Collegiate Times

With landslide numbers, students and faculty have requested to stick to the current fall and Thanksgiving break schedules.

The Academic Support Committee recently took a survey to gauge interest in a possible change to the academic schedule. The survey asked if students and faculty would rather have a two-day fall break in October and three days off in November for Thanksgiving break.

Currently, fall break consists of one day without classes, with a full week given for Thanksgiving.

More than 10,000 students responded to the survey, and more than 90 percent of students said they would like to keep the current break schedule, citing flexibility when travelling for Thanksgiving.

“If you look at our student body, they come from almost every state in the county, and a lot of people come from outside of the country,” said Michael Denbow, the committee chair. “So, a break from Wednesday to Sunday at Thanksgiving does provide travel issues for some people,”

Of the 983 faculty members who responded, 74 percent said they would prefer to keep the current schedule.

Some faculty members expressed concerns toward the proposed changes. They argued if Thanksgiving break were to be shortened to three days, students would inevitably decide to take Monday and Tuesday off regardless.

Tech has not always had a fall break — it first began in 2005, when students were given a Monday off after they made requests.

The committee reviews Tech’s academic calendar every five years. Currently, the committee is looking at the schedule that will be in place for 2013 to 2018.

Denbow said he has heard talk for some time about lengthening fall break, and he wanted to see how students, faculty and staff felt about a potential change.

“The question keeps coming up: Do you maintain a week at Thanksgiving, or do you try to have a longer fall break? We were trying to get some objective information on what people believe is best,” Denbow said.

Matt Wade, a senior economics major, said he responded in the survey, stating he would rather continue to have a week of no classes for Thanksgiving.

“It’s really nice to have the whole week off at Thanksgiving, because you have both weekends, I’d rather have a five-day break, than a two-day and a three-day (break),” Wade said.

One issue with having a week off for Thanksgiving is some feel it creates too much of a break before final exams, but Wade doesn’t see this as a problem.

“It never bothered me — it’s not hard to get back into it. It’s easy to get stuff done over Thanksgiving,” Wade said.

Andrew Knittle, a freshman university studies major, said he also favors the current schedule and does not think having a week off for Thanksgiving has a major impact on studying for finals.

“You’d only have two days of classes that week. Being home for any length of time would make you forget (about finals),” Knittle said, referring to a shorter Thanksgiving break. 

Some students at the University of Virginia would disagree, as they seem happy with their alternative schedule, mainly because it provides them extra time to get ready for final exams.

U.Va. currently has two days off in October for fall break and three days off for Thanksgiving break. Timothy Edwards, a junior architecture major at U.Va., said he enjoys having a two-day break in the middle of the semester.

“It’s really helpful to clear your head from the stress of school work and have a long weekend,” he said. “Those two days also benefit the

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 22 issue of the Collegiate Times.