Washington University’s spring semester will begin the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, giving students an additional week of rest following the fall semester.

This is not the first time schedule changes have shaken up winter break. For the past three years, classes started the Monday before the holiday, but several years earlier they started the Tuesday after. The change, which will continue for the next three years, will come with an extra week at the end of spring semester to avoid shortened classes.

The University’s Academic Calendar Committee, which is appointed by the provost and is comprised of representatives from each school at the University, works to decide new academic calendars four years ahead of the current year.

University Registrar Sue Hosack, who serves as the chair of the Academic Calendar Committee, said the extra week depends on factors such as how late in December the prior fall semester ended, the day of the week of the New Year’s holiday that year and the day for commencement in May.

“The general preference is to start the spring semester as early as possible to avoid a domino effect on the subsequent summer and fall semesters which would result in final exams in the fall running late into December—but sometimes it’s unavoidable,” Hosack said.

Students are, for the most part, content with the new schedule.

“Staying back at Arizona for an extra week means I get to escape the cold for another week,” freshman Jason Zheng said.