Holding on to the end of the semester

Through this past Monday, Fletcher looked like it did at any other moment in the semester.  Then classes ended and study days began.  Exams began yesterday and will continue until next Wednesday, but students have already started to peel away, and many fewer first-year students will be around next Monday than were here earlier this week.  It’s only a matter of a week or two before staff are looking like this deer, wondering, “Where is everybody?”

That doesn’t mean that students, faculty, and staff are letting go of the semester easily.  Fletcher Follies, a night of fun, closed out the last day of classes.  Last night our incredibly talented students (and even some professors) arranged and performed the Fletcher Spring Recital.  PhD students will hold a “come lunch with us” event today.  The Extreme Inclusion Conference was held yesterday, with meetings today among practitioners.   Tomorrow, Fletcher will be the site of an alumni event that happens to include our graduate, Farah Pandith, in addition to former Tufts undergraduates.  Overall, the Fletcher calendar doesn’t make it clear that the academic year is coming to an end.

I’ll be honest, staff members enjoy the first quiet weeks of the summer.  Suddenly, we’ll find ourselves completing projects that were perpetually on the to-do list throughout the semester.  But productivity only goes so far in keeping us happy, and we’ll miss having the rest of the community here with us each day.  All the more reason to enjoy next week when students are still around.