This time last year, students were filled with excitement when they were told their spring break would not only be one week but two weeks long to do whatever they wanted, thanks to Covid-19.  A year later, students are feeling devastated to learn that their toes in the water, bum in the sand week has been canceled. UNG announced last November that students will get a four-day weekend to be considered their spring break. The days they have given off will be April 1 and 2.

However, some students do not mind that their vacation time has been taken away from them. Brantley Waters is a senior on the Gainesville campus. “I honestly do not mind spring break being cut short as long as we are able to finish spring classes a little bit earlier. I think UNG had to do what was necessary for the students and the professors health this semester and for the future.” When comparing spring semester schedules, I learned that we took finals the first week of May last year, and they are scheduled for the same time this year. Fingers crossed we get this semester cut short.

“This did not ruin any of my plans because it worked out well the way my classes are scheduled this semester. I am just going to continue to work on my two days off from school.” With this break only being two days long, there is really nowhere to go and not much to do unless you can cram a vacation into two or three days on top of Covid-19 restrictions. However, students may take it upon themselves to still travel. “It could cause some danger to people’s health, but I believe that if you do go somewhere for spring break that everyone will follow whatever health protocols are necessary.”

“I believe that UNG has done a good job of controlling the virus and that they do not want to take a step backwards by risking more students possibly being exposed on a longer spring break.”- Brantley Waters

Although it was not on the UNG spring semester calendar, on Tuesday March 9 students did not attend classes for a mix of confusing reasons. Some professors emailed or posted announcements telling students that this was one of the spring break days. Other students were told it was an institution wide mental health day and some were told it was just simply a break. It was never made clear what this day was given off for, but I’m sure we can all agree it was a much-needed day long break.