Long weekend of fall term 2020 was shorter than in previous years. Lasting three days from Oct. 10-12, this year’s break was a full day shorter than last year’s long weekend of Oct. 12-15. According to Associate Head of School Catherine Rodrigue, “the COVID team met in July and we agreed to shorten the long weekend.” This decision was mainly a result of classes (except Freshman Humanities) only meeting three times a week this term, as opposed to the normal. It was also for this reason, that the administration made the choice of “not having final exams this fall or winter,” said Rodrigue. Junior Class Dean and temporary Director of Residential Life Leigh Wood said that “the shortened long weekend made sense because boarders were not allowed to leave campus.” Wood maintained that students and faculty were still able to relax during the weekend, and this was the ultimate goal. 

Peddie students have varying opinions about Peddie’s decision to shorten the fall long weekend. David Park ’21 noted that the fall long weekend was slightly different in the sense that, as a boarder, he couldn’t stay off campus for the night. However, he says that it was similar in that he could “still find some leisure time and sign out to go out during the day.” Park didn’t feel annoyed or stressed because of one less day as it just felt “like a vacation anyway, though it felt weird having to go to school when juniors were taking their PSATs” 

Louis Layman ’22 said that he was “quite annoyed about the school’s decision to shorten the long weekend,” as he “couldn’t get enough rest before the second half of the term resumed.” Layman says that he would have liked the long weekend to have been a day longer, as he then would have had more time to practice for his ACTs and prepare for debate tournaments. Mark Vongkitbuncha ’23 also was annoyed by the school’s decision. “I was originally planning to go on a snorkeling trip in Hua Hin for long weekend,” said Vongkitbuncha, “however, three days was not enough time to travel from and back to Hua Hin from Bangkok, so my family ended up cancelling the trip.” Vongkitbuncha wishes that the weekend had been longer like last year, so that he could have had time to truly relax during the middle of the term and go on a vacation.

“It wasn’t a typical long weekend for most students or faculty, but there’s been nothing typical about the fall term,” said Wood.