Northwestern students behind on work and sleep will have seven days without Weinberg classes to play catch-up during Reading Week. But they won’t have that same luxury Winter Quarter.

Winter Quarter Reading Week will last four days, from Thursday, March 8 to Sunday, March 11.

Legislation passed by administrators in 1969 requires a minimum of nine weeks of class every quarter. Because this Winter Quarter’s classes are scheduled to start Jan. 3 — a Wednesday — classes have to cut into the Monday and Tuesday of Reading Week.

And because classes are canceled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 15 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Weinberg Assoc. Dean Robert Coen said the only way for a Monday-Wednesday-Friday class to get the minimum 27 lectures is to take another day from Reading Week.

“It’s unfair for students to not get their money’s worth by having less than a full quarter of classes,” Coen said.

University rules state that Winter Quarter must start Jan. 3, unless that day is a Thursday or Friday.

Although reading weeks rarely are shorter than seven days, they have been before, Coen said. He pointed to Winter Quarter 1996 as the most recent example, when Reading Week was five days long.

Associated Student Government Academic Vice President Sameer Gafoor said he is reviewing guidelines about Reading Week.

“It’s an important issue to all students, so it deserves a lot of attention from us,” Gafoor said. “If there’s any way ASG feels Reading Week can be extended, we will push for this.”

Gafoor, a Weinberg junior, also said students should not be penalized for having time off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It’s interesting that we only get three hours off for Martin Luther King Day, but we are penalized one full day because of Reading Week,” he said. “I don’t think the students thought when they asked for Martin Luther King Day, they’d have something taken away from them as a result of that.

“In my mind there should be no penalty for the day. It’s supposed to be an observance of Dr. King.”

Some students said a full Reading Week is necessary for them to keep up with their studies.

“Students get so busy throughout the year with things other than their classes, like student groups, that we need Reading Week to catch up on studying and tie up loose ends,” said Weinberg junior Kora Vandervall, an ASG senator.

Weinberg senior Meta Marshall said many of her professors continue to teach during Reading Week.

“They sometimes teach new material, have review sessions and get it all in order before you have to take the final,” she said. “Four days just isn’t long enough to get it all done.”

She added that Weinberg students aren’t the only ones affected by the change because almost all Northwestern students take Weinberg classes.

Some professors said they, too, like — and need — the week without classes.

“Faculty enjoy the slack from classes where they can get caught up as well,” Classics Prof. Dan Garrison said, adding that he understood administrators’ decision to cut days to make up class time.

“Often times papers are turned in right before Reading Week under the assumption that Reading Week will be a time where attention can be devoted to papers instead of classes.”

Though the dates for Reading Week are published in this academic year’s student handbook and on the university’s online calender, some students were upset they had not received any information about the change.

Education junior Amina Merchant said she noticed the Winter Quarter Reading Week dates in the handbook, but said she wasn’t sure whether they were accurate.

“The administration just wrote it in the calendar without saying anything about it,” she said. “I was wondering if it was a misprint or not.”

Coen said administrators will take extra strides to advertise the shortened Reading Week, like sending an e-mail to every student.

“We didn’t advertise it in the past, but students are taking a more pro-active involvement in booking their travel plans. We just have to keep up with the times,” he said.

Some students said they were glad administrators weren’t forcing professors to cram more information into fewer classes.

“Winter Quarter is short to begin with, so teachers try to compress their classes into fewer lectures, which makes Winter Quarter harder,” Speech junior Rich Bina said. “Everybody will deal with it in the end.”