For out-of-state students at UW-Madison, traveling home for the holidays can be stressful. Associated Students of Madison Representative Katherine Kerwin proposed new legislation at Wednesday’s Student Council meeting that would ease this stress.
Kerwin’s “Thanksgiving Legislation” proposed that ASM pressure professors to cancel class Nov. 23 before Thanksgiving this year. The legislation would also request that UW-Madison faculty, who set the academic calendar, eliminate classes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in future years.
Kerwin said that for out-of-state students, who have to purchase pricey plane tickets far in advance, there is not always enough time after classes to travel cross-country before the holiday.
“This will give a full 24-hour travel period to get home,” Kerwin said.
Ariela Rivkin, chair of the Grant Allocation Committee, said that as an out-of-state student she supports this legislation. She said many of her professors will cancel class on Wednesday; however, they don’t inform students until too late.
Rivkin also said that due to holiday travel costs, she and many other students can’t afford to purchase last-minute plane tickets or change an existing ticket.
Some representatives raised concerns that curriculum is already tightly packed without this additional time constraint.
But Kerwin said that many Big Ten schools already give students this day off, and Indiana University is done with classes the Friday before Thanksgiving. Additionally, representatives suggested adding a day to the calendar to offset the time lost.
The council passed the legislation for this year and offered many ideas for how the school could implement this change in the future.
