<p>Also anecdotal, but I know 5 graduate students just in my department who take the opportunity to visit their families during winter break. And I’m not referring to their parents, they have wives, husbands and children left behind in their home countries. But foreign students are the least likely to complain about an unfair policy because more often than not things are far worse for them at home.</p>
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<p>Excellent points. At any rate, the university sets its calendar to encourage maximum participation. If a not insignificant portion of the faculty, admin staff, and students are going to be observing a particular religious holiday, it’s foolish to ignore reality.</p>
<p>My employer provides a list of religious holidays every year and we’re asked not to schedule exams, assessment due dates etc. on those days. It’s really not a big deal. We don’t have to accommodate travel time (i.e. students can observe religious holidays at a church or temple or mosque near campus; they don’t have to go to grandma’s) but we still try to be flexible as a matter of civic courtesy.</p>
<p>To accommodate a minority religious group is absolutely absurd! What does this say about the UCs, a system of public higher education. Public! What about the other ethnic holidays? The UCs need to adhere to the notion of the separation of church and state. I respect why they made this decision, but I do not believe in it. It hurts the majority. More harm than good. The Jewish community at the UCs should be able to deal with this without taking away from the already short break. This is not about religion. This is about the needs of the majority student population that must sacrifice in order to accommodate a group that barely makes up the student body. Who is to decide which group is above all. THe UCs need to remain neutral. I still cannot believe the UC higher ups based their decision on a religious reason instead of an academic one. </p>
<p>++ Those who use Winter break to travel back home and visit friends and family do not deserve a week taken away. We pay more for tuition, books, fees, etc… just to get this piece of baloney. All this hard work and we cannot even get a decent break. The Winter Quarter is the longest quarter. We need this break to refresh our brains. If you agree with me, please sign this petition made by a UC-Davis Student. </p>
<p><a href=“Petition · Universities of California under the Quarter System: Maintain our 3-week Winter Break · Change.org”>Petition · Universities of California under the Quarter System: Maintain our 3-week Winter Break · Change.org;
<p>Thank you for posting this. The comments in the link are interesting and speak to exactly what has bothered many of us about this.</p>
<p>If you are involved in organizing this petition you might see if the Freedom From Religion Foundation (ffrf.org) is aware of the issue at the UCs. I am guessing they are but it couldn’t hurt to contact them.</p>
<p>“I completely agree with you. That is why none of them should be accommodated. Then no one is singled out.”</p>
<p>While I agree UC could have figured out a better schedule, it’s funny how it’s not just Christmas that is sacrosanct but the days before and after too. I just find it amusing how the sacred cow-ness of Christmas doesn’t occur to people.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: It is not Christmas it is THE HOLIDAYS…</p>
<p>The Christmas holiday is always on the same date. One knows today that Christmas 2030 will be on December 25th. and with any of a number of electronic aides, one can figure out exactly which day of the week this will be. Christmas has also long since lost it’s religious status among the consuming masses. It is a reason to shop - now starting on Thanksgiving day (another holiday one where one can identify the specific date). Christmas is football, and parades. It is overpriced lodging at ski resorts, it is the high season for air fare, it is the time for merchants to rid themselves of this seasons crapage and make room for the next. It is an economic indicator. It has something for everyone.</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s it, PG. Christmas has been a national holiday since 1870. And, unlike the HHDs, it is the same date every year. It is also conveniently located within the last week of the year that leads up to the secular New Year’s holiday. I’d be happy with doing away with Christmas as a national holiday but I still think many people would end up having it off based on these factors.</p>
<p>ETA: cross-posted with dietz. As an aside, I do like the word “crapage.”</p>
<p>The quarter system is bad generally. Getting out in the middle of June makes it harder to get a summer job especially in the parks, recreation, amusement parks, etc. business. And having the entire month of September off doesn’t make up for it. It’s also harder to get into some summer internship research programs many of which start after Memorial Day. </p>
<p>As for this issue, the closer it gets to Christmas, the more expensive airfares get, so I feel for people who have to fly home. </p>
<p>This doesn’t affect the medical school start dates in early August. Don’t know about the law schools.</p>
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<p>And this is part of what it’s like to live in a diverse society, attending a school that values diversity. </p>
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<p>Who is this “We” who pay more? People who aren’t getting financial aid, or aren’t getting as much of it? Out of state students? People who aren’t within driving distance of their college?</p>
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<p>:rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Not sure how you reached this conclusion. I thought that each quarter was the same length. At least that’s how I remember it from my time as a student. Has the calendar changed in the last few decades?</p>
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<p>The length of the break is variable from quarter to quarter, with the break between spring and fall quarters being the longest. If a student finds that they learn best with a longer break between terms, then they’ll be best served going to a school which operates on semesters. Of course, semester schools that start just after Labor Day often start winter break right before Christmas, which means that flights home are expensive.</p>
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<p>It’s fascinating how NU and UChicago and plenty of other schools manage to have a quarter system calendar without all this controversy.</p>
<p>PG - There’s no controversy at my kid’s UC. None. “Huh?” Oh okay," is about it.</p>
<p>I haven’t been on this thread in a while, and come back to still hearing people say why Christmas (“our” holiday) is different. Okaaayyy.</p>
<p>If you want special privileges, fine. But be honest about it. Christmas is a national holiday because Christians made it that way. That we have pummeled everyone else into de facto recognition of it is an example of the power of numbers–apparently might makes right.</p>
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<p>Knowing college kids, it is probably too far in the future for them to care about. I predict that when break rolls around next fall, they are going to be pretty upset.</p>
<p>I agree that the break is too short. I don’t see how that’s Rosh Hashanah’s fault. </p>
<p>RH is on Thursday and Friday the 25 and 26th. The UCs normally begin instruction on Thursdays, presumably to make up for the Th/F that they miss for Thanksgiving. As a result, rather than just starting class on Monday the 29th, they hold off until the following Thursday. Makes sense. </p>
<p>But looking at six years of the UC Davis calendar listed on their website, there’s been some variation on what day classes start even in other years: in the 5 calendar years listed (not including next year’s calendar), classes have started as early as September 22nd and as late as September 27th. It is possible that the year that it started the 27th was also influenced by RH, which, had the schedule been pushed back a week, would have fallen on move in day, although I don’t know that. If that was a factor in the schedule, the expected start date would have been the 20th. </p>
<p>In any event, if UC Davis had begun classes a week earlier than they were intending, rather than a week later, they would have had a start date of the 18th. Given that they’ve started as early as the 22nd before, this would not have been a massive outlier: earlier, yes, but not outrageously so. Then students would have had a longer break, not a shorter one. </p>
<p>As for the religious issue, again, I think the key think is that religion not be given a special status, and I don’t think it is, here. If the UCs had the first day of classes on Chinese New Year and found that it caused a logistical problem for some substantial number of students and faculty, I have no doubt they would do exactly the same thing. Heck, if it turned out that a certain percentage of the student body was moving in late because move-in day coincided with the start of hunting season, it would make logical sense to see if you could arrange your schedule so as to avoid that conflict, not because you had a deep and abiding respect for hunters, but because you have a school to run. Not that I think there is anything wrong with respecting someone’s observance and accommodating it if you can.</p>
<p>Thank you for your post and link Kngu</p>
<p>To my knowledge, there was no official announcement of the academic calendar change. It was changed fairly recently, not “years in advance” as some posters have implied. Dissent is building as the word spreads through a variety of social media sites. Anyone interested in a variety of reactions from students should read the comments at the end of the UCSD article on the subject.</p>
<p>Can’t post the link from my iPhone but the article is easy to find in a search</p>
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<p>As I said earlier, I would be fine with doing away with Christmas as a national holiday. No one has “pummeled” everyone into recognition of it. It was established in 1870 when there were far fewer religious minorities, but of course today it is primarily a consumer event beloved by corporations that depend on Q4 profits and the first milestone of the last week of the year.</p>
<p>Your comment about numbers is relevant, though. We live in a democracy. Someone who gets 3 percent of the vote doesn’t get to be president, or mayor, or dog catcher. So for 3% of the population to hold sway over university calendars affecting literally hundreds of thousands of people seems a bit extreme–especially considering it is SPECIFICALLY for religious reasons.</p>
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<p>I’d be happy to do away with the national attention THE HOLIDAYS now garner. In order to make it completely removed from religion we should establish a holiday lottery. Each year schools, businesses, public services etc pull a ping pong ball with a number - a lottery of sorts. This will determine when that institution gets it’s X number of holidays for that year. An individual then gets to pick use there additional days as they wish. Pick your religious holidays at will. </p>
<p>Just think…total separation of church and state and the hotel and airline industry would never have ‘peak season’ as a means to extort huge price increases.</p>
<p>Arguably those holidays like Presidents Day, MLK, Cesear Chavez etc are also religious. Religion honors and unseen hero/savior…these holidays honor human hero’s/saviors. And, like the religious hero…not all designated human hero days are agreeable to all those affected.</p>
<p>Here is the link for the UCSD article, with more than 60 comments- rare for a student paper. If you are unfamiliar with the importance of Asian lunar new year celebrations, please read what these kids have to say.</p>
<p>[Winter</a> Break Cut to Two Weeks |](<a href=“Winter Break Cut to Two Weeks – The UCSD Guardian”>Winter Break Cut to Two Weeks – The UCSD Guardian)</p>
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<p>Interesting reading the comments of the UCSD students. They break down as:</p>
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<li><p>The largest ethnic group at UCSD is Asian, then they ought to get the Lunar New Year off.</p></li>
<li><p>The Armenian and Russian Orthodox Christmas is now during the first week of winter quarter. What about them? </p></li>
<li><p>Two weeks isn’t enough of a Christmas/New Years break for those who live out of state.</p></li>
<li><p>Why not just start two weeks earlier, accommodate the HHD, but still have the longer Christmas/New Year’s break.</p></li>
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<p>I think the UC Regents have opened up a sticky wicket here. They don’t seem to be acting in a neutral fashion but instead favoring the HHD over the Asian Lunar New Year and the Greek Orthodox Christmas.</p>
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<p>That seems like the common-sense solution to me.</p>