For some students and faculty
at San Jose State University, winter
break will be days full of relaxing, skiing
or snowboarding and spending
time with friends and family.

Freshman Tawm Scanlon, a computer
engineering major, said he
would return to San Diego on Dec.
17 to the good Mexican food that he
has been missing while he has been in
San Jose.

“La Victoria’s just doesn’t cut it,”
he said.

Scanlon said he has enjoyed his
fi rst semester at SJSU, but he is looking
forward to going home even
though it means staying at his parents’
house.

“It’ll be worth it to see my high
school friends,” he said.

Students are not the only ones who
look forward to returning home during
the break.

Elizabeth Weiss, assistant professor
of anthropology, said she
plans to go home to Arizona and
spend time with her family. Weiss
said she is a first-year professor and
has two new classes to prepare for,
but she also wants to kick her heels
up a little.

“I plan to spend every weekend going
two-stepping,” she said.

Two-stepping is a form of country
line dance, she said.

Senior business management
and information systems major Nirav
Sura said he has been attending
extra sessions of school for
two years, and this will be his first
break.

“Along with the regular semester
classes, I’ve been taking summer
and winter session classes for two
years straight,” Sura said. “I plan to
go snowboarding twice and sleep in
a lot.”

While some students will be taking
a break from studying, others plan
to hit the books hard during the winter
session to get a diffi cult course out
of the way or shave some time off
their graduation dates.

“I want to take winter session so I
don’t extend my years in college,” said
Jonathan Aluko, a junior management
information systems major.

Aluko said he plans to go home to
Los Angeles for Christmas, but will
be back in San Jose before New Year’s
Eve to prepare for winter session. He
normally works in the A.S. Print Shop
Copy Center, but will not work during
the break.

“I can’t work because financial accounting
is an intense class that’s piled
up in three weeks,” he said. “I saved up
during the semester.”

In addition to giving students time
to catch up on sleep or get a class out
of the way, winter break gives students who can only work part-time hours
during the normal semester the ability
to work full-time.

Sarina Hill, a senior health science
major, said she worked part-time hours
as a lab assistant at Kaiser Permanente
during the Fall semester while taking
18 units and will work full-time during
the break.

“I really need a vacation, but I can’t
afford one,” she said. “I’m going to be
working all winter break so I can afford
to support myself next semester.”

Faculty members also have to support
themselves, and some take advantage
of the break to look outside of
SJSU for income.

“I’ll be working on a new book,”
said Terry Christensen, a political science
professor.

Christensen said he had a busy semester
and is looking forward to going
skiing for a week and having several
weekends without papers to grade.