Spring break in Ottawa, KS

Graphic by Kylee Weber

Spring break normally consists of going home, seeing family, taking vacations; a much needed break from the mayhem that goes on in college. But the 2021 spring break will look a little bit different than it has previously. In the past years, the majority of students have been able to go home for spring break, if you did not play a spring sport, you were required to leave. Leaving only spring sports such as softball, baseball, track, lacrosse, beach volleyball, men’s and women’s powerlifting and tennis here on an empty campus only having to play games or practices. 

This year there will be many non spring sport teams joining the list of teams that have to stay over spring break. Some include: bowling, football, cheerleading, golf, men’s soccer and women’s soccer. These students are staying for a number of reasons, some have games during the week of March 15-19. 

Jarden Burrow, a senior soccer player at Ottawa, is excited about being able to stay on campus over break.

“Being able to stay over spring break is something that I have done in the past due to me living far away from Ottawa,” Burrow says. “But I have never gotten the opportunity to stay with my many of my teammates while also being able to play the sport that I love. This has been a very long season for the women’s soccer team. We normally have season in the fall, but having a season basically all year long has been a great way to end my college career.” 

While there are many students that have to stay, students are also allowed to stay even if their sports are not requiring them to. The hope is to slow down the spread of COVID-19 by not having so many students travel back and forth from state to state. 

With having so many students on campus on the week of spring break, our campus student government is working on finding activities for the students to do through the week. Kaitlyn George, the student body president, shares what the student government has planned.

“I can’t go into a lot of details yet about the programs, since we haven’t passed any budgets yet,” George says. “I have talked with student government, and we all agree that having events that week is a good idea. We want students who do stay to have some fun that week.”

In the past, the Cafe has not been open for students who have stayed on campus. This year, it will be open with reduced hours. With brunch being served from 10:00am - 2:00pm and dinner at 5:00pm - 8:00 pm. The Cafe will be closed from 2:00pm - 5:00pm and will close at 8:00pm every night. 

While Ottawa is not an exotic vacation, with beaches and family, our student government is trying to make it a spring break we all can remember and can look back on fondly.