Many colleges and universities across the country chose to cancel spring break and looked for a replacement to ensure students still received some semblance of a break in the middle of the semester.
Last semester, the Provost’s office announced Bradley would be having two days (March 2 and April 7) where professors could not have any assignments due. Due to the lack of further guidelines from the university, many students and professors had differing interpretations when the first of the two days arrived.
The Bradley Student Senate did a survey on the day and received 365 responses. Of the students in the data, 72.6 percent said they had homework or had to do homework on the no-homework day, and 71.2 percent rated the day a 1 on a scale of 1-10, one being the worst. Only 1 percent of students that filled out the survey rated the day at a 10/10.
Some professors recognized the no-homework day in many different ways, with students reporting some canceled classes, deadlines moved to the following day, optional activities and regular assignments still being due.
Senior music and dietetics major Allison Gile said only two of her five professors abided by the no-homework day.
“We went to class and did classwork, but we didn’t have any homework,” Gile said. “One of them just pushed the quiz we normally have due at midnight to the next day at 8 a.m. In my other classes, we still had modules and quizzes due, [and] I still had papers due. None of my other professors actually put it in their syllabus.”
One professor, who would like to remain anonymous, cited unclear guidelines as the main reason they felt the day didn’t go as intended.
“Take [an] in-class activity that occurs entirely during our class period,” they said. “There’s prep work needed for that. Is that an assignment? Is that breaking the rules? I don’t know.”
This professor also mentioned the need to stay on track for the course, thereby still making the completion of homework a necessity.
“Most professors have a set plan for a whole semester,” they said. “If you create something like this, [homework] is just going to get shoved off to one side or another. Ultimately, that work has to get done.”
Lynnsey Lambrecht, professor of music theory, utilized the first no-homework day by replacing the homework normally due at every class period with an in-class activity and added two other days of similar nature to her syllabi to give students more small breaks.
Lambrecht also recognized that nothing can replace the whole week off that spring break normally provides, but said she still considers herself an advocate for the no-homework days because they provide small amounts of relief throughout the semester.
“I think we needed them, and I’m glad we had them available for the students’ well-being,” Lambrecht said. “I just think it’ll help them retain more and be more engaged because this really is a long semester.”
