Veterans’ Day has come and Boston University students are once again toiling away in class, while high schools, colleges and workers throughout the country take a day to remember those who perished in defense of America and its founding ideals.

Instead of having a restful day in recognition of their contributions to the rights we all enjoy more than 200 years after the country’s founding, today BU’s more than 14,000 students will attend classes as if it were an ordinary day. The complaints are registered every year, and yet administrators have done nothing to change BU’s schedule.

BU Spokesman Colin Riley defended BU’s use of Nov. 11 as a normal school day, saying it allows the school to give students a travel day around Thanksgiving. But BU should be able to fit the requisite number of school days into the semester, even while allowing students a day to remember the country’s veterans and an extra day to travel home for Thanksgiving. Both should be considered top priorities, both for students’ personal reasons and for the more global reason of allowing students to reflect on others’ sacrifices. Less important holidays like Columbus Day would be fair sacrifices to allow students both important days in November. Other schools are able to offer students Veterans’ Day and the extra day of Thanksgiving break, so why can’t BU?

Riley said the ROTC’s 24-hour march shows that BU is committed to remembering Veterans’ Day. But the day has the potential to be so much more. The university should allow ROTC students to schedule a full day of programming, without the inhibition of classroom time, to showcase their value to society and their commitment to defending their fellow Americans.

Instead of continuing to ignore Veterans’ Day, BU administrators should find a way both to observe one of the country’s most important holidays. Our country’s veterans’ sacrifices deserve more than a cursory remembrance.

University Wire — Boston U.