A Look Back On Wellness Days
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Last year, spring break was canceled by Penn State in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections.
With it gone, wellness days took its place.
This year, spring break made a return, exciting a lot of students on campus.
But Corey White, a third-year majoring in history and political science, felt that in some ways, spring break wasn’t that different in comparison to last year.
“The professors just assigned double the work when we got back,” White said. “It doesn’t really do all much, but it was fun while I was on it.”
Excited by spring break, students lamented their wellness days. Isa Ortolan, a third-year majoring in material science engineering, said that her workload didn’t change, but felt rejuvenated after her week-long break.
“It was just a nice break from reality,” Ortolan said. “I didn’t really like wellness days, I thought they didn’t give us a real break and most teachers still had work due, and they would just make a larger assignment the following day.”
This raises the question of whether Penn State should combine both spring break and wellness days throughout the semester.
White said that his major concern would be continue to be the workload given on break.
“I’m worried if wellness days were to come back on top of spring break that the professors would just ignore them like they sort of did last year,” White said. “It wouldn’t be a day off it would just be a day full of homework.”
Ortolan on the other hand praised the idea of having both breaks during the school year.
“I think it would depend on how the university went about it and if they actually enforced the wellness days being days without any work,” Ortolan said.
Jon Mead is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jkm6040@psu.edu.
