As the end of the semester approaches, it’s likely that the most important subject on many students’ minds is leaving the hallowed halls of Iowa State for a few weeks of rest and relaxation before the next semester starts.

While students may be ready for a few weeks off, the faculty and staff at ISU are planning their holidays as well.

For many, the coming break means a time for home and family and possibly pursuing favorite hobbies. Patrick Gouran, associate professor of theatre, said he would be ” … staying at home. We’ll have grandkids and family about, and we’ll try to go pheasant hunting. Also, I plan to do as much photography as I can.”

Pat Hoversten, a secretary in the department of art and design, has a family-minded holiday season planned as well.

“During the Christmas break, the most important thing I’ll be doing is waiting for a new grandchild that is due on Dec. 24,” Hoversten said. “And since I have a large family, six children and nine grandchildren already, we’ll be doing all the usual family things.

“We’ll get together on Christmas Day, and my oldest daughter will host the whole group, and we’ll exchange gifts. And, of course on Christmas Eve we have a church service. We try to go to the church service together, as many of us as possible,” Hoversten said.

“And we also will celebrate with my husband’s father, who was recently widowed, and needs to have us gather around him right now and keep him cheerful through the holiday season.”

Barbara Crandell, a clerk at the Engineering Research Institute, explained her holiday agenda.

“I plan on taking a couple of days vacation and just extending it out and just staying home and enjoying the peace and quiet at home with my family,” she said.

Kathryn Andre, assistant director of the Memorial Union, has also made plans to spend time with her family. “We will be staying in Ames, and our family is coming here, because Ames is where we grew up,” Andre said. “And of course we’re going to go to the Nutcracker.”

Bob Hutchison shares the idea of a family Christmas. “All my family’s going to be home, my kids, and we’re just going to celebrate at home,” Hutchison said.

Stephen Barnhart, an extension agronomist, looks forward to spending the holidays with his family as well, although it will only be for a short time.

“My oldest daughter Katie has clinics in the physical therapy curriculum she’s in, and so she doesn’t have a great deal of time over the holidays. So she’s just going to come home, and we’re going to have a fairly quiet, at-home Christmas holiday before she heads back to Milwaukee.

“We usually try to make as many of our Christmas gifts as we can, although some of us have more time than others to do that. But that’s one thing we try to do. Over the years I’ve made shirts and some small furniture projects. We also go to church on Christmas Eve as part of our family activities,” Barnhart said.

Then there are those who, along with celebrating the season with family, plan to work a little bit.

Gregg Henry, professor of theatre, has a busy schedule set up for the semester break that will combine time spent with his family and work with theatre.

“I’m going to my family’s, to my mom and dad’s in North Carolina. Then I’m going to the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival in Columbus, Ohio, to judge the Irene Ryan acting scholarships, and to do a Shakespeare workshop,” he said.

Matthew Kluber, assistant professor of art and design, will be working on a series of abstract paintings at his studio in Iowa City, as well as designing a public art project about the Monroe School, a demolished schoolhouse in Cedar Rapids that was built in 1873.

Then there are those who won’t even get the full break off, but need to stick around to make sure everything is ready to go for the spring semester. Carlota Gutierraz, a library assistant at the Reading Room in the College of Design, has traveling plans that include a late departure and an early return.

“I will be working here until the twenty-third … and then we will take a vacation, my husband and I. We are going to visit a friend in Wichita, Kan., who is going back home [to Nicaragua] in January after 17 years,” she said. “Then after staying with him for a couple of days, we are going to drive to Texas to visit another friend who is also from Nicaragua. We met him when he came here to learn English, and now he’s working on his Ph.D. at Texas A&M.

“And then we will be back here, and that will be it. The last week of the break I have to be working, putting the library in order … so I cannot take the whole break off,” Gutierraz said.

Wendy Ortmann, a secretary in the engineering dean’s office, said she will be visiting relatives in Marshalltown for a few days, but otherwise she will be working through the entire break.

Elisabeth Schafer, professor of nutrition, will also be working through the break. “We’re going to stay here in Ames, and that’s about it. I’ll try to get some research done on changing food habits of married couples as they move across the lifespan,” Schafer said.

The Christmas holidays can be a time of counting our blessings as well as reuniting with loved ones, and no one knows that more than those who suffer tragedies close to the holiday season. Fern Kupfer, professor of English, knows what such a situation is like.

“I took off this semester because my dad was sick this summer; he had a brain tumor, and he died … at the end of October so I brought my mom back with me, and she has been living with me. She’s had surgery, and she has neuropathy pain; nerve pain. It’s been a long, long haul, and sad and draining.

“So my mom’s living with me for a while, and I’m trying to get her through this grieving process, and we’re watching Seinfeld reruns, and my husband’s cooking. He’s a wonderful cook … and my mother’s so grateful for everything he makes,” Kupfer said.

So as students head for the hills for three weeks, the faculty and staff of ISU will be traveling around the country, spending time in their homes or taking a much needed break. Many will cut their vacations short, alter their plans or just stay here in Ames working through the holidays to make sure that these hallowed halls will be ready for learning when students return.

— Janice Peterson contributed to this report.