Spring break is coming up at NCC, creating a busy time for faculty and students at the college. Individuals across campus are wrapping up midterm week with final exams or presentations as the college hits the last stretch before break.
This year, NCC’s spring break will take place from Monday, March 10 until Friday, March 14. It’ll give students a five-day break from classes before the last six weeks of classes resume.
An extended break like this creates a lot of buzz amongst students as they plan for vacations or meeting up with friends and family. It especially provides relief for students who have been pushing ahead with work, classes and extracurriculars for the past 10 weeks and gives them time to think about how this semester has been an look ahead to what’s left.
While the timing of spring break changes every year, this will only be the sixth year of having a mid-semester break around March since NCC switched from trimesters in 2019.
Student opinion
For students, the lead into spring break is a trying time, muddled with mid-term exams, assignments and other non-academic responsibilities.
NCC student AJ Abdallah, ‘26, a recent transfer, said his experience has been stressful, consisting of “all studying and working.”
“I feel like the institutions I attended earlier were easier as well as high school,” Abdallah, ‘26, said. “For this school because [mid-term week is] more difficult, I’m not really looking forward to [spring break]as much.”
Abdallah said his major change likely had a big part to play because of the difference in course load.
Even while planning to spend the break working, Abdallah, ‘26, said the break from classes will be nice. He is also looking forward to working more.
“Ever since I came to this school, I’ve been feeling more ambitious. I want to do more than just sit there and do nothing,” Abdallah, ‘26, said.
Still having assignments is a secondary concern compared to the plans he has.
“I think I’ll definitely find some more enjoyment, for me specifically because it’s Ramadan,” Abdallah, ‘26, said. “Me and my friends, what we would do is go out to eat around 3 to 4 a.m. before we have to stop eating for the day, so the break will definitely give us more time to do that.”
The weather is still a bit cold, according to Abdallah, ‘26, and spring break falls at an okay time because of it, especially for those going on vacation.
Faculty opinion
Students aren’t the only ones looking forward to the break.
Steve Macek, a professor of Communication, said he is looking forward to the week off as well. Macek also serves as the faculty speaker which adds on a lot of responsibilities.
“I feel like I’ve been stretched thin and like I’m counting the days to be done,” Macek said.
Normally, Macek has faculty speaker duties that follow him into spring break. This year though, it’s just a time to catch up on grading even when traveling.
“I’ll be traveling the Friday before spring break starts to see family,” Macek said. “So, I will be taking exams on the plane and grading them while I’m there.”
According to Macek, this has been his spring break routine since the move away from trimesters.
Macek said he feels like the break has been a little late this year, pointing out that after break, there will only be six weeks out of the 16-week semester left.
“If it was going to perform the catch-up factor, it should’ve been earlier,” Macek said.
Since the semester needs to end in time for May term to begin, there isn’t much leeway for break planning.
Macek said he would be interested to see how the timing would be if there were more long weekends instead.
School work over break
Across professors and students, both have varying levels of work that follow them.
For Abdallah, there is a major group project for one of his classes. His professor expects project group members to meet up at least once over break to work on the assignment.
Macek said this expectation, while frustrating for students, isn’t uncommon amongst professors.
“I think in upper-level courses it’s okay,” Macek said. “You’re supposed to be more sophisticated and mature students, and they need longer to work on certain kinds of projects.”
According to Macek, these expectations come from the amount of time needed for reading and writing. For lower-level courses, this isn’t as necessary. For all students, whether they have required work or not, Macek recommended to at least consider looking ahead at assignments.
Following the break, NCC’s semester will resume March 17.
