A Slightly Shorter Spring Break Than You May Have Wanted

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Spring Forward Into Spring Break

Faithful readers know that the college’s spring break is next week, March 12 – 16, and this year its opening weekend features the start of Daylight Saving Time across most of the United States. As you lament the loss of an hour, whether you would have spent it studying, partying, or sleeping, here are a few DST facts to ponder.

  • Benjamin Franklin is commonly credited with suggesting an adjustment in the clock to provide more hours of daylight at the end of the business day. At that point there were not standard time zones; rather, most localities set their noon hour based on observation of the sun through the seasons. With the advent of railroads in the nineteenth century, local time zones made it a challenge to published train schedules, spurring the adoption of standardized time zones.
  • Daylight Saving Time was implemented on a sporadic basis in the twentieth century, and became a little more widespread following World War II. However, in the mid-1960’s there was still a patchwork of setting the clock ahead. For example, if one traveled along the eastern seaboard of the U.S., crossing the Mason-Dixon line meant setting the clock ahead or back, depending on the direction of travel, during the summer months.
  • In 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966, Pub. L. 89-387, 80 Stat.107. A year later (mostly) nationwide Daylight Saving Time launched on the last Sunday of April and concluded on the final Sunday of October. The dates for DST were expanded to early January during the energy crisis of the mid-1970’s, before Congress realized that extending darkness during the winter morning hours was not a particularly good thing to do, and the April – October dates returned until 2007, when Congress again acted to set the period from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
  • While ostensibly the use of DST would save energy, the study mandated by the 2007 change did not find substantial savings. Furthermore, the change has documented effects on health, particulary in the spring, when the shift to awakening earlier for most of us on the Monday after the change results in a groggy population having more car accidents and other untoward health events.
  • States may opt out of DST; Arizona and Hawaii do, and over the years Indiana has altered its participation by portions of the state. Hence, when looking at time zone settings on your computer, you may have noticed UTC -5:00 Indiana (East).

So take it easy on yourself next week!

Library &Lexis Lunch & Learn on Wednesday

Join Susan Boland and Ashley Russell for a session on Advanced Searching. Lunch provided and Lexis points awarded. Wednesday, March 7th, from 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Rom 302. Advance registration is required.

Women’s History Month: NALP Statistics

This month Susan Boland’s library display features statistics on women lawyers in law firms, including proportion of partnership and associate positions held by women in Ohio.

Featured Resources

Are you getting ready for the MPRE Exam? Take a look at these helpful aids.

 

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