There is no dearth of articles explaining why the Princeton academic calendar should be changed. I am here to tell you they are all right, and unlike most students, I have the experiential evidence to prove it.
Just a few weeks ago, Imani Thornton wrote about the loss of the month of January, a month that should symbolize new beginnings and transitions. That is just the kind of January I had —backpacking across Patagonia, where I went on incredible hikes, watched the sun set and rise over snow-capped peaks and swam in crystal-clear glacial lakes.
I’ll explain. Sometime in the middle of last semester, we were emailed a schedule of finals period. As I skimmed the list of exams, I realized a wonderfully surprising fact: I had none. About at the same time, I found out that two of my closest friends from back home, in Israel, would be traveling in Argentina during the exact dates that coincided with the long stretch between Princeton’s winter break and the beginning of spring semester. A couple Google searches showed that joining them would be cheaper than flying home, and a plan was set in motion.
When winter break began and students joined their families for the holidays, I remained behind and wrote all my Dean’s Date assignments within a few days on Princeton’s empty campus. The day following Christmas, I boarded a plane to Buenos Aires. I returned the night of January thirty-first, just in time to get some sleep before my first spring semester class.
During the five weeks I spent away from campus, I was barely aware of Princeton’s schedule. When winter break came to an end and students began writing their essays and studying for their finals, I was hiking to a frozen lake in Tierra del Fuego. Upon returning from a five-day trek in Chile, I was vaguely surprised to learn from a friend’s Facebook post that it was Dean’s Date.
I am not telling all this to make you feel bad for the hours you spent in the library during the past month. I am saying this because it offers proof that there is an alternative to the strange succession of break-study-break that Princeton bestows upon its students each winter. What if Princeton’s academic schedule would be just as I had experienced it —a week of finals and paper writing at the end of the semester, followed by a month free of academic concerns?
The greatness of this alternative is that it reminded how much I love Princeton. Immediately following the end my grueling first semester, I was ready to board the Dinky without so much as a glance back. But as the date of my return flight loomed nearer, I became excited to reunite with friends, attend classes and read books that challenged my thinking and even write an essay or two. The absence of Princeton from my life actually did make my heart grow fonder.
I will also address how much this alternative simplified the logistics of my break. Before I discovered that I didn’t have finals, I was planning to fly home and then return to campus for the entire month of January, during which I would write my papers, complete my exams and then remain stranded on campus, unable to return to my distant home. While students who live nearby (or who are not burdened by financial concerns) can return home multiple times, many students do not have that luxury. By having an uninterrupted and extended break, students could choose to spend more time with their families, spend a month reading books and watching Netflix in the comfort of their own beds, or they could even choose to travel to distant countries. The options become endless.
The argument in favor of the current schedule seems to revolve around the notion of “tradition.” But it seems to me that this is as good a time as any in this institution’s history to rethink tradition, and ask what opportunities Princeton should grant its students. On top of allowing us to utilize the month of January to its fullest, such a change would allow us to view winter break as an opportunity to travel far and wide, and to let the heart grow fonder.
Iris Samuels is a freshman from Zichron Yakov, Israel. She can be reached at isamuels@princeton.edu.
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