With Thanksgiving Break right around the corner, we’re all looking forward to having a week off from classes. But is this enough of a break for an entire semester?
In past years, Linfield had a Fall Break in the middle of the semester. These four days (Thursday through Sunday) were coupled with a four-day Thanksgiving Break.
Two years ago, faculty voted to get rid of these breaks and create one long Thanksgiving Break — as it now stands. While these seven days of break are technically shorter than the former eight, is it worth returning to the old schedule?
We at the Review think that a Fall Break would be beneficial for students as long as it doesn’t change the current Thanksgiving Break.
That is, have a week-long Thanksgiving Break and add another, shorter break between Labor Day and Thanksgiving.
Many out-of-state students travel home for the Thanksgiving holiday. If Thanksgiving Break were returned to a four-day break, then it would be difficult for students who hope to go home.
And who wants to pay hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket home if it would only be for several days? It’s not fair to students who want to go home to spend the holidays with their family.
We realize that a lot of classes meet either Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or Tuesdays and Thursdays and we wouldn’t want a Fall Break to disrupt the academic flow of classes. Having less class days would likely put more stress on students, who are already burned out.
If a break were added, it would have to be scheduled in such a way that wouldn’t cut any classes (especially Tuesday-Thursday classes) short.
Overall, we think it would be a great idea to have a Fall Break added to the semester calendar, but it shouldn’t interfere with the week-long Thanksgiving Break.
We know that the supposed scheduling freeze might make this difficult, but it’s a hot topic among students, faculty and staff alike, and it needs to be addressed.
-The Review Editorial Board