By Nicole Seymour
Call it a pseudo summer, a refreshment of the soul, or an opportunity to just catch-up -- spring break sometimes seems necessary to keep college students sane. Unfortunately, there just isn''t time for a spring break in the BYU academic calendar. This edition of The Bubble recognizes the lack of a school-endorsed spring break, but the opportunity to still create your own break -- BYU-style.
By means of MTV, college-age Americans are known for their spring breaks. BYU students long for a breather, a Thanksgiving break of sorts, before the end of the winter semester.
BYU has an ultra-efficient trimester schedule; after the Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidents'' Day holidays, not a day is left for a break in the middle of the often-dreary winter months.
'If you ask teachers to give up a teaching day, then they say, ''hey, I can''t get all the curriculum conveyed that I want to convey to the students,''' said Ronald Bybee, assistant registrar with the division of admission and records.
With 70 required days of teaching per semester, and the incorporation of two weeks for education week, the university conference week and New Student Orientation, each day of the year efficiently accounted for.
'Anyone that has a brilliant idea of how to squeeze out more than 365 days a year, we would be happy to schedule it,' Bybee said.
As a BYUSA presidential candidate, Samuel Glanzer and his running mate worked with Bybee to find a window of time for a spring break. As they examined the calendar, however, they found that the only way to squeeze in a mid to late-March break is to take away a reading day.
'I just want people to know that this is not a campaign promise, but that would be the best legacy ever left by a student body president if they could get a spring break for BYU students,' said France Nielsen, BYUSA president-elect. 'I''ll see what I can do.'
Bybee said everyday of the year is used with little time for transition between semesters.
'We are very efficient in the use of our physical facilities,' he said. 'We are one of the best used in the states. On top of all of our academics... we have all of our EFYs in the summer and lots of activity that comes to campus and so we are very, very well used.'
Still, students know the advantages of no spring break.
Tyler Morley said he thinks one benefit of having no spring break is that students can get home early and get a job before the other schools get out.
'If that''s the reason we get out early, I don''t know, but I think it''s a good reason,' he said.
Jennifer Jones, 18, a freshman from Sacramento, Calif., studying microbiology said, 'We get out earlier and that''s a trade-off. I''d rather get out earlier anyway, rather than stay in school until June.'
She said just taking the time to relax on the weekends works for her.
'If you go to colleges or other places that have a spring break, you see things that they do during their spring breaks and it doesn''t apply to the Honor Code,' Jones said.
Though Jones sees not having a spring break as a way to keep students from temptation, Morley said the lack of a spring only leaves students to the closer, more enticing options.
'No spring break, it forces students to get out, but what it does, it forces you to go to places that are nearby, for instance, Las Vegas, the city of sin or Wendover,' Morley said.
Students agree that if they had a spring break, they would most probably go home for the week.
Curtis Heyman, 23, a senior from Chandler, Ariz., studying communications, enjoyed the Olympic break of the 2002 Winter Semester at home. He said the break was refreshing.
'Well, you know how the winter is this year, it is so cold and we never see the sun, it''s depressing for a lot of warm weather folks,' Heyman said. 'So, the chance to get back and be out in the sun and just play and not worry about school and bad weather and dating -- it was good.'