Wellness Days

With the goal of limiting the spread of coronavirus and ambitiously trying to prioritize the community’s mental health, USC added five wellness days this semester that replaced the traditional spring break. Although the new holidays were intended as a break for students and faculty to sign off and unwind, the initiative has had mixed results. While some have managed to make the most out of the day off and catch up with friends, others have realized that the poorly scheduled day offs — two of which fall on Friday — remained useless since many USC students do not have Friday classes.

Many students have used the time to their advantage, alleviating the stress of another disappointing online semester. Relaxing at the beach, watching a movie with friends or traveling by taking a road trip have been some of the fun ways students have escaped extra screen-time. Others have found less desirable ways to spend their wellness days, hunched over laptops or being locked in their rooms all day. Since the holidays only act as a single day off, workloads end up remaining the same and some students end up writing midterms or finishing assignments that are due later in the week.

While wellness days were created to prevent a long break where students could travel, many students have flouted state guidelines and flown to Cabo and other popular spring break destinations leading to a temporary increase in cases. Many students have expressed their frustrations and wonder what USC truly achieved by getting rid of a normal spring break.

Here are some of the ways Daily Trojan photographers spent their wellness days.

Photos by Anmol Bajpai, Alexis Francel, Sarah Hendartono and Maria Takigawa.