Student hyped up for Hurst Day

Daniel Leonard, Staff writer

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year again when we debate which day Hurst Day will fall on.

Now, we wait in anticipation for the magical event that has become a classic campuswide tradition.

For those of you who have not been on campus during a previous Hurst Day, you can expect to be woken up to the sound of bagpipes.

You will also get a wonderful email from President Victor himself explaining that all classes across campus are canceled for the day.

Aside from being reassured that your text or exam won’t be happening that day, you might be asking yourself right now, “What’s the big deal?”

Hurst Day is more than a day free from work — it is a reflection of the Mercyhurst community we each know and love.

Many larger universities promote a culture where students are treated as just a number.

Mercyhurst encourages communication among all members of the community

Mercyhurst values its students as people.

Teams participating in the scavenger hunt, from the main campus and North East campus, have the opportunity to win prizes for coming in first and second place.

There are also rewards given out to students with the best costumes.

Staff, faculty and students can all gather and enjoy various foods, different games throughout the day and a steak dinner to top it all off.

If you’re like me, though, you might opt to sleep in a couple extra hours.
You can always roll out of bed to enjoy the festivities just a little later.

While the activities are exciting and give us a break from mundane classes, there are a couple negative aspects of Hurst Day. These issues are worth making a note of.

The fact that the specific date of Hurst Day is kept a secret has left many professors findings themselves unsure about when to schedule tests, exams and quizzes, and how to spread out time with course material.

A couple athletes have also mentioned that because their coaches are kept out of the loop, they don’t know if they will have practice or even be on campus for the day.

This, as you can imagine, is a pretty big problem for athletes and their coaches.

There is actually a very easy way to solve these issues.

Both of these issues could easily be resolved by accurately informing faculty and staff about the week in which Hurst Day will occur, while continuing to keep the specific date of the day a secret.

This would provide those affected groups with the opportunity to avoid scheduling exams and practices for that week, solving this problem pretty much instantly.

Overall, the relatively new annual event is an exciting time for students and faculty to look forward to and provides a great opportunity to relax and enjoy the hopefully good weather.