Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stanford students have begun agitating for days off at the beginning of winter quarter to allow for penalty-free travel to the Orange Bowl, which takes place on December 3rd – the first day of the quarter. The petition, cleverly hyperlinked as “Clemency from Hennessy” has already attracted 1386 signatures. It calls on school administrators to “excuse Stanford students from the first two days of winter quarter,” presumably by extending winter break to cover those days. The petition relies on one core argument: Stanford needs to prove to the Doubting Thomases of the world that it is, in fact, a team that “travels well.” What are two days of school? Perhaps they are not much at all to ask for this special occasion (Miami in January is nice, after all). Or is it too much to adapt the school year around a game of football? I guess we’ll see people voting with their feet (how many people have already bought their ticket?) as much as their fingers on this one.
The petition was written by Zachary Warma ’11 and Wyndam Makowsky ’11.