Wesleyan has a bizarrely long winter break, lasting over five weeks. One would think most students would be excited about this, but some of us feel quite the opposite. Besides seniors and winter athletes, many students, including myself, are stuck at home without anything to do besides complain about how much they want to go back to school. The idea of a five-week break is ridiculous, especially considering that the U.S. News & World Report found Wesleyan has the eighth highest tuition of private colleges in the country. Students are paying to learn and to attend class, not to spend five long weeks at home.

So how should Wesleyan confront this issue? There’s always the possibility of having a January term—a popular period at various colleges, such as Williams, during  which students take academic courses, participate in volunteer work, or do educational travel. Those grades are not counted toward the students’ GPAs, so there is incentive to try something new and different. Wesleyan would do well to adopt a program like this to bring something new and exciting to campus. Students would have the ability to learn something entirely different, without having to worry about their GPAs dropping in the process.

Another idea is to use the time for students to study abroad, a well-liked initiative at schools such as Elon University. Students can travel to a wide range of countries during what is effectively a shortened semester abroad, where they take classes and absorb new cultures. This program would be ideal for students who want to spend time abroad, but do not want to spend an entire semester away from Wesleyan.

Wesleyan should seriously consider changing the length of the winter break. Not only is it unfair to students who are paying an enormous amount of money to attend school, but it is also unfair to parents. Students would not even have to be on campus for the duration of the break, since Wesleyan could work harder to encourage winter internships, study abroad programs, and jobs. For instance, the school could convince alumni to offer three-week exclusive internships or jobs in a wider range of fields than those offered by the shadowing program. This could be promoted through the Career Center and publicized more online so that students can find out about these opportunities. Although students could find themselves an activity over break, it’s difficult to find time during first semester when we’re overloaded with work. Wesleyan would do well to consider alternatives to a five-week break, since there’s so much students can do during that time rather than just waiting around to return to school.

So how should Wesleyan confront this issue? There’s always the possibility of having a January term, a popular period at various colleges such as Williams in which students take academic courses, participate in volunteer work, or do educational travel. Those grades are not counted towards one’s GPA, so there is incentive to try something new and different. Wesleyan would do well to adopt a program like this to bring something new and exciting to campus. Students would have the ability to learn something entirely different, without having to worry about their GPA dropping in the process.

Another idea is to use the time for student study abroad, a well-liked initiative at schools such as Elon University. Students can travel to a wide range of countries during what is effectively a shortened semester abroad, where they take classes and absorb new cultures. This program would be ideal for students who want to spend time abroad, but do not want to spend an entire semester away from Wesleyan.

Wesleyan should seriously consider changing the length of the winter break. Not only is it unfair to students who are paying an enormous amount of money to attend school, but it is also unfair to parents. Students would not even have to be on campus for the duration of the break, since Wesleyan could work harder to encourage winter internships, study abroad programs, and jobs. For instance, the school could convince alumni to offer three-week exclusive internships or jobs in a wider range of fields than those offered by the shadowing program. This could be promoted through the Career Center and publicized more online so that students can find out about these opportunities. Although students could find themselves an activity over break, it’s difficult to find time during first semester when we’re overloaded with work. Wesleyan would do well to consider alternatives to a five-week break, since there’s so much students can do during that time rather than just waiting around to return to school.