The semester is over. We have lost 1/3 of our semester, and it's beyond recovery. That's a third of instruction, guidance, lab time, and learning. We paid for 15 weeks of instruction within a given time frame, and now the colleges are trying to salvage a ruined semester in order to save money and then shovel it back to us as though this is what we paid for.
Attempting to "save" the semester is wildly irresponsible. Reducing the Christmas break by the proposed amount takes away valuable time where students would normally find balance after exams and final assignments. This is time for family. for friends. for our health. We need that time, and we need our Winter reading break. Putting students through stress like this for as long as the colleges are planning to is insane. Student suicide is already a fire; this is an accelerant.
This semester should be cancelled and picked up again come January, at no additional charge to students. The next semester can run through the summer, and by then, most programs will be back on track for next September. We simply can't cram an entire semester into the amount of time that we are trying to do it in.
It's unreasonable. It's irresponsible. It's NOT student-focused.
