Oh come now. MTV Spring Break Pomona College? No. No way. The college’s decision to charge students who stay on campus during spring break is unfair. This is not a vacation hideaway. Many seniors are planning to stay on campus for at least part of the break in order to work on their senior theses. Being among them, I know that these seniors have no intention of having fun during this time. We promise. We don’t want to get our meals at Saca’s, we don’t want to go to the library. We also don’t need or want to suffer the embarrassment of having to pin down, much less pay for, the gruesome days that we will be spending here, stressed out.

When I visited friends at Wesleyan University, I was surprised to find out that thesis writers are not only given their own person-sized cubby in the main library in which to seclude themselves come thesis time, they are also allowed to stay on campus, free of charge, over winter and spring break. Their college affords them this basic right.

My contempt for the spring break charge does not come only from my own thesis grief. The reasons that the school provides for "needing" to know if we are on campus seem quite weak, and in no way justify our paying to be here. According to the slip handed out, we have to register the nights that we are staying at the school for emergency purposes, so that they know who is on campus at any given time in the event of a crisis. This excuse is wholly lacking. No one asked us to fill out slips saying whether we were staying for fall break. Although fall break is shorter, it surely has the same possibility of danger as spring break. No one ever has to tell the school if they spend a weekend in Los Angeles, or fly home for a week. And I also don’t buy the excuse that people will always know where their neighbors and friends are on normal school days. Some people are sneaky, not answering the door or the phone even if they are home. Other people are liars, and other people truly are loners.

I also really resent the idea that I have to plan out my lame spring break in advance, just so that I can give a slip to a dean’s office and have to pay money. Don’t make me plan this out. I will think about it too much and potentially get depressed. People who are "going places" (both in life and over spring break) don’t need itineraries, why should I? I’m not even doing anything!

Now that I’ve totally exposed myself as being someone who’s staying on campus, I’m going to go home and not fill out my sheet by Friday. Then I’m going to hide here over spring break, turning on only a lantern at night so as to prevent lurking

‘’RAs from busting me (traitors). However, writing my two cents on this page pretty much guarantees that I’m going to be charged a ludicrous and heartless $25 a night "I didn’t tell you if I was here" fee. Whatever. I am a conscientious objector, and "the rules" are inane and greedy.

Sincerely,

Nora Lawrence

Editor-in-Chief