Point Park’s spring semester will have a later start beginning in the Spring 2026 semester. This change means that classes for the spring semester will start the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day instead of in early January like it has in the past.
Interim Provost Shari Payne said there were many reasons behind the change. One of these is that Point Park is one of the only universities that starts the spring semester in early January.
This means there is no university to compare to when it comes to making decisions relating to classes. For instance, Payne said that decisions like going remote due to weather conditions were difficult because the other schools had not started yet.
Another reason for the change is to allow more time for students to transfer to Point Park. Transfer students need their financial aid transferred to the university, their transcripts sent from their previous institution and need to arrange housing, if needed, before classes start.
“Let’s just say you’re at another institution; you come home and thought it’s not the right fit for me. I’d really love to go to Point Park and having only two business days, a Thursday and a Friday, to get all your ducks in a row,” Payne said. “It’s really not a reasonable amount of time to do anything.”
The later start will allow staff and faculty to be back from break with enough time to be ready for the transfer and returning students arrival. It will give time to change courses before classes start, and it will allow faculty and staff to make adjustments after the fall semester.
“Our thinking was a longer break would help everyone,” Payne said. “And we really didn’t get any pushback on it.”
The later start will also push the end of the spring term right into the summer semester. Because of this, there isn’t a break between the spring and summer semesters, and no break between summer and fall semesters, Payne said.
“That was less of a concern planning wise, because everyone comes back for spring and far fewer students enroll for the summer, so it was a benefit to more people,” Payne said. “The benefits far outweighed any inconvenience in having back-to-back spring to summer and summer fall.”
However, some students prefer the winter break as it is.
“I frankly haven’t given it too much thought, but it’s kind of sucky for dancers,” Gabrielle Davis, a first-year dance major, said. “Not dancing for that long makes me hesitant to say I’m appreciative of it because I’d rather just keep it the same length.”
Davis isn’t the only one who prefers a shorter length for winter break. Brianne Cupp, a junior multimedia major, agrees.
“I’m not surprised by this change since I’m a transfer student from Pittsburgh Technical College, and we never had month-long breaks,” Cupp said. “I was just hoping it would have been the same length.”
On the other hand, students like Emily Dawson, a first-year SAEM major, are looking forward to a longer break.
“I’m so excited because I like being home, and I thought it was really short,” Dawson said. “It also feels weird to be the only school, at least in the county, that was back.”
The plan for a later start to spring break along with other plans like shorter class periods, was originally brought up by former Provost Michael Soto to the Student Government Association.
Payne said the other plans are still in motion but not completed yet, so they won’t be ready by the upcoming fall term. However, students should stay tuned for an update coming out soon.
