Students and professors will have Labor Day off next year for the first time in decades.
The request to reevaluate holding classes on Labor Day was proposed by faculty members in the University Schedule Committee and approved in the spring, according to Frank Blalark, associate vice provost and university registrar.
“The committee raised the question about classes at our meeting last spring and did not see a reason why the day should not be a holiday for everyone,” wrote Timothy Johnson, associate dean for professional programs and University Schedule Committee member, in an email.
“Unlike the Martin Luther King holiday in January, however, we will not make up that Monday,” Johnson wrote.
Based on “collective institutional memory,” Duke has held classes on Labor Day for the past 44 years, according to Blalark.
“Next year might be the first year (in a very long time) that Duke has not held classes on Labor Day,” he added in the email.
This year, Labor Day was recognized as a designated holiday for University staff, health system staff and staff in academic medical and research units. Ph.D. and master’s students serving as resident assistants, teaching assistants or graduate assistants also had the day off for the federal holiday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Vishal Jammulapati is a Trinity sophomore and an associate news editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.