Thanksgiving break extended

The university will no longer hold classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, according to a recent memo from Elizabeth Garrett, the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

“USC is a truly international university with undergraduate and graduate students from across the country and around the world,” Garrett wrote in the memo to university administrators and student leaders. “The Thanksgiving holiday provides an important break in the fall semester for students to relax with friends and family before final exams and the completion of projects.”

Although the Academic Calendar Committee did not recommend making this change for the 2011-2012 academic calendar, Garrett still directed the registrar to include Wednesday, November 23, 2011 in the Thanksgiving break. The school will remain open, however, and Wednesday will not be considered a staff holiday.

Garrett’s memo cautions deans and faculty to be “rigorous” about holding classes on Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, saying that it is “important that [the university] maintain the very highest academic standards.”