As a result of CUNY’s decision to delay Spring Break, the new dates, April 22-30, have incited confusion and chaos within the John Jay community.
Like many commuter students, Eric Ramos, an English major juggling a busy school schedule, was taken by surprise by the late Spring Break dates in April.
“When I found out Spring Break is towards the end of April, two weeks before finals, it totally caught me off guard,”
said Ramos.
In light of the fact that Spring Break occurs two weeks prior to final exams, the shift leaves students and faculty in crunch time. During the long-awaited break, students must balance school work and proper rest.
“Having Spring Break towards the end of the semester still makes us stressed out about what’s going on for finals. I don’t think it’s comfortable to still be in a stressed mindset whilst on break,” Ramos went on to say.
Over the break, Sabrina Seda, a Junior and Criminal Justice major, will visit her brother in Ohio and is already feeling conflicted between spending quality time with family and preparing for finals.
“It’s just kind of an inconvenience because you want to relax the whole time,” said Seda.
“It would have been better to have it in March, because that’s normally the only break we have,” Seda went on to say.
Estefano Garcia, a Senior and Forensic Psychology major, plans to catch up on work during the break. He expresses his concerns for fellow students balancing the difficult workloads at the tail end of the semester.
“I think it’s going to put pressure on students and they have to make another plan for Spring Break because now that CUNY has moved it to April, students are going to have to make sacrifices such as Do we go out? Or should I stay in and study?” said Garcia.
Karen Kaplowitz, an English Professor, and President of the Faculty Senate thinks that the Jewish’s calendar’s Passover date and the New York public school’s calendar may have prompted CUNY’s relatively late spring semester break.
“Every year Spring Break is at a different time and our holidays in many ways follow the New York City Board of Trustees/Education calendar, the K-12 system,” said Kaplowitz.
According to Kaplowitz, despite the late Spring Break, students should take advantage of rest during the short period of time they have available before final exams.
“Everyone has such a busy life, especially our students and it can become a burnout but if students pace themselves and keep up their work but also time for themselves to take care of their mental and physical health that would be great,” said Kaplowitz.
In addition, English Professor Caroline Reitz, shares similar sentiments and concern for John Jay students whom she knows are balancing school work, domestic responsibilities, and commuting.
“Students are already tired by the spring semester, they could take the week to catch up on readings and relax for finals, while Grad students could apply to jobs and prepare for graduation,” said Reitz.
The last day of classes is May 15th, which leaves only two weeks left of the semester when faculty and students return from Spring Break. Finals will be held the week of May 16th and 22nd.
Consequently, students have been forced to prepare for finals in other ways due to the lack of “reading days,” which are days without classes scheduled that CUNY had implemented in the past in order to incorporate their last breaks and study sessions in preparation for finals.
Eric Ramos plans to chill over the break and come back to campus prepared for finals.
“For me to do really well on my exams, I need to relax first, then study hard in the end,” said Ramos.
