Coole Bans Fatigues After Weekend
Students returning from Family Weekend were overwhelmed by a no-reserve class day, an assembly check for four-year seniors and Dean of Student Health and Wellness Gordon Coole prohibiting fatigue visits to the Health Center.
According to Coole, his decision to deny fatigue visits on Tuesday comes out of wanting to instill good habits in students. “Two days off and the ability to fatigue the day afterwards?” Coole questioned. “We’re not doing right as educators if we enable bad decision making.”
“Two days off and the ability to fatigue the day afterwards?” Coole questioned. “We’re not doing right as educators if we enable bad decision making.”
Although he recognized the workload that Exonians have, Coole does not see a valid reason for students not being able to wake up for classes after two days of no required appointments. Coole stressed that he does not want to encourage behavior such as sleeping until noon on Monday and then staying up Monday night during Family Weekend.
The inherent issue is that, currently, there is no official policy governing fatigue visits to the Health Center. There is no written description of the program, in either the E Book or the Health Center’s guidelines—it is “a policy without a policy,” as Coole described. “I love the concept and the intent, but there’s nothing in writing, just a ‘make-it-up-as-we-go’ arrangement.”
By setting formal guidelines, Coole is establishing a precedent for how the fatigue program will run in following years. He is currently meeting with various faculty members to draft a policy that would disallow fatigues after days with no required appointments—including Mondays following normal weekends.
“Typically on Mondays, we wouldn’t want to allow fatigues to happen, because you have Sunday off,” Coole said. This informal rule has been in existence for “a few years,” though never consistently reinforced.
Students who did not adequately plan for Family Weekend suffered the consequences. “The extended weekend messed up my sleep schedule, and I woke up Tuesday feeling awful,” upper day student John Doe* said. “I didn’t feel safe driving in such a tired state, and my parents both had to go to work…I asked my mom to call me in. They said I couldn’t fatigue, so my mom had to say my stomach hurt.”
However, some were frustrated with this unexpected change as they truly were busy during Family Weekend. Many wanted to spend uninterrupted quality time with their families, while others had to make up unfinished work. Seniors particularly utilized the time to tour colleges and to edit their Common Application and supplemental essays.
Jane Doe*, a student who was not feeling well when she arrived at the Lamont Health Center, did not understand the decision change. “Family situations can also be a source of stress for students who, therefore, may need to fatigue,” Doe said. “I understand that the administration doesn’t want students to over-fatigue—students already know that missing class hurts their academic performance. I don’t really understand the decision, though, especially with college apps due soon.”
The fact that Family Weekend was followed by a five class day worsened the situation. Most teachers assigned the usual length of homework or even major assessments that students had to prepare for, unaware of the change in schedule. “I thought that Tuesday was a regular class day, so I gave them the usual length of homework,” Science Instructor Michelle Chapman said. “I don’t remember the Tuesday after Family Weekend having an altered schedule in the past. I would support going back to having a regular class day so students could spend more time with their families.”
Upper Olivia Lazorik had a biology test, a math quiz and an English paper due on the Tuesday after Family Weekend. “It was very overwhelming…I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would’ve liked with my parents. It’s not appropriate to give a lot of tests after Family Weekend,” she said.
This was the first time the Tuesday after Family Weekend was a five class, or no reserve day, according to Director of Studies Scott Saltman. “It was done in order to better balance the number of Formats in a term with quite a large number of ‘special schedule’ days,” he said. “The classes that don’t use the reserve fall behind in terms of format count. There would have been quite a long gap between two class meetings for some formats.”
Saltman noted, however, that he would try to limit the number of “special-schedule days” in upcoming years, so that no reserve days would not be necessary.