October 24, 2014
Every year, most students leave campus for fall break, with only a smattering of students remaining – principally West Coasters and international students. This year, because Fallcoming and Family Weekend happened both on the same weekend and right before fall break, a fair number of students who would usually go home remained. This highlights a perennial problem for those who stay on-campus: an almost complete lack of things to do.
Despite Hamilton’s small size, there is usually something going on most of the time. Fall break, however, seems to be an exception: an eventless void of time, trapped between the two halves of the semester. Some student organizations and clubs do organize trips and activities, such as HOC and the Debate club, but their budget and membership size cannot possibly provide the substantial amount of students remaining on-campus with entertainment.
For these students, fall break on the Hill is a depressing and money-draining experience. The relative loneliness of the campus, compounded by the increasingly cold weather, is exacerbated by a stale diet of ham sandwiches and reheated Chinese food. And yet, a substantial number of students do it every year, usually because it would not make economic sense to return home for just three or four days.
Student clubs could step up to the plate and organize events, trips, meetings or any time-killing activity to occupy the catatonic students left behind. However, the immediate problem is that most student groups see their numbers significantly drop during fall break. It is relatively easy to organize just about anything if ten or fifteen intelligent, motivated students set their minds to it; except that when manpower is cropped to two or three, it is much harder to get anything done. The only groups that can boast full rosters are sports teams, but they are already busy with practice or travelling to athletic competitions to be expected to organize an event.
Perhaps the charge should then fall to the College’s administration. Through already existing initiatives, such as the Levitt Center or the COOP, the administration could provide the funding necessary for an event that can kill the monotony and facilitate student bonding. Specifically with COOP, I believe that this break provides an excellent opportunity for students to engage with the local community, as it is one of the few days which Hamilton has off, but the rest of the Utica area continues to operate normally. Students could seize these days to truly immerse themselves with volunteering and tutoring.
In a similar vein, the Career Center organized a trip to Goldman Sachs on Friday of fall break so Hamilton students could network with alumni and learn more about different financial career paths. More trips like these should be organized so that students can live a normal business day in the shoes of a full-time professional. Shadowing can often be the simplest and most cost-effective career-related experience; perhaps Hamilton should encourage shadowing professionals in the Utica area.
Colleges and universities in upstate New York usually do not share our breaks. Cornell, for example, has its fall break on Monday and Tuesday (instead of Thursday and Friday), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has no fall break at all. This could also be an opportunity to coordinate visits to these nearby institutions and drop into a class or two to compare the academic environment and increase Hamilton’s intercollegiate connections. We could even organize an athletic match and have a diverse representation of Hamilton students, athletes and non-athletes alike, connect with students from neighbor colleges.
Finally, Student Assembly should consider reserving a small budget to help fund these activities. Just as Alternative Spring Break raises funds from multiple sources, perhaps we could start an “Alternative Fall Break” fund, to provide the necessary resources to organize trips, coordinate volunteering opportunities, or even have something as simple as a small mixer in Sadove for the students who stay behind. At this point in time, the obstinate languor that characterizes fall break is so bad that almost anything could ameliorate the situation.
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