Students can’t seem to catch a break these days. A new proposal that will soon be in front of the University Senate will break up the weeklong fall semester holiday break. Under the proposal, a new four-day weekend in October would be created – in exchange, students would only get three days off for Thanksgiving. We ask that the University Senate reconsider the implications of such an act and consider other alternative options that will still allow for a full Thanksgiving holiday as we currently know it.

Supporters of breaking up Thanksgiving break point to new statistical data showing a rise in student stress in the period between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Creating a new fall break in October, they say, would help to relieve students of some of this stress. However, these supporters might have forgotten that the reason the University Senate made Thanksgiving break a week long in 1999 was because of concern over student stress levels in November. We believe it is not reasonable or reliable to use fickle statistical data to determine the fall break schedule.

The arguments for maintaining a weeklong Thanksgiving break are convincing and logical. A weeklong break gives out-of-state students time to get home for Thanksgiving dinner. Two shorter breaks would mean either that more students stay on campus away from their families, or greater expenses and time spent traveling during an already stressful time of year. The University should keep in mind the interests of its out-of- state students who add to the diversity of the campus.

In addition, another reason the Senate made a weeklong break in 1999 is that many students just skipped class on Monday and Tuesday. It’s very likely that the same thing would happen if we went back to a shorter break.

One part of the new schedule proposal that we deeply support, though, is the long-overdue addition of a second Reading Day on the Thursday before finals week. The current Reading Day on Saturday is a joke, since most students don’t have a final on that day anyway. And given that schools such as Stanford and Northwestern universities give their students a Reading Week, one extra day for students to prepare for finals shouldn’t be a lot to ask. If University Senate members are truly concerned about stress, they need to give students a break during the most stressful time of the semester.

The proposed plan suggests starting fall semester on a Monday, rather than on Wednesday. With this in mind, perhaps the 2006-2007 school year could look like this: with the two extra school days gained by starting on a Monday, give students one day off in October, and create an additional Reading Day just before finals. Such a plan would allow the University to maintain its current weeklong break for the Thanksgiving holiday, while providing a stress relief period in October.

We ask that concerned students and faculty make their voices and opinions known on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. in Gregory Hall to the University Senate. We hold optimism that a compromise can be found that favors all sides.