Ciara Fuson
Staff Writer
cbenham@murraystate.edu

As part of a non-traditional semester, Murray State included two “non-instructional” days to replace Spring Break. After having both non-instructional days on Wednesday, Feb. 24, and Tuesday, March 30, students are voicing their opinions. 

In the fall of 2020, Murray State announced that Spring Break would be omitted in the following spring semester in accordance with COVID-19 regulations. Instead of the full week off in March, students would have a “non-instructional study day” on Feb. 24 and March 30. 

According to a Campus News email from Provost Tim Todd, “This day is designed to serve as a break.” 

Despite the sentiment, some students did not view the day as a break, as many used the day to catch up on work. 

Senior Katie Zheng from Madisonville, Kentucky, is one of the students that did not get to take the days off.  Zheng spent the days completing papers, catching up on assignments and practicing for her trumpet lessons. 

“While we don’t learn any new materials, we are still expected to apply our studies in other ways that still affect our grades,” Zheng said.

Some students did use their non-instructional days to relax by taking a break from their studies. Junior William Longworth IV from Murray said he spent the days “goofing off.” 

However, even students who took the days off expressed concerns about the non-instructional days in general. 

“The non-instructional days are definitely not an adequate replacement for Spring Break, especially since they’re placed in the middle of the week,” Longworth said. 

The placement of the non-instructional days are a shared complaint amongst many students. 

While this placement was likely meant to discourage students from traveling amidst the pandemic, students do not feel like having mid-week breaks is beneficial.

“A better alternative would’ve been to group the days together on maybe a Thursday and Friday,” Zheng said. “This would allow for a long weekend instead of two random days in the middle of the school week and resuming the next day normally.”

Overall, students feel they are hitting the point in the semester where they feel burnt out. These feelings of exhaustion and lack of motivation are common for college students, but the non-traditional semester has only intensified these feelings. 

“I wish the university understood that online classes aren’t fun,” Longworth said. 

Despite the university framing non-instructional days as a “break,” students still feel like they are under a lot of pressure. 

“The university expects students to be able to perform at the highest level not given the circumstances of a global pandemic, an extended semester schedule and the technical difficulties of remote learning,” Zheng said. “Realistically, this is only setting up a small percentage of students to succeed: those who have access to adequate internet services, [a] support system, good mental and physical health and all of [the] basic human necessities.”

Across the board, it seems although class was cancelled nobody really got a break from school.