Thanksgiving Week Classes
Dear students, faculty, and staff,
I am writing to formalize that the College will no longer hold classes during the week of Thanksgiving, beginning with the 2024–2025 academic year.
Modifying the academic calendar to extend the break requires us to make up two additional class days, and at the faculty meeting last Friday, the faculty conducted a ranked-choice vote on six options for doing so—including maintaining the status quo of holding classes on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. The results of that vote are an endorsement by the faculty of the option to eliminate all classes that week and to make up the two canceled class days by starting classes one day earlier at the beginning of the semester and by removing one day of final exams at the end of the semester.
As I indicated at the faculty meeting last Friday, I will follow the advice of the faculty and will implement the option they have selected. While classes will not be held, we expect that a number of students will choose to stay on campus for Thanksgiving week, and College offices will remain open that Monday and Tuesday. Specific details will be worked out by the Calendar Committee and will be communicated to the campus community early next semester.
A great deal of work and thoughtful consideration has gone into this decision by the Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs, by the faculty, and staff colleagues across campus, and I am grateful for their collective input. I also appreciate the strong engagement by Bowdoin Student Government and the student body on this topic and the detailed feedback they provided as faculty considered the various options.
Best,
Safa