VACATION COMPLAINT

As we glanced over the College calendar for 1913-14, we came upon this: Recess from December twenty-third to January second, inclusive. Then curiosity got the better of us, we looked up the dates, and found the first to be a Tuesday and the second a Friday; in other words, the last day at College before the recess will be a Monday and the first day back after it a Saturday. Though we realize perfectly that College vacations must be made by rule, still we feel that the rule should not be so iron-bound as to permit the obvious mistake of letting two tag-end days in Cambridge deprive five thousand students of two extra Sundays at home. The last day of a term is always one of abbreviated recitations, especially when the day happens to be a Monday, for it is hard to come down to any real work when the single day on which it must be done is flanked by holidays. And the first day of a term is always one of restless inattention, made only the more restless and useless by conditions similar to those just mentioned. Whether or not tag-end days are theoretically as good for work as other days, the fact is that no man can make satisfactory use of them. Therefore, we think that we should not be required to wait over a Sunday for the formality of being dismissed according to rule nor called back on a Saturday for the pleasure of signing on.

Had the authorities, in setting the dates for the Christmas vacation, been aware of the facts here mentioned, the CRIMSON is morally certain that they would not have given us this cause for complaint, but would have taken the same view which we have expressed. We are not making the old, general appeal for a longer Christmas recess, but are calling attention to a special case which could well be treated in a special way. Nor would it be contrary to precedent if the case were so treated, for, when a similar situation occurred in 1902-03, the CRIMSON called it to the attention of the Corporation which immediately extended the vacation to include January fourth. The Sunday before the vacation was not granted, probably because it was not asked for.

With these facts placed before them, we hope that the University authorities will grant us the two days that mean four days of vacation to us and will not consign us to four useless days among the mid-winter delights of Cambridge.