While many students and staff travel during fall break at Benedictine College, many stay on campus due to distance, personal choice, or the benefits received.
Bernadette Harney, a resident assistant (RA) in McDonald Hall, says her boss incentivizes staying on campus to be on-call in her dorm by allowing her only two weekends on call in the fall semester, rather than the average three.
“I stayed on campus to help myself find balance later in the semester with RA and being a student and with my friendships,” Harney said. “I knew that if I stayed and got ahead that I could have more of a break later, too.”
Harney thinks that staying on campus can be highly beneficial for students to really reset if they need to be away from the chaos of life.
“I would say, if you really want to stay, don’t let yourself be pressured into thinking you have to go somewhere or you have to do something,” Harney said. “Sometimes the greatest thing that you can do for yourself is just to stay and relax and spend some time in solitude.”
Benedictine College claims that 77% of its 1936 undergraduate students are from out-of-state. The college boasts that 49 U.S. states are represented on campus.
However, there is also a number of students who plan to stay on campus who live quite close to campus. One of those students is Truman Thomas, of Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
“Staying on campus keeps me focused on what I need to do, rather than just laying around at home,” Thomas said.
Thomas is planning to use his break to catch up on homework assignments and recommit to other habits like going to the gym.
Michael Grimmig, senior, is not traveling to Tennessee because of the far distance and high expenses for airfare.
“If I do not need to spend the money to go home and I don’t need to go home for a particular reason then I won’t,” Grimmig said. “It’s not so much that I value money higher, I just would rather save as much as I can.”
Grimmig has spent every fall break on campus with exception to freshman year. He uses his break to relax, get a few assignments done and catch up with friends.
Fall break is a time to catch up, and while that may mean catching up with family for some, others take advantage of the time to catch up on personal needs as well.