Winter break is famous for delicious food, good company, a present or two and the most treasured aspect of all: time off from the daily grind of school.

While we all are grateful for a four-week vacation once finals are over — a time where we can sit inside all day and binge on disgusting amounts of leftover turkey and television with little to no guilt — some of us can become antsy waiting for the next semester to start.

With busy schedules during the year, we do not always have the ability to squeeze a required class into our current schedule. And even if we are able to squeeze it in, it only adds to the stockpile of work we need to do.

As students take on internships, job opportunities and participate in registered student organizations, it can be difficult to take on an additional class during the school year.

Now, the University is launching a pilot program, offering four-week winter courses with the chance to earn up to four credit hours depending on the class. Eight courses will be offered, ranging from higher level business administration classes to SOC 100, ATMS 120 and ECON 102 — classes that are very popular among students and help satisfy general education requirements necessary for graduation.

The University has previously offered summer sessions online but never during winter breaks, and given the four-week period, the classes will be paced much faster than typical online courses.

Winter is a great time to take online classes, as students do not typically partake in internships over the winter and usually do not have many other obligations, leaving the break primarily for down time between semesters.

By allowing additional time to take extra credit hours, students can allocate their time more wisely during the semester and graduate earlier, helping them to save money on tuition. Or, additionally, this can provide students the chance to make up some hours to stay on track for graduation.

While there are certainly questions over how much students will be able to learn in just one-fourth of the amount of time the same course would typically run, we welcome the University’s choice to test the new courses and allow more opportunities for nontraditional academic paths.

We hope to see the addition of even more general education requirements as they impact various students more than extra business classes and we hope to see even larger numbers of seats available for these classes after the pilot program is complete.

For the rest of us who will choose to opt out of an additional four weeks of school work after our soul-depleting finals, here’s to four weeks of friends, family, food and quality time with our couches.