You know the feeling: the weekend has come to a close and the alarm ringing on the bedside table is a constant reminder that maybe drinking on a Sunday night was not the best of ideas. You open your eyes and the thought of the impending day of classes is almost enough to make you want to pretend that all of this is just a horrible, very realistic dream.
Now, for a moment, imagine having to relive the agony of Monday mornings twice in one week. Brace yourselves kids; this horrifying nightmare will become reality during the week of Feb. 9-13.
Due to a policy in the CSU scheduling system which states that two Monday holidays cannot be observed in the same quarter, Friday Feb 13 will follow a Monday class schedule.
What happened to the good old days of celebrating both Martin Luther King, Jr’s and George Washington’s birthdays without consequence? Personally, between studying for untimely midterms (honestly, week 3 is not the middle of the term) and pumping out papers and projects like nobody’s business, I feel that the students at Cal Poly deserve both of these days off without question. Am I right?
Now, to be honest, I’ve been quite spoiled in the nine quarters that I have attended Cal Poly. I have never had a Friday class. Never. I do realize that for some majors, avoiding a Friday class just is not in the cards.
As a journalism major where the majority of my classes are scheduled on Mondays and Wednesdays, it makes it easier to find general education courses that fit my ideal schedule. Along the same lines, though, I make it a point to spend as much time as necessary on PASS, sometimes even weeks before my registration appointment, creating many options of different class schedules to secure myself the perpetual three-day weekend that I’ve been accustomed to.
Now hang on a second before you jump down my throat and point out my hypocrisies. I would like to add that I use those three-day weekends to earn money.
As it is, my weekly work schedule consists of three 8-hour shifts: Thursday from noon until 8:30 and Friday and Saturday from 9:30 until 6. Is it really fair to have to take off work to go to classes that I had already allotted time for in the week? Help me out here, Cal Poly.
In the current economic downward spiral, I don’t think that I am alone when I say that I need every dollar I can get my hands on. Maybe the $72 (before taxes) that I’m giving up by missing that 8-hour shift seems like chump change to the hundreds of thousands that certain administrators make, but as a student, every little bit counts.
What’s the harm in taking a few days out of our lives to relax and appreciate the contributions of a few noteworthy individuals in our country’s history? Is it really the crisis situation if a few classes don’t have the same amount of scheduled class time as others? Isn’t this what technology is there for, to provide a means of passing on information that doesn’t rely on face-to-face communication?
For now, instead of following my normal routine of working on my day off, I guess you’ll see me grudgingly making my way to class. Literally, it’ll be just another case of the Mondays.
Cassandra Keyse is a journalism senior and a Mustang Daily reporter.