Reading Day is no more

Reading+Day+is+no+more

Peter Ludolph, Staff Reporter

The rumors have been circulating for a long time, but it is now confirmed: Reading Day is no more. For the 2015-16 calendar year, there will be no reading day built into the calendar. The day will instead be just another Friday worth of classes rather than a day off. The upcoming April 24 Reading Day will be the college’s last.

According to Meg Albrinck, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, the change is occurring in large part due to “behavioral incidents.” Reading Day has been a long time celebration of the end of the semester for many students, especially with an unofficial event called the “Catalina Wine Mixer,” which is a day of drinking and drinking games that The Mirror did a story on last year, entitled “A friendly wine warning.”

With increasing incidents as a result of these celebratory activities, the college has deemed Reading Day necessary for elimination.

“Things have gotten to a point where it has become clear that if one is on campus and trying to take advantage of the time, it is pretty hard to focus given some of the other students’ behavior,” Albrinck said.

According to Albrinck, the Reading Day itself came to be in the last decade. Originally it was only in the spring term and was designed for seniors whose grades needed to be in early during finals week. The structure for grading has changed, so there is little need for the day for that reason.

Lindsey Vagnini, sophomore communications major, said, “It is unfortunate because there are a lot of people who use that time wisely and they deserve it for that reason.”

Albrinck said, “I think the problems with Reading Day, particularly in the spring term, have been growing for a couple of years, so concern for Reading Day was surfacing regularly both in student affairs and academic affairs over that three year period.”

When the college sets the calendar, they must set it at least one year in advance. There were discussions about Reading Day being eliminated last year, but the calendar had already included it for this year. In preparation for next year, it was taken out of the calendar.

There will not be another free day built into the calendar like Reading Day.

“It will be a day of class, at least for now,” Albrinck said.