Many students throughout the CU Boulder campus and global student community are coping with increased mental health concerns and stresses (Courtesy of University of Colorado Boulder)
Alexia: Hi! I’m Alexia Bailey, a sophomore here at CU Boulder. While I may just be in my second year, I’m here to share everything I’ve picked up so far, which is a surprising amount of information. “What’s Eating at Alexia” is my unofficial and unfiltered guide to some of the things that being a CU Boulder Buff brings. Think of it as your guide to navigating everything that makes CU Boulder, well, CU Boulder. Whether you’re a freshman finding your footing or a senior with “no body, no crime” level grievances about finals week, I’m here to share my takes, tips and honest observations on everything from the sometimes-unpredictable Buff Bus system to navigating campus protests (or dodging them entirely). College is a wild, unforgettable ride, and “What’s eating at Alexia” is here to make sense of some of it, one opinion at a time.
Uno, the game where you betray your roommates and forget whose turn it is, which feels oddly similar to how CU Boulder’s administration keeps losing track of what students actually need in a semester schedule.
The fact that we go from late August to late November without a break is ludicrous. Sure, we get a mid-semester reading day, but that’s right smack in the middle of midterms, so it’s not even a real break. It’s just a day where professors tell us to work on their midterms, thinking that their class is the center of our universe. Spoiler alert, it’s not. It feels like CU pretends to be student-focused when it comes up with the new schedule, but it’s very clearly not.
Because of this new schedule, we go on Fall and Thanksgiving Break from Sat. Nov. 22 to Sun. Nov. 30. We then come back for a whole week of “learning,” then finals the week after. Do I even need to point out how unfair this schedule is to out-of-state students? Having to pay for four flights in this day and age is extremely expensive. It is also such a pain to go back and forth. Is this what out-of-state students signed up for when going to college far away? In my opinion, CU faculty who are in charge of creating the schedules and breaks should have thought about how this schedule would affect everyone, not just the select few students who complained about the old schedule.
According to the Office of the Registrar’s website, “former Chancellor Philip DiStefano made this decision [to change the schedule] in December 2023 after considering input from campus constituents impacted by the academic calendar, including faculty, students and staff.”
However, I’m not sure who this new schedule is supposed to truly benefit. CU seems proud of the fact that finals are no longer on the weekend and that we now have that last weekend to study. In fact, they’re calling that Sunday an “extra reading day.” However, I don’t know anyone who actually appreciates this. The large majority of us, myself included, wouldn’t mind taking finals over the weekend if it meant being able to go home earlier. Going home for Fall Break, getting a taste of our parents’ cooking, and then returning to CU for just two weeks is strange. It’s a system that sets students up to fail, because students like me will most likely spend Fall Break working on homework. What kind of break is that?
CU touts that by changing the schedule, Monday–Wednesday–Friday and Tuesday–Thursday classes now have the same number of days. But honestly, is that really worth it? From what I’ve seen, professors are just as exhausted as students—canceling class, moving things online, or trying to cram in lectures before break. We’re all running on fumes. Going for months without a real pause isn’t sustainable, no matter how neatly the calendar evens out on paper.
I just hope CU realizes soon that balance on a spreadsheet doesn’t equal balance in our lives. I miss when reading days actually felt like a breather, when Fall Break felt like rest and when booking a flight home felt like something to look forward to, not another chore at the end of a never-ending semester.
Contact CU Independent Opinion Editor Alexia Bailey at alexia.bailey@colorado.edu
