After students and faculty attended classes on Veterans Day earlier this month, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Nov. 22 unanimously passed a resolution calling for the university not to hold classes on future Veterans Days and to better integrate veterans into its celebration of the holiday.
The administration has already scheduled classes on Veterans Day next year.
TCU Senators Chas Morrison, Bruce Ratain and Sam Wallis, all juniors, submitted the resolution entitled "A Resolution To Better Integrate Veterans Day Into Undergraduate Life" on Nov. 15. They sought to promote greater respect and recognition of the nation's armed forces on Veterans Day.
"It seems very clear that as a nation and as a university, honoring those who serve our country should stand as a crucial and really inalienable value, and an aspect of showing that respect and gratitude includes not holding classes," Ratain said.
Morrison agreed on the importance of honoring veterans, referencing the participation of many Tufts alumni and students in the armed forces.
"I think a number of us were concerned that, given that a number of Tufts students are already veterans or served in the armed forces, the university had obligations to not just them but to all of the other veterans who put their lives on the line to protect the country," Morrison said.
The resolution's demand to abstain from classes may not be so easy to meet, though.
The administration schedules its academic calendars five years at a time, according to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser. Though Veterans Day was considered a university holiday, Tufts faculty voted last spring to hold classes on the day after discovering that this year's academic calendar fell one day short of the required number of class days this semester.
The administration has not scheduled class on Veterans Day in 2011 and 2012, and it did not hold classes on Veterans Day last year. However, classes will be held next year unless changes can be made to work around the constraints imposed by the calendar. If the faculty votes to have Veterans Day off next year, a committee would have to adjust the calendar to make up for the lost day, Glaser said.
The Senate is planning to meet with administrators before the end of the fall semester to work on the calendar.
"There is no easy solution in terms of how schedules work out and finding a day off to keep a balance, but at the same time the Senate wants to find a way to properly begin respecting Veterans Day," Morrison said. "We owe it to them to remember."
The resolution also calls for better integration of veterans and Veterans Day in the "Tufts experience."
Along with the annual Veterans Day ceremony held on the Memorial Steps, Morrison said the university could sponsor other events during the day, such as inviting veterans from the Medford and Somerville communities to talk about their experiences with Tufts students.
"[It is] a good idea for Tufts' community to have more of a dialogue about Tufts' veterans," said TCU Senator Edward Chao, a junior who is an Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) cadet.
The resolution garnered different reactions from students. Amanda Hay, a freshman, supported having classes off on Veterans Day at the expense of other university holidays.
"If there's a sizable ROTC community, I think it is more worth not having class on Veterans Day than, for example, Columbus Day and other holidays. Veterans matter a lot more in Tufts' community," she said.
But freshman Christina Liu remained uncertain as to whether having classes off would lead to increased student awareness of the holiday.
"I don't think not having class will make a big difference because it will not have the students commemorate the veterans more," she said, adding that more university publicity for the holiday would better promote awareness of Veterans Day among students.
