This year, Thanksgiving break will start at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 23. This marks a return to a standard set in previous years after last year’s “Polar Pause,” which gave students the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week off. Despite discussion about the possibility of the “Polar Pause” returning next academic year, administrators are doubtful this will be feasible in the near future.

In an email sent to all students and faculty on November 4, 2021, President Clayton Rose, Dean of Academic Affairs Jennifer Scanlon and Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann wrote, “We are writing to let you know that we are canceling classes on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week to allow a full week to rest, recharge and spend time with family and friends and those who support us.”

Despite its welcome last year, the extended Thanksgiving break’s future is more complicated than expected.

“Since [Polar Pause] involves many divisions of the College and has implications for other events (we would have to make up the two days, most likely at the start of the academic year), we have not come to a conclusion yet,” Scanlon wrote in an email to the Orient.

If the length of Thanksgiving Break were to be extended, a faculty vote and approval by the President of the College would be needed to set the change in motion.

Chair of the Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA) Jack Bateman noted how an extended break would be connected to other issues and would require further discussion.

“GFA is indeed discussing the option of an extended Thanksgiving break,” Bateman wrote in an email to the Orient. “Currently, we are discussing how to make up those two days of instruction at another time of the semester.”