Headline: Penn State’s Wellness Days 

Author: Matt Achtziger

In December of 2020, Penn State announced that the university would have three “wellness days” throughout the spring semester in lieu of a full week off for Spring Break. These wellness days will have corresponding themes with various programs for students and staff alike.

The themes for the wellness days are as follows:

• Tuesday, Feb. 9 – Financial and occupational dimensions of wellness
• Thursday, March 11 – Intellectual and spiritual wellness
• Wednesday, April 7 – Physical and environmental wellness

Penn State is not alone in its decision to remove spring break from the academic calendar; in the interest of discouraging travel during the COVID pandemic, many universities have done the same.

Personally, I do not know that any of my peers will take advantage of the various programs offered by the university for the first wellness day. This anecdote may reflect another component surrounding the wellness days: is it worth the university’s time to attempt to offer activities these days? It seems that most students, including myself, will use the time to sleep in and forget about classes for a day. Though in good faith, the university may be focusing too much on creating programs that not many students will fully explore.

However, it should be noted that the first wellness day takes place before students returning to campus are permitted to move in; perhaps once students are on campus, they will be more likely to engage in the offered programs.

Additionally, the decision to have the wellness days on every day of the week sans Monday and Friday is to discourage travel. I would appreciate a long weekend, but this decision is also understandable. Yet, on-campus students are permitted to travel over the weekend regardless, and commuter students travel home daily, so it seems that it may be an unnecessary measure.

It also seems odd that the university would cause Tuesday/Thursday classes to lose two days of instruction, as many classes scheduled on those days only meet twice a week. This again may reflect an attempt to reduce travel by continuing instruction each Monday and Friday.

While the wellness days are a welcome addition to a spring break-less semester, the university should add two more to the schedule. This semester is already exceptional for many students and faculty, and it would seem fair to add two more days, perhaps Wednesdays, to make the semester more bearable.

Ultimately, the decision to remove spring break in the interest of reducing COVID cases is the right one, as is adding wellness days to give students breaks throughout the semester. However, the university should have added two more days so that the amount of days off is the same that students would have received with a full spring break.