Today is Memorial Day in the US, which is a holiday to honor the dead of our various wars. It's also the traditional start of summer-type activities, and most people spend it at cookouts and parades and that sort of thing. I say "most people," because our trimester calendar means that we're still in session, and today is a class day like any other, except most of the administrative staff are taking the day off.
In honor of this, a poll:
The serious options in the poll are all official holidays that are honored by the federal government and many public schools, but not by the institutions of higher education that I've been associated with in my career. Not that I'm bitter about that, or anything...
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Today is Memorial Day in the US, the official holiday for remembering the men and women killed in our various wars. It's also the traditional start of the summer season, which means that it's always an odd collision of the solemn and the raucous. Growing up, there was always a parade in town, which…
For most people in the US, this is a day off. For most academics in the US, this is already summer. Not so for us-- we're on trimesters, so we're still in session, and have classes scheduled. This tends to undercut the solemnity of the occasion.
There's also an Admissions event today, and then I'm…
It's that time of year again, when I start thinking about my fall term classes. I would really prefer to put it off for another couple of weeks, and I will put off spending much time on class prep in favor of finishing up some paper-writing and other things, but when the calendar turns to August, I…
As mentioned a while back, I'm experimenting with "active learning" techniques in my intro courses this term. Specifically, I'm doing a variant of the "Peer Instruction" method developed by Eric Mazur and others. There are a few complications imposed by our calendar/ class schedule, but I'm giving…
I'm offended by the very idea of having to work on "labor day". Plus, the weather is often decent.
Her Majesty's (official) birthday isn't a holiday in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although some of the less civilised countries (like Australia) do use it as an excuse to not do any work. She does give her civil servants a day off, which was always annoying at the place where I did my PhD, because the scientific staff weren't civil servants, but the support staff (technicians and admin) were. So they all buggered off for the day, leaving us to battle on.
BTW, I think the UK should celebrate Thanksgiving. But we should do it on July 4th.
Due to administrative incompetence, we've had student lab sessions planned on official holidays several times. Unfortunately the building was closed and undergrads only get an electronic key when they start their thesis work. This meant lots of banging on grad office windows (they never leave anyway).
The rumours about cycling in the cafeteria are, by the way, just that. No matter what the CCTV footage implies.
My criterion is simple: If I have to work and mail isn't being delivered, I regard that as annoying. In my world, that covers Presidents' Day and Veterans' Day. We're not in session on the other three specified holidays, so if I'm in my office then (as I am today), it's my fault.
Oh feel sorry for the poor spammers, who aren't on holiday either.
Any day I have to "take off" is unpaid (paid holidays? what're those?). Money == goood.
What is a holiday?
Hands down, it's Memorial Day. Last Monday of May, it's the first holiday we get after mid-February's, er, mumblemumble holiday. That's just too long a stretch without a paid day off.