As midterms roll around, college students across the country are feeling the need for a bit of a break. Some universities have official fall breaks, but not at Grand Valley State University. However, some members of the Laker community are encouraging a second annual “fall breather,” to give the students a bit of a reprieve.

The GVSU student senate discussed ways to promote the fall breather at their general assembly meeting last week.

The suggested fall breather is a time when professors are urged not to give students homework over a particular weekend. Vice President for public relations Ella Fritzemeier thought of taking to social media to campaign the idea.

“We are trying to promote teachers to do a fall breather, so to loosen up on the work-load,” Fritzemeier said. “If (anyone) has ideas for a social media campaign, maybe something like #FreeGV.”

President of the senate Maddie Cleghorn, also spoke about the fall breather as well, noting its importance for GVSU students.

“We passed a resolution a couple of years ago in support of a fall break. Not this breather, but the actual idea of a break,” Cleghorn said. “This idea of a fall breather started when Dean Antczak last year came together with classes, other deans and departments and encouraged faculty to not assign homework.

“It’s not giving class off, but basically just not assigning work for one concise weekend. This year that weekend that is encouraged for professors to not assign work, actually coincides with homecoming. It’s also right before the drop deadline so it’s kind of meant to either catch up or figure out what (students) need to do.”

This year, the fall breather is scheduled to take place during the weekend of Oct. 24. The senate hopes they can create outreach into the community and gain support from students and faculty to take part in the fall breather this year. Only faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been encouraged to participate in the fall breather.

In addition to promoting the fall breather, the student senate also added six new members to the body. After adding these new members, the senate will have 49 members, making it one member short of having a full body.

Kelsey Lugin and Cameron Saghaipour were appointed to the educational affairs committee, Adam MacDonald to the external relations committee, Nicholas Kapusta to the public relations committee, Madison Rhoades to the diversity affairs committee and Olivia Kolc to the finance committee.