Housing Day Midterm

As a sign I just must be getting old, I don't get an issue some students have with me.

Since I've been professing, I hold the midterm for my class the Thursday before spring break.  It's where the exam fits best, and I'm well aware that the Thursday before spring break would unofficially become a holiday if the midterm wasn't there.  This is, already, bad enough for students, in that they now can't leave for spring break until Thursday afternoon.  

A few years ago, however, a new tradition sprung up around Harvard.  Housing Day is when freshman (who live, generally speaking, in Harvard Yard) are told which of the 12 Houses (or big Harvard dorms) they will live in the next 3 years.  Housing Day has become a celebration day, apparently with parties all day for upperclassmen to welcome the new students to their House.  (A Crimson article explains further.)

And, of course, Housing Day falls on the Thursday before spring break. 

The first year or two I heard rumblings, and they've grown louder every year.  When students hear about the midterm, they ask, "Don't you know that's Housing Day?" 

I'm afraid I consider my class "grandfathered in".  I started teaching it well before Housing Day became important;  I don't see any reason for me to change my scheduling to accommodate it.  I'm not sure whether I would be more careful to avoid Housing Day if I were teaching a new class, where I could consider it a constraint from day one. 

But, I admit, I probably wouldn't.