The Student Association Senate voted Tuesday night to recommend next semester’s fall break be split between October and November.
The Senate approved the resolution with 33 members in favor and two opposed. Three senators abstained from the vote and 11 were absent from the meeting.
Sen. Jeremy England, who proposed the resolution, suggested that next semester’s fall break be designated on Monday, Oct. 18 and Tuesday, Oct. 19, and additionally start the Thanksgiving holiday on Tuesday, Nov. 23.
England said he chose the October dates because there was no football game that particular weekend, and he felt that most people wanted the day off before Thanksgiving.
“I do not want to see us go back to the system we had my freshmen year,” England said, referring to the practices of classes ending the day before Thanksgiving.
England said he proposed this resolution because he believed the faculty had not been pleased with last year’s fall break and felt that the future of the break could be in danger.
He added that the previous break had also interfered with the scheduling of labs.
Sen. Cory Carter asked if the two days off in October would interfere with the lab schedules for two weeks instead of one.
Carter said that, in his experience, all labs were cancelled during weeks that one or more lab would miss class, so to him this new system seemed like it would clash with the lab schedules during the week in October and week of Thanksgiving.
Sen. Lacie Wilkerson said she enjoyed having the whole week off last year as much as anybody else, but she would rather move the break and be off on other days as opposed to not getting any time out whatsoever.
Sen. T.J. Harvey added that last year’s break also made it difficult for students to “get back in the groove of things.”
When the Faculty Senate agreed to the break, they agreed to a two-year trial period, said SA President Josh Blades.
“We will have fall break next year, in some form or fashion,” Blades said.
If something is not done soon, the long-term future of fall break would be in question, Blades added.
Wilkerson said the Senate should work with the faculty and let them know that they were willing to work with each other concerning this issue.
The Faculty Senate was not happy with how the break turned out last year, Blades said. The Faculty Senate would going to work hard to try to stop fall break from continuing after next year’s two-year trial runs out.
He pointed out that last spring, the student body voted on a referendum on when to hold the fall break. The vote split 70-30, with the majority in favor of the split break.
Blades said, the Office of the Provost was in favor of trying the break for the full week of Thanksgiving. Ruth Prescott, the assistant vice president in the provost’s office, was in favor of the split break next fall.