The Other War on Christmas: an academic perspective

No, this post isn’t about attempts to eliminate all references to religious ideas from public acknowledgement of the holidays. Its about something far more insidious than that. It is about being an academic at Christmas and all the university crap that needs to be done while family and friends with their own views on what needs to be done.

First of all, one must wrap up the fall semester. There are essays to grade, exams to make up, exams to grade, panicked students to counsel, paperwork to be shuffled and what not.  Then there is going through all the darn textbooks for next semester’s courses, planning the darn thing, making up the syllabus, changing it, changing it back, giving up and starting over. And then one must get some research done.

In addition to that, there are Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, Christmas travelling, and all the usual frustrations that brings. Of course, the big meal, the prezzies, the fun is, well, fun. And it is nice to see family and what not. But somewhere in all of this a hell of a lot of work has to get done and there isn’t a lot of time to get it done. The thing that gets me is that I’m usually pretty tired from the past semester and just need time to rest. If a lot of travelling is in the picture rest is something that is at a premium.

Compounding all of this is the totally aggravating schedule the U. of Lethbridge follows. We did not start our Fall semester until around the 9th of September! Don’t ask me why. They had New Student Orientation at the end of one week, and never started classes until the Wednesday or Thursday of the week following.  At the other end of the term, our last class is on Dec. 11 and the exam period goes to Dec. 21! The Admin offices will close at noon on the 24th, so that doesn’t give a lot of time to grade exams.

Fortunately for me, my two exams are on the 14th and 17th this year. The odd schedule does actually impact how some profs with a late exam actually assess their students. Fewer essay questions and more, easy to mark, multiple choice etc. Some classes scheduled for the last day have up to 65 students in them (and perhaps more, 65 is one that I know of). First day of classes in the New Year is January 6. Yeesh!

I know I’m not alone in thinking this way. For academics the Christmas “Holiday” is anything but.