The posters are everywhere. In the hallways, as ads in the Charlatan, even on the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) website. In bold, black letters they read, “Vote YES for the Fall Break.” Funny enough, I haven’t seen one poster that says vote NO. Perhaps it’s because after more than two years of negotiations and repeated election promises from CUSA, saying a break isn’t a good idea would be political suicide.
Let’s be honest here. The concept of a fall break is nothing more than a populist move, a political gold mine as it were. In the majority of cases enticing a student with a week off from school is like giving candy to a baby. It sounds like a good idea. I mean, we’re all struggling students trying to balance exams, papers, and assignments with some form of a social life, work, friends etc. Many see a week off from classes as a chance to get caught up, to actually do those readings that have been neglected since the first week of September.
We say that, but seriously, how many of us would actually do it? Take reading week for example. How many students read during reading week? I certainly don’t. I fully admit it.
Not only that, how many of us will actually have a substantial amount of work to do? Unlike our University of Ottawa counterparts, where almost every course is only a semester long, Carleton offers a number of full-year undergraduate courses. While we have midterms, they usually fall during the winter exam period or late in October. The current proposal would have the fall break happening in line with Thanksgiving weekend. This year, that was the first weekend of October. This means that if we’d had a fall break this month, we would have had a week off after only three weeks of classes. If you seriously need an entire week off after only three weeks of university, I’d hate to see how you’d survive in the real world. Imagine asking your employer for a week’s worth of vacation three weeks into a job. You’d probably be shown the door. At least the UOttawa model has their fall break scheduled for the last week of October, after more than six weeks of classes, which is in turn in line with the February reading week set-up.
That aside, as a student who travels just under 4000 km each year to study here at Carleton, the opportunity to spend time with my family and friends back home in Alberta is cherished. Especially at Christmas time. For the first time in my university career, the scheduled exam period will finish on Dec. 19, with classes set to resume on Jan. 7. That’s a guaranteed two and a half weeks of quality family time. With a fall break, that family time would be gone. Not only does it mean exams would have to be scheduled on Sundays, a concern some of my more religious friends have raised in conversation, it also means the exam schedule could run until Dec. 23. If your exam is scheduled at 7 p.m. on the 23rd, this means you’re traveling on Christmas Eve. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of this experience, it’s a nightmare. And that’s without the risk of travel delays. Remember, in December it usually snows. Further, by scheduling exams on Sundays, as students we’ve lost our guaranteed study day. You know that day where we can (if we so choose) hole ourselves up in the library from dawn until dusk. If the new fall break is passed, you can say goodbye to these prep days. This includes the ones currently scheduled between the end of classes and the start of exams.
Some of you are probably thinking, “Kelsey you can just go home over fall break if you’re that attached to your family.” You’re right, I could. However, the rest of the world doesn’t get a week off after Thanksgiving. Life in my house would be the standard routine of siblings going to school, doing homework, parents going to work, extra-curricular practices, etc. For the cost of the flight, it’d be pretty expensive to fly all the way home, only to have to come up with ways to kill time. I’d be better off staying in Ottawa.
Now I know that voting started on Oct. 10. For some of you, this means you’ve already voted. For those who haven’t, I urge you to take a minute to consider the actual implications this fall break could have, before you tick that little box. Why? Sometimes, what initially seems like a good idea, isn’t.
— Kelsey Johnson,
fourth-year journalism
