Fall Break: Don't move it, just lose it

Transport yourself, if you will, back to a time when hippies roamed the earth, Richard Nixon occupied the Oval Office, and perhaps most impossibly, our parents were our age. The year was 1970.

The nation's attention, of course, was focused on Vietnam. As the war continued to escalate, America reached its political boiling point. Even the peaceful Princeton bubble felt the impact of the nation's political unrest. The Armory, Princeton's ROTC building, was fire bombed by what were assumed to be student antiwar activists.

One way in which the University responded was to create fall break. The idea behind this new break was that it would allow students to return home in the final week before elections to volunteer for their candidate of choice. It was meant to provide an opportunity to discover and engage in the political process. At the time, 42 other universities agreed to institute similar breaks, and it was known as the "Princeton Plan."

Given the tumult of the times, I expected that during that inaugural fall break, Princeton students would have poured home in large numbers to contribute their time and energy to local and national politicians.

However, I was surprised to learn that even back in 1970 fewer than 25 percent of students actually spent their break campaigning or demonstrating. I now know to never overestimate the activism of Princetonians – no matter the generation.

Still, I wanted to crosscheck that statistic with Professor John Fleming's institutional memory – some 40 years of it. He said he remembered well the discussions the faculty had regarding the creation of fall break.

"We wanted to give students this chance to participate in the political system," said Professor Fleming. "It's amazing how that political participation was able to occur in places like Acapulco, Fort Lauderdale, and the Bahamas."

Here we are 34 years later in what is probably the most charged political climate since Vietnam. Yet Princeton students who spend their break volunteering on behalf of political candidates and causes will again be in the minority — by a wide margin.

"I thought about going to campaign in Pennsylvania," said Alisha Holland '07, who volunteered in the Democratic primaries in New Hampshire last winter. However, this fall break she'll be heading for the Adirondacks instead. "I really just want to be able to rest and relax," she said.

This is the common sentiment among students, even those who consider themselves to be politically involved. Meanwhile, most of the other original 42 schools that also once incorporated the so-called "Princeton Plan" have long since abandoned their fall breaks.

Unless Princeton starts importing tap water from Berkeley, it seems doubtful that Fall Break here will ever be used for its intended purpose.

Today, the reality is that fall break functions simply as more vacation. Please believe that I feel about vacation as I do about Mom and apple pie. (Lest there be any confusion, I like all three.) My problem then is not with vacation itself, but with when it occurs – and the time we give up for fall break is grossly misallocated.

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Wouldn't it be nice to have a full week off at Thanksgiving? Wouldn't it be nice to have final exams before we go home for winter break? Right now, Princeton is the only Ivy League university except Harvard where students take exams after winter break.

I realize that fixing what Professor Fleming describes at "the craziest academic calendar anyone's ever heard of," is indeed a tall order. And I'd be naive if I thought change was going to come anytime soon.

But I would like for President Tilghman and Dean Malkiel to explain their justification for fall break, specifically, and the rationale behind the current calendar, in general. That, at least, is a project that would put the next week to good use.

And if they need to reach me, I'll be "campaigning" in Aruba. P.G. Sittenfeld is a sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached at pg@princeton.edu.