Burn Out

Dear U of A,

For years now we have begged you to give us a Fall Break. You continue to insist that we get one. Just FYI, the day before Thanksgiving isn’t “fall break,” it’s “Thanksgiving break.” We’re dead by then. Do you realize what you’re doing to us? I mean really. It’s ridiculous.

Your reasons in the past have been that the workload is heaviest towards Thanksgiving as we’re preparing for finals. Another FYI, it isn’t the workload we need a break from. We need a mental break, not an academic one. A chance to step away from the daily routine and enjoy time away from campus, away from people, away from responsibility.

We’re one of the only schools around that doesn’t get a break. All of those other schools have realized the problem, why are you so slow on the uptake? We even did all the work for you! We wrote up legislation and recommendations. We got student body approval. We suggested dates and procedures and policies. All you had to do was say okay. Is that really so hard? Come ON, U of A. What’s your problem?

We all get to this point in the semester where the days start blending together. We have trouble remembering which class to go to (because we aren’t sure if it’s Monday or Tuesday), we run out of clean clothes, we turn our alarms off in our sleep. Our brains essentially take a fall break whether WE get to our not. It’s not fair to run us into the ground like this.

You want a prestigious university with top ranked students, right? Here’s a hint: Don’t burn us all out before we get to finals. Listen to the people you claim to care so much about and give us a damn fall break.

Sincerely,

Everyone