MEGAN FEDORCHUK

University life is a creature untamed by any due date, group project or final exam. With the chaos that is the campus lifestyle, students need scheduled breaks to charge their batteries. We have a week off in the second term, but where’s our week of freedom in the first?

For the majority of students, years spent earning a degree can be best depicted by a salmon swimming upstream to spawn — and this is not meant to reference your tenacious efforts to get lucky. Much like the salmon, we feel the stress and fatigue brought on by the pursuit to reach those fresh waters of employment. But unlike the salmon we do not die as a result of all our hard work, though I’m sure many of us feel death to be upon us come final exam time.

Fortunately, the education system seemingly cares about our personal well-being. Universities cater to the bags underneath our eyes by closing down during holidays as well as scheduling the student-acclaimed reading week, or “spring break” if you are versed in Much Music. But why does this type of break only occur in second term? Do the stresses of the winter months outweigh those we experience in the fall?

At some institutions for higher education, the fall break is already in place. According to an article appearing in the Toronto Star, “11 of Ontario’s 20 publicly funded universities have allocated a block of time in either October or November — usually ranging from two to five days.”

What a concept! Honestly, it wouldn’t be too hard to give us the entire week off after Thanksgiving to recover from the turkey coma and get some homework done, nor would it be outrageous to tag on a few extra days around Remembrance Day.

Of course, these missed classes must be accounted for. For example, a four-day fall break would result in something along the lines of two additional days in the months of September and December, right before and immediately following start and end class dates.

Do me a favor and imagine four class-free days to break up your first term. I don’t know about you, but visions of cat naps, Netflix marathons and clean laundry are dancing about in my head right now.

Yes, I realize that with a little time management, these visions could all become a reality. And yes, I am fully aware that none of these personal luxuries get me any farther ahead in regards to due dates and group projects.

However, a few extra winks of sleep and some solid me-time are what allow me to hold down the sanity fort and maintain my status as a real human being.

Giving students a chance to play mental catch-up can be viewed as equally, if not more beneficial, as time allotted to reading textbooks and writing papers. What individual achieves their highest potential while sleep deprived and stressed out?  One can argue that university prepares students for real world demands, but at what cost?

As the number of fall break offerings begin to rise in universities across the country, I can only hope that my days here at the University of Saskatchewan will be graced by the presence of a first-term breather. Until then, I’ll continue to exist in my recent Red Bull relapse.

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Graphic: Stephanie Mah