Some students wish Thanksgiving break were longer, but NIU has many solid reasons why more days off in the fall have not been added and should not be added to its academic calendar.

Establishing a fall break would create many problems, even though I have heard various conversations from students and staff who think otherwise. Nora Kobayashi, sophomore nursing major and transfer student, previously attended Loyola University in Chicago, which implements a fall break. Kobayashi said students used the break to prepare for exams.

I don’t doubt that extra time off is a big stress reliever to students who need to take time to relax or finish projects, but I feel we are already given an appropriate amount of time off without isolating the last two weeks of the semester.

Financially, adding a fall break could be more expensive because days off would have to be made up by starting the semester earlier or extending it longer. Staff would need to stay and be paid an extra week or so if residence halls and dining halls were to remain open for those make-up days.

In regard to working off campus, “Students would have shortened employment opportunities because of an early return to campus or they would lose employment opportunities during the holiday period,” according to a 2002 University Council report.

There is no time for fall break

Placing more days off would diminish an already stressful semester by giving students less time to complete the same amount of work. NIU already has the shortest number of school days of any Illinois public institution, said Greg Long, Faculty Senate president and executive secretary of the University Council. The fall semester is already shorter than spring semester; we should be looking into ways to add a few more days instead of taking them away.

There are many majors that require a certain number of program hours before finals week. Nursing and education students, among others, spend much of their time on accreditation hours. While a fall break may be nice, having one toward the due date of these hours may cause extra stress for those struggling to complete them.

All of these points were brought up when this topic was presented in 2002 to University Council, which essentially closed the case regarding fall break; however, University Council did decide to take away classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which gave students a longer weekend.

There is no need for fall break

Since the topic of fall break poses more problems than benefits, I do not think it should be considered in the near future. Students are generally content with Thanksgiving break as it allows just enough time to catch up without becoming lazy right before exams.

“We have not received any direct push from the students,” Long said in regard to implementing a fall break.

No classes may always seem like a good thing at this stressful time, but that hasn’t factually been the case. It doesn’t seem necessary to deal with issues that would come along with a fall break since there’s little demand for it.

If students and faculty really do think having fall break would be a beneficial change, they should be prepared to voice their solutions to the problems it creates.