The Pitch would like to address the administration’s decision to take away Wildcat Wellness these last two weeks of the quarter. We commend administration for making the decision to continue offering Wildcat Wellness this year, after its original experimental period last year. We believe Wildcat Wellness greatly helps students relieve stress by allowing them to get ahead or catch up on work, or see teachers for clarification. That’s why we find it’s a great mistake to do away with it in the last two weeks of a quarter.

The move seems counter-intuitive. The last two weeks of a quarter are arguably when students need a Wellness period the most because of all the tests teachers give out. Apparently, administration thought that having Wellness during his period would be detrimental, as it would result in lost instruction time. While this mindset is understandable, it is a bit misguided. During a Wellness schedule, classes are 42 minutes instead of the usual 46 minutes. So yes, that is some time being lost. But often times teachers are doing more broad review of the quarter as a whole, which doesn’t require as much detailed instruction. And besides, four minutes of lost instruction time pales in comparison to losing a whole 41 minute period of Wellness.  

The Pitch hopes administration reconsiders its decision for future academic quarters and begins to understand what a stressful time this can be for students and that having Wellness periods can help alleviate some of this stress.