Going into the 2026-27 school year, I knew that this semester was going to be a bit different due to the later start. What I was not expecting was that the fall semester’s exams would take place the week of Christmas, nevertheless two days before it.
Upon realizing this was set in stone, I asked my professors when each exam would be. To my dismay, I heard the news I was hoping to avoid. My last final would be on December 23, from 2:45-4:45 p.m. For students who will have to fly back home like myself, this was the worst possible news to hear. After quickly searching flights, the realization hit that I would not be able to fly back home until Christmas Eve.
To add onto the mess, all of Springfield’s dorms close also on the 23rd, so I ask a simple, but important question. Why is the school putting students through this logistical nightmare?
I realized that this wasn’t going to be an issue for just myself, but for every single student that has to use air travel as their way to get to home from Springfield. With the amount of amazing students and student-athletes this school has from all parts of the country, and even the world, I cannot imagine why no modifications were made to the school calendar.
Because of this unfortunate timing, numerous students will have to deal with airports on one of their busiest days of the year, while also having to find a place to stay the night before. This extends beyond just the students. I think of all of the families, like my own, that will not have their child at home on Christmas Eve morning because their exam schedule forced them to fly home the day before Christmas.
It is because of situations like these why I again wonder why the semester calendar cannot be modified to accommodate students. If the school rules state that we must stick to the Labor Day schedule, why are there requirements that the exams must be in person?
At first thought, this just sounds like a student complaining about their exams, but this situation will present real challenges for some families. The biggest example is the high cost they will have to pay for booking a flight on Christmas Eve — a real financial problem that families are being thrown into, which I simply do not understand.
Take for example, Springfield College senior, Jodi Saeula, who details what her traveling nightmare will look like flying back to Hawaii.
“Since I live really far away, it’s already difficult enough for me to find flights that are affordable to go home. Since finals were so late this year, and my last final is Dec. 22 in the afternoon, I was able to find a flight to go home on the 23rd, but it was extremely expensive, and there was no way of going around this because it only got more expensive after that,” Saeula said. “I don’t want to be flying home later than Christmas, cause that’s just not fair to me or for my family. We kind of just had to bite the bullet and buy the expensive ticket so that I would be able to be home for Christmas with my family.”
To get some answers as to why this is happening to so many students this year, I talked to the Department Chair of Literature, Writing and Journalism, Dr. Anne Wheeler, to try and get some more information.
“The idea is that the standard practice of the school is to start after Labor Day. I’m not on the calendar committee, but my understanding is it gives us a SOAR (Summer Orientation, Advising and Registration) weekend, so that new students can get really oriented, and we come into class that Tuesday,” Wheeler said. “I would say that there’s a lot of empathy for the exam schedule for sure. The faculty do not want to be issuing a final exam on December 23, but it’s the Labor Day start, and then the other factor is that we are governed by the Carnegie unit, which says how much work you have to do for each credit, and how much time makes up a credit hour.”
While this all makes sense, and it does not get lost on me that rules are rules, I can’t shake the fact that this seems like a good time to prevent this from happening to future students. Though it’s once every seven years when Labor Day falls as late as it does, that doesn’t mean that students need to be stressing out trying to book a flight the day before Christmas.
This is absolutely a preventable issue, but modifications would need to be made to the existing set of rules. If there is anything to know about rules, it is that they are incredibly hard to change, but that should not mean that we don’t make any effort to do so.
For every student that needs to fly home, for every family that has to spend a couple extra hundred dollars for late flights, and for every professor that will still be on campus instead of with their families, something has to give. I strongly implore school administrators to reconsider this issue for the future. While it is truly unfortunate that dozens of students won’t be able to get home until Christmas Eve, this is not a problem, nor a tradition, that we should pass on to future Springfield students.
For a school that prides itself on tradition — many of which we love — this is one I am sure that a majority of the student body would be happy to get rid of. I say that it’s time we finally move on from the Labor Day start and adjust to a schedule that hundreds of other colleges across the country use. I don’t say this for my own personal grievance, but for all members of the Springfield College community that will have their holiday plans upended by an outdated schedule.