The Indiana Daily Student is taking a spring break next week, March 12-20.
IU, like universities across the country, didn’t give students a spring break this year in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Instead of a week off, IU added three “wellness days” on weekdays throughout the semester.
The IDS generally pauses publication over IU’s spring break, but the wellness days didn’t work with our schedule. The first wellness day, Feb. 16, fell on a Tuesday — the day we produce our print paper for it to go on stands Thursday.
If we stopped operating for a day, our reporters would have to do more work the rest of the week to cover the news you, our readers, need.
We believe the best way to give our staff the rest it deserves is to take a full week off from production.
Working at the IDS has always been demanding. We publish Sunday through Thursday with meetings Friday and breaking coverage Friday and Saturday.
We’re also students. Some of us work other jobs. Over the past year, we’ve worked through loss, anxiety and exhaustion to inform our community.
We’re so proud of the work our staff has been able to do during this difficult time. But we’re burnt out. And if our staff is burnt out, our content will suffer. So we decided the best way to support our staff, maintain our content’s quality and ultimately serve our community is to take a break.
We recognize it’s a significant luxury to be able to take time off. We’re grateful our professional staff worked with us to make it happen.
We will not print a paper on March 18 — this one will be on stands for an extra week. Breaking coverage will still be posted on idsnews.com.
Thank you for your continued loyal readership. We’ll see you March 21!
Caroline Anders, co-editor-in-chief
Emily Isaacman, co-editor-in-chief
