On May 27, IU President, Michael McRobbie released the schedule for the upcoming school year.
Classes will begin Aug. 24 and end May 9. The university has decided to remove fall and spring break.
At the beginning of the fall semester, classes are projected to meet in-person until Thanksgiving break in which they will switch to online instruction.
Michael J. Carroll, the senior associate registrar for the Office of Registrar, said, “According to the Restart Report, breaks were removed to minimize the travel that is often associated with them.”
The IU Restart Committee was responsible for creating the Restart Report which addressed when it’s safe for students to resume face-to-face operations. Aside from focusing on resuming in-person instruction, the committee is working on producing testing through One.IU for students, faculty and staff who may have symptoms of the virus.
“By taking away spring break, the university has decided to shorten the second semester,” Carroll said. “Classes will now begin one week later than originally planned.”
The spring semester will begin online Jan. 19 and will switch to in person Feb. 8.
Although fall and spring break have been taken away, the university has decided to keep Thanksgiving break, which will be Nov. 22 through Nov. 29.
Carroll said he was unaware of why the university chose to keep Thanksgiving break. However, he said this may be because students will have online classes following Thanksgiving.
Some students believe it will be difficult not having a break from schoolwork the entire second semester. Sophomore Maggie Pryor said a disadvantage of the newly released schedule is that students won’t have a necessary mental break in the spring.
Pryor said having a fall and more specifically spring break is a nice getaway from difficult schoolwork. Students often work hard and reward themselves with a vacation during the week off.
“I’m really sad about not having a spring break because that is a part of the college experience,” Pryor said. “On the bright side, I will be saving money that would have gone towards airfare and hotels.”
Incoming freshman Kaitlin Clary said although it was unfortunate the university has made this decision, it’s the right one.
“After hearing about not having a fall or spring break for my first year, I wasn’t entirely shocked,” Clary said. “I feel like the whole situation will affect my first-year experience, but it’s very necessary to take precautions now so the university will be less affected in the future years.”
