To the Editor:
In the past I have expressed my disapproval for the manner in which the College handles the Veteran's Day federal holiday, and today I find myself doing so because of the arguably worse treatment of Memorial Day. At this college, Memorial Day is used as the first day of reading period for final exams. This use could be considered acceptable if the second such day were immediately to follow it, but it does not. Rather, there are two subsequent days of class, then the second day of reading period, and then finals. This pattern is unique to Spring term and seems to me a way of providing the Dartmouth community with a Memorial Day holiday while not incurring the expense of an unproductive day in the Spring term's academic calendar. The observance of this holiday for the purposes of scheduling ease is a perversion of its intent and as such is a worse degradation than a failure to recognize it at all.
While some may have grown accustomed to the reluctance of Dartmouth to participate in federal holidays, and others may see this issue as trivial, I can assure you that to me it does not seem so. This holiday is just that, a holiday, a day free of work in honor of and for reflection upon the actions of those who have given their lives for the rights and freedoms that the United States of America guarantees. I am appalled to the point of disgust by the respect the administration, and by extension the college as a whole, reserves for Harvard Weekend and Winter Carnival as compared to that accorded to American soldiers who died in the line of duty. The sacrifices of these men were not made so as to provide a way of making the reading period at this college more economical or convenient for the administration.
