Our whole life is an attempt to teach us something to sacrifice. Sacrificing career for family, family for career. Sacrificing your time to achieve some goal. Sacrificing your health in the name of observing any traditions. This is the paradigm of the world we live in.

But sometimes people rebel against such a regime of sacrificing, wanting to just fully enjoy what life gives them – especially if it does not violate any rules. For example, as in this story about a whole class of vet students who went against their teachers, not wanting to give up their legal right to have lunch.

A whole class of vet students once had their professor demand that they come to the lab an hour earlier than scheduled

Image credits: energepic.com (not the actual photo)

The students were upset with this demand since it meant they had to skip their whole lunchtime

Image credits:Meekly-Enthusiasm

Image credits: NIH Image Gallery (not the actual photo)

Image credits:Meekly-Enthusiasm

The class came to an unanimous decision to stay and have lunch, though they got reprimanded by a livid professor

Image credits: Luke Jones (not the actual photo)

Image credits:Meekly-Enthusiasm

Image credits: USAG- Humphreys (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Meekly-Enthusiasm

However the dean sided with the students and claimed that such demands were simply inappropriate

So, the Original Poster (OP) is a vet student, and the surgeons informed their class that they had an important lab coming up soon, scheduled for 12. But, as the faculty noted, it would be better if all the students arrived early – for example, at 11. At the same time, from 7 to 11 in the morning the class had lectures, and from 11 to 12 there was a lunch break.

In other words, the class had two options – either not eat anything at all after early morning, or eat right during the lectures. Needless to say, none of the options suited the students. Moreover, on that day, the OP and their classmates witnessed how the anesthetist yelled at a student from another class for being late, although they were exactly at the appointed time. Moreover, many students had also had conflicts with professors before.

In general, the class made a unanimous decision not to miss lunch and to arrive about 10 minutes before the scheduled start. This time, according to the original poster, was completely enough to fully prepare. And so they did. However, 20 minutes before the start, one of the surgeons came to the lecture hall where the students were having lunch and asked why they were not at the lab yet.

Having received the answer that the whole class would be there at the appointed time according to the schedule, they accused the students of being unprofessional and that they were making patients wait and putting them at risk. However, exactly five minutes before the start, the whole class was ready. They listened to another outraged speech from the surgeons, and then got to work.

By the way, we must pay tribute to the dean – having received a complaint about the students’ behavior, they took their side and issued a statement that forcing the class to come earlier is completely unacceptable. Another small victory for this class over worldly injustice – after all, earlier, according to the original poster, the students achieved the dismissal of a professor who more than once made racist remarks towards students. “We’re hated by the clinicians, but at least the classes behind us are having a slightly better time,” the OP notes.

Image credits: SOMANEDU (not the actual photo)

According to an academic study, it’s unacceptable to skip even half a lunch break, let alone a whole one

What can be said about this story, except that the students are absolutely right in defending their rights? For example, according to a 2015 study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, students with less than 20 minutes to eat lunch consumed 13% less of their entrées, 12% less of their vegetables, and 10% less of their milk than students who had at least 25 minutes to eat. Thus, even reducing the duration of lunch affects health, not to mention the lack of lunch altogether.

“It is essential that we give students a sufficient amount of time to eat their lunches,” said Juliana Cohen, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School, assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Merrimack College, and lead author of the study. By the way, the original poster also confirms this, recalling that “several students have fainted from skipping lunch to go and operate instead.”

Commenters also praised the original poster and their classmates for standing their ground. Moreover, as some people in the comments recall, in their college years, their professors and clinicians, on the contrary, demanded that students eat first to avoid fainting. In any case, the student body is a real force. “If students actually unionized – not necessarily with a formal union, but acting cohesively as a group, they’d be able to very quickly see changes,” folks in the comments summarize.

People in the comments sided with the class as well, claiming that if students actually unionized, they’d be able to very quickly see changes

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