Last year, I spent my Halloween night in the library studying.

If you’re in class right now, there’s a good chance you were doing the same last night. Or maybe you’re just a good kid.

Today, Nov. 1, has for years been a day of much reflection, recuperation and re-hydration for the UCSB undergrad. The night before is celebrated with a Halloween spirit only matched by those in Madison, Wisconsin and elementary school children.

For as long as there have been Isla Vista Halloween celebrations though, there have been midterms. Unfortunately for UCSB students, the middle of most Fall Quarters lies around this day of worship… err… celebrating the fall harvest?

Whatever it is we celebrated last night, whether it was spookiness or the decay of our livers, the day is as close as a day comes to a universally – in the limited Isla Vista sense – recognized holiday.

Still, there are professors on this campus who insist that the day be spent worshipping the words and numbers important to them. They say “boo-hoo” to our query that the test be moved from the day after boos and booze.

Granted, there are greater tragedies in the world than the day-after-Halloween midterm, but would it really be that difficult to schedule a midterm a couple days before or after Halloween? Halloween is sacred to the Isla Vistan, and robbing him or her of a Halloween is like telling a kid (say Macaulay Culkin) he can’t have a childhood – and we all saw how that movie ends.

Let’s consider the counterargument. By scheduling a midterm the day after Halloween, a professor is helping the university and Isla Vista patrolmen keep Halloween revelers out of the street and in the library, where they should be, considering they are students and are here to learn, not party.

The November 1st midterm would have an impact on the number of people on the streets if there were a well-coordinated effort by all University professors, but the majority of teachers on this campus don’t hate the world.

It is true that we should be here to learn. When Halloween falls in the middle of the school week, we shouldn’t have a free pass out of class. Our butts should be in that lecture seat, but it is our right as Isla Vistans to be hungover as hell in it on Nov. 1. Sure, take attendance, just don’t take away the night before. Your generation knows that our generation is incapable of organizing our time well enough to finish studying before the night’s festivities.

There is also the camp that says the Halloween celebration was over the weekend, and anyone who needs to party again on Monday night has problems and forcing them to the library is probably doing them a service.

I agree that there was certainly a Halloween celebration over the weekend, but from what I could tell, UCSB students were focused on protecting their property from those sleazy SLO kids. Halloween during the week is an exclusive UCSB-only party where we can collectively yell, “We survived the worst of it! Pass that shit dude.”

So next year, professor Asshole, if you could even schedule the midterm on Halloween, that’d be fine, just don’t take away our beloved Halloween night. It’s sacred to us.

Daily Nexus Opinion Editor Chris Trenchard still holds “Home Alone” close to his heart.