Thanksgiving — it’s a time many of us look forward to during the fall semester. Families come together, memories are made and quality family time is spent. However, as the holiday approaches and you look forward to meeting your family there is just one problem — you can’t afford to miss your Wednesday classes to catch that flight back to your home town.
This problem needs to be addressed here at CSUN. Our fellow Matadors need a fall break that is long enough for them to visit their families. Our school needs to take the initiative and consider the fact that other campuses have taken their students into consideration by giving them an earlier fall break.
I have heard this problem discussed continuously leading up to the week of Thanksgiving. I have personally struggled with the fact that CSUN does not give us an adequate amount of time off to see our families during the Thanksgiving holiday. I can only imagine the struggle students may face who live even further away and have to take a flight in order to see their families.
Even if some students get lucky with cancelled classes or can afford to miss class that week, others may not. Therefore, they would have to make the decision to either sacrifice their grade or sacrifice seeing their families on Thanksgiving. We can all agree that the things that have been occurring recently, whether it is our recent struggle with Section F or problems in the political realm, take a toll on us. This only underscores the importance of being together with family or loved ones.
According to CSU Fullerton’s academic calendar, they have a fall recess that occurs during the entire week of Thanksgiving. Other campuses, such as CSU Long Beach, have a fall break stated on their academic calendar.
If other state colleges can give their students the week off then why can’t we? During the fall semester, we do not have any breaks that last more than a day or two, yet during the spring semester we have a week off for spring break. Seeing as other state schools partake in fall break, it does not seem that changing around the fall semester calendar would be much of an issue or hindrance to our academic achievements.
Giving our student body a longer break for the Thanksgiving holiday could benefit our campus and that it is an obtainable request.
Although one might argue that some professors have cancelled classes, that is not true for all. For example, even if he or she had planned to give us the day off, things may have come up during the semester that resulted in the material needing to be covered that week. However, if our campus automatically gave us the week off for fall break, professors would be able to adjust their syllabi accordingly and would not have the option to hold class that week.
Others may argue that if we have the week off, some students may feel alone if they cannot visit their families. However, if this is the case, we could always come together as a campus and organize a Friendsgiving for students who do not have somewhere to go during the holiday. Therefore, those who are not able to make it home and are stuck during the long break would have the option of feeling included.
What do we have to lose CSUN? Let’s take the initiative, and bring back the importance of spending quality time together with family. Give Matadors a break!
Written by Lauren Banda
