By Leah Ulatowski

Editor-in-Chief

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Reading Day, which is a day off from classes the Friday before finals week, should be used for its intended academic purposes. Oftentimes, this is an extremely bad day for the college in terms of negative publicity due to the immaturity of some people who abuse it with excessive partying and drinking. I understand why it was cut; something had to be done to preserve the college’s reputation and grant paying students who do not partake in the partying a safe environment to study for finals.

However, I do not believe the day should be axed because that is unfair to all of the diligent students who use it to prepare for finals. Instead, I would advocate moving it from Friday to Wednesday of the final week of classes.

In doing so, students will have a break to spend however they please, but there will no longer be the issue of a long weekend, which will hopefully curb the partying problem since the next day will be a regular school day.

I am not saying that students must use every moment of Reading Day to study or finish projects because that is unreasonable and unrealistic. Without an hour commute and my regular 8 a.m. class, you probably won’t find me awake before noon.

However, I will use most of the day to study and catch up on work. Oftentimes, the only reason I survive finals week is because Reading Day allows some extra time to meet all of the demands of the end of the semester.

I do not think there is any reason to cause problems on campus with uninhibited partying, drinking and gosh knows what else. It is unfortunate that the select few irresponsible individuals on campus have to ruin everything for everyone else at Lakeland, and it is not right that the administration chooses to punish all of us for the behavior of a few.

The party goers need to respect the individuals who pay thousands of dollars to attend this college and live on campus in the dorms; some of them may want to use Reading Day for studying or catching up on some much needed sleep and cannot do so with all of the ruckus from others.

Additionally, even for the commuter students like myself who can escape it all at our homes off campus, I honestly do not want to pay to attend an institution with a reputation for calling the cops to manage its unruly students and the harm they cause on the Friday before finals.

I want to be associated with an institution where students show restraint and respect for others and our college. I don’t want my future employers to take one look at my school name and ask about the Reading Day issues, especially if it is an employer from the area.

Ideally, the party goers would hold off for a few more days and bring mass havoc to their parents’ homes or summer residencies where the repercussions of their actions may be greater than at college.

However, since they refuse to take the mature course of action, I think the best option is to move the day to the middle of the week where a hangover or day in jail (just kidding…) could mean the failure of a class.