Winter Vacation May Shrink When King Holiday Starts

The newly established Martin Luther King national holiday may cost students a day from reading period of Christmas vacation, a Harvard official said recently.

University Registrar Margaret E. Law said the holiday--officially the third Monday in January--will almost always fall during exam period. She has not yet decided how to rearrange the calendar around exam period's set length.

A likely scenario if the holiday falls on the first day of the two-week exam period would be to have testing start the Friday before.

Paper Work

In fact, Law called the new law a nuisance, explaining that "the calendar for the next five years has already been approved and thousands of copies have been printed.".

Until 1986 when the federal holiday takes effect, Harvard will continue its present policy of observing a half-day recess on Jan. 15, king's birthday. Some have previously criticized the recess because falling either during reading period or exams it gets a minimum of attention.

Although President Reagan has not yet signed the bill establishing the holiday, he has agreed to do so. The proposed has been debated for the past 15 years and finally passed its last major hurdle last Wednesday when the Senate voted for it 78-22. The bill passed the House 338-90 in August.