Today's Update: Thursday, June 22, 2023

June 22, 2023

Dear Student Life team, 

To give ample time for planning, the university has announced that we will not facilitate an academic recess over winter break in the coming academic year.

I know that many team members enjoyed the academic recess over the past couple of years and that this news may be disappointing. Having said that, there are a great many factors and complexities that had to be considered and that led to this decision.

There are still many ways we can ensure that our team members are able to take advantage of the downtime that generally accompanies students’ winter break, including but not limited to:

• We will do all we can to support employees’ vacation requests.
• With significantly less traffic on our campuses, units can depend more heavily on remote work options. Frankly, the fewer people who are on campus will lead to lighter workloads for our environmental services, facilities and other teams who are unable to work remotely.
• I am going to ask that we transition from meeting-free Friday to a meeting-free break, starting the Monday after Commencement through Wednesday, January 3, 2024. I understand that we certainly may have urgent matters or unavoidable meetings that must take place. However, I also strongly believe that, particularly with months to plan, we can significantly free up schedules to allow our team to focus on self-care and well-being, get to projects they’ve been hoping to get to, complete educational modules, re-connect with colleagues and re-set their minds for the coming year.

Over the coming months, Student Life directors will be working with their teams to plan for the winter break, so if you have ideas or suggestions, please share them. 

Thanks so much for your continued Scarlet and Great work!

 

Melissa S. Shivers, PhD

Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University