Call me a nerd. Call me insensitive. Call me a moron. Pardon mefor arguing against a day off. But closing campus March 31 thisyear was the dumbest thing this side of Jessica Simpson.

Read that sentence again before you get excited &- itdoesn’t imply that Cesar Chavez Day itself is stupid ormeaningless or wasteful. It’s a very important observation,especially in California. Every state should celebrate the man andhis life like we do here.

But closing the university on March 31 &- which falls on aWednesday this year &- is ridiculous. Whatever happened toobserved holidays? In elementary school, we all knew Nov. 11 wasVeteran’s Day. But if Nov. 11 was a Thursday, students hadFriday off &- you know, to appreciate the lives our veteranshave afforded us. Schools didn’t send us home Thursday, onlyto have to return for one day. It was great for everyone &- noone has ever complained about a three-day weekend.

What makes the March 31 observation more dubious is itsproximity to spring break. It’s well known at collegecampuses everywhere that classes held the last few days before thebreak attract marginal attendance at best.

The holiday’s timing, especially this year, destroys anychance for productive class Thursday and Friday. Why go to class?You had Wednesday off &- your spring break could have startedTuesday night!

And what does this do to Wednesday-only classes? Students willhave had two weeks off and only four meetings left when they getback from spring break. That puts a lot of pressure on students andprofessors to condense a lot of learning down the home stretch.

We should definitely celebrate the life and work of Cesar Chavez&- we should have a three-day weekend right before springbreak. Even if March 31 falls on a Thursday or Friday, we shouldobserve it the Monday before. More students will be more likely toshow up the rest of the week leading up to spring break &-missing two classes makes it harder to justify a little more sunand a couple more margaritas than missing one class does.

Aside from the date of celebration, another factor comes intoplay &- we don’t get a day off for Abraham Lincoln orGeorge Washington. In case you forgot, Abraham Lincoln endedslavery in America. That’s a pretty big deal. The migrantworkers’ rights movement was important, but so was the end ofslavery. It was one of the greatest moments in American history,and one of the greatest leaders in American history made it happen.Let’s celebrate him, please.

And what about our first president &- the commander whodefeated the British to give birth to this nation? He’s thefreaking father of our nation and we don’t get a day off tocelebrate his life? Without Washington, there is no United Statesof America, there is no California and there is no SacramentoState. Americans would still be eating crumpets and playingcricket.

If Martin Luther King Day fell during the spring semester, youwould expect that day off, right? He is easily the most importantfigure of the civil rights movement &- a movement thatguaranteed equality for all of us, despite our race, creed, genderor beliefs.

All four of these men are amazingly important to our nation. Ifstudents have a day off for one of them, we should have a day offfor all of them.

Here’s an easy solution: Reinstall Lincoln’sbirthday in February as a holiday &- and knock a Friday offthe calendar closest to his birthday. Get rid of President’sDay &- do we really want to celebrate Richard Nixon’scover-up or Bill Clinton’s fellatio? Give us the secondMonday in February off to celebrate the father of the country.

Also, take the first Wednesday of the spring semester and devoteit to Dr. King. Hold rallies, concerts and speeches. Set upinformational exhibits all around campus to celebrate civil rightsachievements. Professors don’t do much more than pass outsyllabi the first week of class, anyway, so make one day that weekworth students’ attendance.

Finally, give students the Monday before spring break off tocommemorate Cesar Chavez. On March 31, celebrate his life oncampus. More rallies, concerts, speeches and exhibits. Educate thestudents so they know how important he was to California. Manyworthwhile campus programs would step up to support theseactivities. After all, the holiday should be a celebration, not aheadache.