By ZOE TREIBITZ
Thanksgiving break is a time to connect with family and relax before the intense few weeks that end the first semester. Thanksgiving break for the 2019-2020 school year started on Wednesday, Nov. 27 and went through the weekend before classes resumed on Monday.
The half week break is typical of the Drake academic calendar, but this isn’t the case for other Iowa universities. The University of Iowa and Iowa State University forego a fall break in favor of a weeklong Thanksgiving break. For some Drake students, especially those who travel far or for whom it may be expensive to get home, this may seem appealing. However, this more extended break takes place at the expense of a fall break early in the semester.
To take it back a step, it’s worth asking why it has to be a choice at all. When it comes to creating the schedule, the scheduling committee, which is made up of student senate members and administrators, has a lot of different issues to consider. Assigning break days has a few key factors, with the main one being that they try to have even numbers of break days in the first and second semesters. While it’s not quite perfect as it stands now, this goal is one that is attempted to be met to the best of the group’s planning ability. This, according to a long-time Drake professor, Craig Owens, means that it has to be a choice between the two.
When presented with that choice, many Drake students favor keeping fall break and leaving the schedule as is. Fall break keeps students on track by giving them a break to reset from anything that may have happened in the first half of the semester.
“Going that long without a break from school would burn me out and my grades would suffer,” said Brianna Martin.
Other students say that a week-long Thanksgiving break might be too much for some people, emphasized by the fact we only have a couple weeks back before our month and a half long break. Morgan Garner put it plainly that a long-drawn Thanksgiving followed by the perpetual winter break, “would be too much time at home.”
Overall, Drake students favor keeping the schedule the way it is. If you’re in favor of fall break, fear not, because it’s not going anywhere. The academic calendar for the 2020-2021 school year has already been approved by the Faculty Senate and will be confirmed in the upcoming months. Currently, Fall break is set for Oct. 12 and 13, while Thanksgiving break will run from Nov. 25 through Nov. 29.
