Should universities cancel in honor of past and present presidents?
High schools and workplaces around the country closed Monday for Presidents Day. While recognized by schools and companies, it seems most universities did not cancel classes for the day.
In many articles online, college students have discussed the concern about not having the holiday off.
“No class for me tomorrow, but this is the first Presidents Day off we’ve had since I’ve been there (in four years)” and “I don’t understand it, we get Martin Luther King Day off but not Presidents Day? MLK wasn’t a president yet we get his ‘day’ off and not the day celebrating Presidents off?” said users on the forum ‘AnandTech.’
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was brought up often, as universities had taken it off. Our own university postponed the first day of classes to Jan. 22, as to not intercept the Jan. 21 holiday.
Of course, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not the only holiday that has excused classes. Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving are three holidays with multiple days taken off.
The struggle faced with taking the day off is whether it will be used properly by the students. Unlike other holidays, such as Christmas, there are no specific traditions families have for Presidents Day.
There is more concern whether it would be seen as a leisure day or a day of meaning is debated between professors and students.
“It would mess up the scheduling, and I just do not believe any student would have a celebration for it,” said Angela Reisner, professor of American Sign Language.
Freshman Emma Wilmot answered, contradicting this, saying, “It would be nice, so we could take the day to honor our presidents. They let us off for MLK Day, so why not Presidents Day?”
To support this, Wilmot described how her high school took a ‘Presidents Week’ off to remember the past influential presidents. “Since we had the entire week off, they wanted us to focus on why we had it off to make sure we knew.”
“Yeah, why not?” said Sangelys Perez, a freshman finance major. “You have to see the importance of the presidency of this country.”
It may seem insignificant to adults for a student to recognize President’s Day. The fact of the matter is this though: in 2016, only 50 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds voted for the presidential election according to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. With over half of college-aged people not registering for elections, perhaps Presidents Day could be used as a lesson on elections of these presidents.
Presidents Day also presents a rich history behind it. When our country was founded, traditions from England had gone to America with the new leaders. Monarchs in England had celebrations for their birthdays; George Washington brought this to America with him. Ridicule had hit the tradition, and as a result the holiday had later changed to celebrate all of the presidents.
“Students could have a dinner and play some games outside. They could also have presidential contests during an event that asks questions like ‘Who was the 16th President?’” suggested Perez.
Having some sort of event on campus could support a student’s governmental knowledge and appreciation of the changes America has gone through.
Even if in the future the university chooses to not close for Presidents Day, the university still has the opportunity to use this holiday as a lesson for the students.
By Catherine Fleischhut, Contributing Writer
fleisccs18@bonaventure.edu
