Nearly 600 Georgetown University students and faculty have signed a petition as of Feb. 2 against a schedule change slated to shorten winter break by one week beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.

The petition references an official academic calendar for next school year, which indicates that winter break will be two and a half weeks as opposed to three and a half, the standard length for at least the past several years. The university did not make an announcement about the shortened winter break calendar. 

A university spokesperson said that while the university will take student concerns into account going forward, officials will not alter the dates of the 2024-25 break.

At 17 days, the 2024-25 break is roughly a week shorter than that typical of past years — in 2022-23, students had at least 23 days off and in 2023-24 the period between the last official final exam and the start of spring semester was 24 days. In 2020-21, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, winter break lasted over five weeks.

Toluwani Baoku (CAS ’27), the first-year student who started the petition, said her initial reaction was confusion after she first realized the change when planning an international trip for next winter.

“I thought it was a mistake at first,” Baoku told The Hoya. “I was a bit confused and a bit flabbergasted that they shortened winter break by one week, because it’s already so short.”

While winter break will be shorter, students will receive an additional week off in August, with classes starting in the last week of August rather than during the third week, as in recent years.

Baoku said her peers who are unable to visit home during the fall semester – including resident assistants who stay on campus for Thanksgiving break, international students and those without the financial means to travel home between August and December — inspired her efforts to prevent the shortening of winter break

“I had a lot of friends who had to stay over Thanksgiving break, so they were here from August to December without seeing their family, and I felt bad that they weren’t able to go home and relax during that fall break,” Baoku said.

Haruka So (SFS ’26), who lives in Tokyo, Japan, said she feels a shortened winter break will likely lead to high costs and significant time commitments for international students traveling home.

“International flights are usually really long, and can even take up to a day, which means two days of winter break are sacrificed to just traveling,” So wrote to The Hoya. “This is detrimental when the break is already really short.”

A university spokesperson said the 2024-25 winter break is not abnormally short, as it falls within the range typical for Georgetown.

“The winter break is typically two-and-a-half to three weeks long, depending upon how dates line up in a given year,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Academic calendars are carefully reviewed and approved by faculty, deans and university administration.”

Within the District, students at American University had a month off for winter break this year, and classes at The George Washington University paused from Dec. 19 to Jan. 16, making their breaks roughly a week longer than Georgetown’s. Neither school will shorten its break in 2024-25.

So said shortening winter break further exacerbates an existing divide between international students and those who are able to frequently travel home for shorter periods of time.

“There’s very limited amount of time we could spend with our family and friends, unlike other students who might get to go home every break, and even on a long weekend,” So wrote.

Baoku said the fact that hundreds of students have signed on to the petition reflects a unique dynamic at Georgetown — consensus on an issue.

“I was really thankful that the students at this school came together and were able to agree on one thing,” Baoku said. “I’m happy we’re able to come together and agree on one thing, and stand for one thing that we all really want to have happen.”