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Showing posts from March, 2010

Scheduling class near university breaks

Every semester, we have a particular day (or days) that have extremely low class attendance because they fall right before a break. In fall, it's Thanksgiving. Miami is closed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so there are only two days of classes that week. A lot of students see it as opportunity to go home (or on a trip) for the entire week and leave town the weekend before Thanksgiving. Another time like this is right before Spring Break. The Thursday before Spring Break is celebrated by the students as " Green Beer Day *" (although some students do show up to class intoxicated). Even among students not drinking on Thursday, many leave town that day or the next so that attendance is always meager that Friday. Every semester, we (faculty and staff) receive emails from the university administration warning us not to cancel classes on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving or on Green Beer Day. Last fall, we even had an email from the Provost that included this: Dear colleague