Holidays at Cornell

One of my biggest pet peeves about Cornell is the fact that campus isn’t closed on federal holidays. Now, this may not seem like a big deal to most students, but if you think about, it really should be. Who is Cornell University to say to the United States federal government that it doesn’t think that holidays like Labor Day, Veterans Day, and President’s Day are significant enough to cancel class for? Especially since not only do we have a whole college devoted to the study of labor, but three of our undergraduate colleges are partly funded by the New York State government? It is unfair of Cornell to deprive students and faculty of their government-given rights to honor laborers, veterans, and some of our greatest presidents. I understand that canceling classes for even one or two days in a semester can throw off a professor’s syllabus schedule and make it hard to cover all the course material necessary, but if offices at every level of local, state, and federal government can all manage to keep the nation running by missing a few business days throughout the year, I’m pretty sure that Cornell professors would be able to figure out how to structure their class schedules. If we ever want to be free to enjoy random weekdays off from school, students will have to become more outraged about Cornell thumbing its nose at the government and ignoring its decrees for vacation days!