All departments in the College of Arts & Sciences will select two days to cancel classes during the spring 2021 semester, as part of Washington University’s efforts to support student mental health and compensate for the absence of a spring break, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Jen Smith announced in an email to students, Dec. 7. The “study days” will take place on different days for different departments, meaning that although most students will not receive full days off, the workload on these days will be reduced.

Curran Neenan | Student Life

Students walk by Olin Library at the start of the fall 2020 semester.

Smith also announced stronger protections for the three existing wellness days, stating that professors could not schedule assessments or make assignments due the day after a wellness day, and no assignment or assessment worth more than 15% of a class’s total grade could be scheduled for two days following a wellness day. Assistant instructors will also not be required to return graded work on wellness days or the day after.

These changes are part of the University’s response to student backlash over the initial announcement that only two wellness days would be provided in lieu of spring break.

“The decision to limit students’ capacity to rest severely exacerbates the existing mental health strain caused by the ongoing pandemic and the University’s response,” the WashU Undergraduate and Graduate Workers Union wrote in a letter to the administration, Dec. 6.

According to Smith, adding more wellness days instead of creating the new study day system was impeded by the University’s accreditation requirements of 69 instructional days in the spring semester.

“We do know that this is not the same as additional full days off, but depending on your class schedule, even if study days do not generate some days without classes for you, you should end up with a few additional weeks throughout the semester that are at least a little lighter,” Smith wrote in a statement to Student Life.

The exact dates that departments choose to designate as study days will be announced around the last day of classes. The timing of these days will be almost entirely up to individual departments, with the exception that they cannot be scheduled on March 1, April 9 and April 13, which would essentially create long weekends in combination with wellness days.

“We’re allowing departments to schedule on Mondays/Fridays; since departments are choosing different days and students often have classes in different departments on the same day, we’re not expecting the study days will result in substantial numbers of students having long weekends,” Smith wrote. “The only restrictions we’ve put on the study days is that they not be placed so as [to] create a contiguous long weekend with the wellness days.”

Student Union has called for the University to delay the 2021 commencement ceremony, which would allow for additional instructional days and more flexibility for wellness days.

However, according to Smith, the University is still committed to having an in-person commencement ceremony in the spring, and even if the ceremony were to be delayed, other factors might still complicate the semester’s timing.

“We’re still planning for an in-person Commencement, and certainly once we’re into the spring semester, we’re committed to the academic calendar,” Smith wrote. “At that point, there are other concerns with making a decision to move the end of the semester besides Commencement—students’ plans to move out of St. Louis for the summer after their finals are over, start dates on jobs or internships, running into summer school which starts the Monday after Commencement, etc.”

However, regardless of what the final plan for the spring semester ends up being, SU plans to continue advocacy for the mental health needs of students.

“While more days are a step in the right direction, we are expecting more action [to] be taken, and will advocate for student needs,” SU President sophomore Ranen Miao said. “In the semester ahead, we will continue working to improve mental health for all students.”