For the 2022 school year, California Lutheran University decided to hold spring break on week 12 of the semester which means break starts on April 11 and continues through the 15.

Typically, spring break falls around the middle of the semester which offers students and faculty the opportunity to rest and catch up on unfinished work. Last school year, Cal Lutheran canceled spring break in hopes to lower the amount of students exposed to COVID-19 which shortened the semester. 

Associate Vice President of Academic Services and Registrar Maria Kohnke helps create the academic calendar. Kohnke said that they have a set of criteria that they use when making the university’s calendar. 

“Some of that is set by compliance issues like funding, there are financial aid regulations related to how much time is allocated, there are accreditation issues we have to follow. Also, we need to make sure that since we are a semester school we have a certain number of days, and there’s enough time to get the right number of Carnegie hours in for each of the classes,” Kohnke said. 

Kohnke said the process of creating the calendar goes through multiple phases.

“Generally speaking, the calendar is drafted by my office, it then gets reviewed by the faculty review, and then it gets approved by the cabinet who ultimately is the one that approves the calendar,” Kohnke said. 

When deciding where in the calendar to put spring break, the university tries to put it with Easter to avoid confusion.

“If we move it around too much, sometimes people get confused and then we get complaints because they don’t know if it will be early or if it will be late,” Kohnke said.

Kohnke said there are a lot of different factors that go into making sure the calendar works and doesn’t disrupt the flow of the semester for students. She said that this spring break is the latest it has been in the semester and most likely won’t be later than this in the following years. 

“We try and do our best to make the calendars stable from year to year for students and we do recognize that students need breaks,” Kohnke said.

Senior Lauren DeRosa said her mental health is going to suffer come April with the lack of a spring break. 

“As a senior, the spring semester is so critical to making sure that life before the real world is all in order, and it’s truly crunch time for most of us. Internships, job applications, even just basic graduation needs like photos and sitting down to write announcements and thank you cards is time consuming,” DeRosa said.

DeRosa said she was relieved that spring break wasn’t canceled all together like last year but she still thinks it feels too far away.

“Pushing spring break back, even by this one week, has been difficult to make plans,” DeRosa said. 

Students aren’t the only ones affected by the late spring break, teachers are starting to feel the stress as well. DeRosa said she feels like the support from faculty has been lacking as a result of the late spring break.

Professor Marina Litvinsky said that there are effects to having spring break later in the semester. She said that this results in her having to be strategic about when she assigns work.

“It’s a break in the flow and it gives students a chance to either study if the midterm is after, or to get a really nice break after finishing the midterm and then having a week off, to just relax,” Litvinsky said. 

If a student needs clarification on the calendar or has any further questions, Kohnke recommends that they contact academic services.