This article is exactly what is wrong with students and universities in Canada today. University is supposed to be an life-changing experience. You are supposed to grow, not just in your intelligence and in academia, but as a person. Part of growing as a person, is having experiences. If I've learned anything through my many years of undergrad and now through my MD it's that putting off experiences, especially once in a lifetime experiences, to study (which you will probably not do anyways in that time you set aside because you 'need to study') is sad and will be something you will regret. I have never taken a midterm or exam that, if I really applied myself, I couldn't pass by studying for a few days. University is NOT about your GPA and if you make it about that, you will miss out on a lot of great experiences and people.
Consider yourself lucky that your university thought it fit to give you the OPPORTUNITY to really participate in this historical moment. You will never remember that midterm that you failed or barely passed. Why? Because it's not your 'Gold.' It's small potatoes and in the grand scheme of even your university career, it means next to nothing - and this is coming to someone who was a pre-med and needed every percent I could get. That percent is not worth missing out on moments like this, or really any moment that causes you to grow as a person, see a new perspective or have a new experience.
University is a bubble, especially places like UBC, and you should take every chance to bust out and see what's going on in the world - experience and grow. Perhaps this is just retrospect. In that case, I hope you can use it and make sure you keep taking advantage of opportunities just like the Olympics - and better yet, sober.

First, whether or not the Olympics break was "sanctioned" reeks of trying to escape accountability. The fact that UBC or our "culture" sanctioned a two-week Olympic party does not allow you to escape personal accountability for however you chose to spend those two weeks.

Second, this dilemma is by no means a student dilemma. People in the mythical "real world" had the same issues, whether to drink a bit too much knowing they'd be groggy at work, or whether to direct focus to live results during work hours.

Third, reading week is always there. That this year it was 16 days instead of its typical nine ought to be of no import; if students can't handle additional time off, then I weep for our future.

In sum: have fun, study, do whatever you want. Just own your choice. It's no coincidence that it's a lesson we can take from Olympic athletes, too.

What a crybaby!

Why not try being an adult who makes real decisions with what to do with his life. Worried about exams? Then study. Want to go watch hockey and get drunk? Then do it.

But crying about having an extra week off from classes?

Fact check: No lecture hours were lost, the start and finish dates of this semester were adjusted to compensate for the extra week.

Of COURSE it was worth it! Simple time management comes into play, as it does every reading week.

As a UBC Grad I call your attention to the UBC motto "Tuum Est".

It's up to you. University is about learning. Not just learning what's presented in class, but what's not. This includes how to cope with Life.

Life includes distractions such as the Olympics, Expo 86, Earthquakes, Elections, War, Good News, Bad News, Family, you name it.

What better learning experience than to learn to cope with a non-standard extension to your reading break (i.e. Spring Break). How many learning experiences start in such a pleasant way? You may have found a great article/blog post in the subject, but if you haven't yet learned to make lemons from lemonade, then you may want to refocus your attention from the purely academic.

Even Olympic Athletes find time to relax and enjoy themselves. They have to, they're human. There's no irony in people taking time off to enjoy a performance for two weeks. It's called a "vacation" for most. Try it some time.

Work hard, play hard, Carpe that old Diem. The next time someone hands you 17 wonderful diems (di-eays? Dias? Please tell me John Cleese isn't standing behind me) of distraction, I hope you have learned to savour them better! Tuum Est.

I am disappointed in the Globe and Mail for posting this article on its website. Can we please get a rebuttal from a UBC student who is not a complete loser?

Bryce: I agree with others that it is down to personal choice and orientation, but also with you that it's just that much harder to apply yourself when you're young and something like the Olympics has the appearance of being officially sanctioned. The last 9 days were "reading week" at my university too. I spent it reading, organizing paperwork, filing things, doing my professional correspondence and so forth. Now, as a professor I could have just taken it off, done no work, watched the Olympics on TV all day and nobody would have been the wiser. But I have both short and long term responsibilities to both my students and the public....and it was quiet enough at work that I worked on those responsibilities for the whole break and got a LOT done....weekdays and even a couple of the weekend days. Basically what you're arguing is that being a student is essentially a "job"...and in a lot of ways I completely agree with you...a lot of undergraduates should take their studies a lot more seriously than they do. That's not to say you shouldn't also have a good time, but sometimes being responsible in the big picture means forgoing some of those "once in a lifetime" things. Based on my experiences, don't worry if you do, because others will come along at more convenient times for you.

Kasia: I wish you'd posted using your real name. From your perspective on how you view the balance of personal enjoyment versus your broader responsibilities I wouldn't ever want to use you as an MD. Ever. If you don't know EVERYTHING you can to be a doctor, achieve EVERY percentage you can on ANY "test" you take, then I don't think you should be a doctor, at least my doctor. I want the person who is highly paid to treat my medical issues to sweat blood to know as much as they can...not cut corners and study as little as possible to just make do (which essentially IS what you're arguing). Of course, if you did post under your real name expressing your view, I suspect any of your patients who were dissatisfied with their past treatment would sue you cross-eyed. Justifiably in my view.

Just be thankful you are not one of the poor slobs that has to work three jobs to pay the taxes that go to subsidize your university education. No break for them. I'm sure every one of them would have loved to have two weeks off. Unfortunately, for many of them that would mean going a few days without food

I know you're young so I think we'll give you a mulligan this time. Come back in 20 years when you are more like the rest of us. Then you can truly appreciate what two weeks off does for a person who has done the 9 - 5 for a couple decades.

Peace guy,
.....and don't let my tax dollars go to waste....PASS!

Bryce, enough with the infantile whining. Being in an undergrad program does not necessitate your being anti-establishment (sort of) in all your ramblings. a 2-week break mid-semester gave the perfect opportunity to students, to improve their time management abilities. If they couldn't catch up on their readings/assigments over an entire two-week time frame, that's entirely their fault. I don't see how difficult it would be to allocate SOME days to the Olympics, and some to actual schoolwork. If it was that difficult, you have other issues in your schoolwork to contend with.

As for this being "sanctioned" by UBC - what was the alternative? Had UBC decided this was not worth mention in the school calendar, your outcry would be far louder I'm sure, at their denial of your opportunity to witness the event first-hand.

Locus of control, my friend...locus of control.

"Normally, it would be easy to blame a lack of academic effort over a reading break on the student: a lack of discipline, an inability (or unwillingness) to plan for the long-term and understand the repercussions of actions."

You're right. It is normal. And accurate.

Your rant here is truly complete and utter whinging. It is writing like this that makes me glad that I have been out of University for almost a decade.

Take a walk down east Hastings and then try and write this bollocks again, bet you wont feel so hard done by anymore.

Smarten up Globe and Mail.

I usually only got a couple of days off of classes for reading break instead of a full week when I was in university. Lucky you.

What's wrong with this author? Is this article for real? Grow up and get a life!

This blog entry just comes across as whining and making excuses. If experiencing the olympics was so important for these students then make the sacrifice and stay in a few Thursdays, Fridays, and/or Saturdays at other times during the semester... or maybe even pass on watching curling or a 16-0 hockey game.

While I agree that its important to share in these experiences to grow as a person, you need to learn how to make sacrifices sometimes in order to succeed. Blaming others for your academic failures won't get you anywhere.

And Kasia, your post is soaked in arrogance and I guarantee you a little humility will go very far in making you a better medstudent/clerk/resident/physician.

Typical internet. The guy is just musing and people are ready to put him in the stocks for two days. Calm down, everyone. Working though the question of "how do I spend my time when it's up to me?" and "what constitutes unmissable?" is something every university student has to work through, because they are given more latitude as their studies progress (assuming an academic bent, all bets are off in professional programs). I'm a PhD student at UBC and the Olympics did not affect my routine at all, because "reading break" and even "holidays" mean little to us grad students. We have near-total control over how we spend everyday (it's both a blessing and a curse).

It's interesting that Kasia, while sort of disagreeing with the blogger that academic acheivement is all that important, also seems to see this as a decision left to others, i.e. UBC gave you this break so you could experience olympics because they know what's best for you.

And lastly, asking "why?" and "was this the best thing to do?" and "how can we know what actions to take?" and many other questions, and debating these points, is really what university learning is all about, not memorizing the bones of the hand or doing exactly what professors tell you.

why was this ever posted on something related to the globe and mail? take it up a notch, eds. Surely you can find something better. This isn't the Ubyssey. Even most of their stuff is more well reasoned and articulated than this!

Both the article and the responses/rebuttals/rebuffs provide fodder for the study of the human condition.

It takes all kinds, and not every experience is everyone's truth.

Live for yourself.

...and something to consider:

This is a blog, therefore an opinion piece, the author's take on the world around him.

Offer your side, as is your right, but to berate someone for opining is a bit infantile in my opinion. Something some other posters are accusing the author of being.

Good job, Bryce!