Carleton’s students are getting a week-long fall break next year, though this is not permanent yet.
Carleton’s Senate voted 28-11 in favour of testing the fall break for the next two-years. The break will occur during the last week of October, meaning it will not overlap with Thanksgiving.
Senate will use the trial period to gauge the success and utility of having a fall break, according to the committee that examined the break proposal. Student stress levels will serve as the main indicator of success, according to the committee.
Exactly how Senate Committee on Curriculum, Admissions and Studies Policy (SCCASP) intends to measure student stress remained unclear. The committee suggested measuring the traffic through the Paul Menton Centre compared to other years, along with anecdotal evidence.
“I felt that the entire idea was rushed through senate,” Graduate Students’ Association president Kelly Black said. “The committee itself indicated that there was much data that needed to be retrieved to understand the implication of a fall reading week. I felt that we shouldn’t be making decisions without the data.”
Other issues of concern included ensuring engineering and science students received their necessary lab hours throughout the semester and how the break could constrain the amount of teaching days when Labour Day falls late in September.
Yet, in the end the fall break won.
“I voted in favour of the motion because I thought there is sufficient evidence of benefits,” Carleton law professor Michael Mac Neil said. “From the student perspective, having the extra time to regroup in the middle of the term, much like they already have in the winter term, relieves stress and gives the opportunity to get projects done. So, at taking the students word for it, they’re going to benefit from it.”
SCCASP will begin to iron out the finer details of the break at its next meeting on Jan. 29.
The talk of having a fall break has been going on for years. It picked up considerable momentum in October 2012 when approximately 70 per cent of student respondents to an online poll voted in favour of a fall break. It was the largest voter turnout for a referendum in Carleton’s history, according to Carleton University Students’ Association president Alexander Golovko.
Amidst the discussion, mostly dominated by those who opposed the motion, Golovko offered a metaphor supporting the two-year trial.
“You can read all the books on how to ride a bike, but you’re never going to learn until you try it,” he said.
