Dear Bentley community,
Despite the many global challenges of the last couple of weeks, I’m energized and inspired by our students, faculty and staff. I have immense appreciation for the caring and compassion that members of this community show for one another each day.
Bentley University is on the right track. We are making excellent progress toward carrying out our Falcons Forward 2030 strategic plan to ensure that the future of our university remains bright, and I recognize that this strong foundation has not come by accident. It takes the hard work, creativity and dedication of every member of our community.
The commitment to support and invest in our faculty and staff is explicitly named as an objective and embedded throughout our strategic plan. It would be impossible to achieve the goals we’ve set without that commitment. With this objective in mind, the Cabinet and I have decided to announce an extended two-week winter recess as a permanent benefit of working at Bentley. In recent years, the Cabinet has established the extension of the winter break on a year-by-year basis. Today’s decision codifies this extension as an investment in your mental health and wellbeing in addition to being a heartfelt “thank you” for all your work.
I hope today’s announcement will allow you to plan ahead to take time off to relax and recharge with family and friends, with the knowledge that you will have an extended winter recess this and every year. Please note that this year’s winter recess will run from Dec. 23, 2023, through Jan. 7, 2024. The exact dates of future winter recesses will vary slightly and will be included in the university’s holiday schedule that is distributed each spring. In general, winter recess will roughly be two weeks. As in past years, the extra days will also be extended to our unionized employees, and for those who cannot take time off or extend their break because of the nature of their jobs, their managers will help identify a different time to take off during the spring term.
Thank you again for all you do to make Bentley such a special place.
Brent