Boston University Holds 46th Day of Classes This Year

Boston University will hold its 46th day of 2020 calendar-year classes today, with lectures and discussions taking place in dozens of bedrooms and home offices around the world.Although this is the 46th day of classes, the university actually began operating for 2020 on January 21 – 71 full days ago, according to my bedside calendar.Despite the occasion, classes and programming will most likely continue regularly, unless the administration is planning some sort of surprise, or if circumstances change at all in any other way.When reached out to for comment, President Brown seemed apprehensive about discussing the historic day.“Address not found. Your message wasn’t delivered to preidsent@bu.edu because the address couldn’t be found, or is unable to receive mail,” said Mail D. Subsystem, a representative from his office. Subsystem only reiterated this message when asked to clarify.As is now typical, students will log onto lectures via Zoom starting at 8:00 AM Eastern Standard Time and continue until sometime in the evening, according to what one would assume. At this time, no promises have been made.The decision to have another day of classes reflects a well-established university tradition of operating on a schedule based around linear time, with classes held some days and no classes held on the remaining days. In keeping up this legacy, the institution has marked 66,068 total days of existence, according to Google results for “how many days since april 24, 1839.”The university has expressed a commitment to the linear practice, even as students feel disoriented by orders to go home and stay home.“It seems like time has been either going a lot slower or a lot faster,” said Levi Kool, my 11-year old brother, who is not a Boston University student but is the only person currently sheltering-in-place with me to interview. “Like, I check the clock once and it says 1:30 but I check the clock three minutes later and it says 3:32 – I guess it only feels like three minutes.”Like many, Kool is jarred by the transition into online learning. He emphasized that 46th day of class has come surprisingly soon, in his opinion, but he is trying not to let it get to him.“It makes me feel weird because it feels like it hasn’t been that long.”