A proposal that would eliminate the current fall break and extend the three-day Thanksgiving break to a week was approved by both the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Leadership Council last week.
Provost Cornelius Kerwin introduced the proposal. If the University Cabinet passes the proposal, the new schedule would go into effect next year.
Kerwin will meet with Student Confederation President Polson Kanneth this week to discuss the issue.
The proposal has been in discussion since fall break was first instituted about four years ago, according to Kerwin. Originally, there was no break except for Labor Day and the three days for Thanksgiving during the fall semester.
Kerwin also said that a number of sources have said that the current break does not work as well because it falls too early in the semester. It also delays planning and scheduling for Homecoming and Family Weekend.
However, one of the biggest concerns comes from faculty, especially those professors who teach classes on Monday and who have blocks on that day. Some professors say that the break is disruptive to their classes since it falls so early in the term, Kerwin said.
Professor David Rosenbloom, chair of the Faculty Senate, said eliminating the break would make sense. Rosenbloom, who also has classes on Monday, said that from his perspective, it breaks up the continuity of the course and loses the momentum of the class early in the semester.
He also said that the University already loses students that Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
"Monday and Tuesday are barren around here anyways," said Rosenbloom.
However, Nathan Price, special assistant to the Office of the Provost, said that Monday classes are compensated on the calendar, as the semester ends on a Monday before finals.
Edward William Sawyer, vice chair of the Graduate Leadership Council, said that graduate students are in favor of the elimination of fall break.
"We felt that a week-long break was more beneficial than just having a couple of days off here and there," Sawyer said.
Sawyer added that graduates taking first-half modules for credit in the fall semester, like himself, deal with the loss of one of eight sessions due to fall break.
He also said that the long week in November would be better for students who go home to visit their families and for those who work and ask for vacation days off.
First-year graduate student Jason Wilcox agrees with the proposal.
"The two days off at the beginning of this week doesn't help me," said Wilcox, who also mentioned that he could get more done with the week off and could spend more time with his family.
Some undergraduate students agree that they would rather have the week off for Thanksgiving because they could spend a longer time a home.
"I'd be fine with it since I don't go home for fall break," sophomore Andrew Danto said. "Fall break is just a long weekend. It would be better to have a longer break [for Thanksgiving] because that's when I actually spend time with my family."
However, other students do not want fall break to be eliminated.
"I think fall break comes at a perfect time because it comes at the end of midterms," junior Megan Cruickshank said. "Everyone is burned out and stressed and needs a break."
Cruickshank said that while it would be nice to have a long break during Thanksgiving, there is already enough time allotted to Thanksgiving break.
"I wouldn't want to give up my fall break for a whole week off from Thanksgiving," she said.
Senior Kelsey Gage, a Washington Semester student, agrees with Cruickshank.
"The days off are useful now," Gage said. "The two days added to Thanksgiving would just become wasted days."
Kanneth has been talking to undergraduate students who share the same feelings as Cruickshank and Gage.
"[The proposal] is a bad idea," said Kanneth, who said he had spoken to many students, including freshman and upperclassmen. "[Students], especially the freshmen, really need the break. They really need to go home because they are so stressed out."
Kanneth said that the break in October was important for many students because it was a good time for them to relax after midterms and papers or catch up with work that had been neglected.
"I think [the Thanksgiving week break would be] unfair for students because they are being pushed from Labor Day to Thanksgiving without a time to catch up," Kanneth said.
Richard Bradbury, speaker of the General Assembly, agrees with Kanneth and said that he's not in favor of the long week.
"I recognize some students think the break is unnecessary, but by and large in the macro sense, they should keep it the way it is," Bradbury said.
Price said that AU is the only university in D.C. that has a fall break with two consecutive days off in October. One of the top universities in the country, Yale University, has a similar schedule to that of the proposal, he said.
Furthermore, Price also stressed that fall break was an experiment. Based on an assessment, he said, it was questionable whether students were taking advantage of the break, which was meant to allow students to catch up in their studies.
"We're trying to do the right thing educationally for the students and the faculty," Kerwin said. "We want to make a schedule that makes sense, [and this] seems like a sensible way to go"
