Weeklong Thanksgiving Break to replace Fall Break in ’08
Posted on March 17, 2008
Beginning fall 2008, students will say goodbye to Fall Break and hello to an eight-day Thanksgiving Break.
Classes will not be held, but dormitories and dining halls will remain open for Thanksgiving Break, according to University Spokesman Don Egle.
The vice presidents were the first to recommend the change, according to Teresa Gonzalez, vice provost of academic affairs.
“The university worked with both the Faculty Senate and SGA and both felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages,” Egle said.
The change was decided by a unanimous verdict.
The possible benefits of the change that were discussed included avoiding traffic on Tuesday and Wednesday and the convenience of parents being able to pick up their kids on the weekend rather than during the week, according to Student Body President Lee Brooks.
“It’s nice to have a full week you can actually enjoy,” he said. “A lot of the times, you’re assigned homework over break so you end up doing a lot of that. A full week is a lot better logistically for traveling and for enjoying your break.”
Freshman Stephanie Straub thinks the change will be positive.
“You can spend more time with your family and fall break isn’t really anything fun,” she said.
Another huge deciding factor was the reality that a significant number of students skip the last couple of days of classes.
“It allows students who make travel arrangements that they need to make without class schedules changing,” Egle said.
Both Straub and sophomore Michael Foehrkolb said they left early for Thanksgiving Break this year, even though they missed classes, to have more time off.
A potential downside to the change discussed was with no Fall Break, some students may not have the option of going home until Thanksgiving.
“Fall Break gives you a break kind of half way in between,” Foehrkolb said. “That extra day gives you a longer weekend to go home.”
However, others don’t seem to mind the lack of a Fall Break.
“I don’t live that far away,” Straub said. “ I would go home in October anyway.”
Another option considered was giving students the Monday after Thanksgiving off, but some members of the SGA thought that was not as strong a solution because it could still be inconvenient for parents, according to Brooks.
