re just plain-old responsible, chances are, missing class is untenable. Where does that leave a Harvard student? With astronomically high travel costs to make a Wednesday evening flight or with a lonesome Turkey holiday.

It doesn’t need to be this way.

We should follow the lead of many of our peers and make Thanksgiving break a real holiday. If students knew they had the full week, they would be able to make travel plans earlier—while tickets are more flexible and less expensive—without worrying about papers, tests, or arbitrary class cancellations.

This extension would, of course, require making up those days elsewhere in the semester, but trading Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day holidays for a real shot at Thanksgiving at home seems worth it. This leaves one class day unaccounted for, but sacrificing that day’s classes is well worth the advantage of a contiguous nine-day vacation. And if it is untenable for the College to give up one day, it can follow Princeton’s model: Begin classes on the Thursday before our normal Monday start, and have students pick up one extra Friday of classes. (SEE CORRECTION BELOW)

It is not the number of days, but their arrangement and continuity with which we are concerned. This simple, common sense change in the calendar would make a world of difference to students and faculty who deserve a fair chance to spend Thanksgiving at home. Creating a Fall calendar with a legitimate vacation built into it is something that will give everyone a reason to be thankful next year.

CORRECTION:

The above editorial, mistakenly indicated that Princeton gives undergraduates a full week off for Thanksgiving break. In fact, Princeton, like Harvard, only had Thursday (11/24) and Friday (11/25) off for the holiday. Princeton does, however, have an annual week-long fall break, which this year was from October 28 to November 6. The Crimson regrets this error.