The fall 2014 semester at Grand Valley State University is officially back in full swing. The first week of class is often very laid back, mainly with professors doing introductions and going over syllabi. To make matters easier, after just one week of class, students are given a long weekend for Labor Day – a way for the university to let students ease back into the school year with one last weekend of minimal homework and extra days to do it.

But after that weekend, you are expected to be ready. Here comes 11 and a half weeks with no breaks – absolutely nothing. That’s right folks, time to buckle down until Thanksgiving break.

While many other schools have a fall break part way through the semester, GVSU has decided that this isn’t necessary for its students, faculty and staff. Though the idea has the student backing from Student Senate, the University Academic Senate voted down the idea last year.

So what have supporters of the idea decided to do? Fight back.

Frederick Antczak, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has encouraged faculty from CLAS and across the university to help him implement a fall “breather” – a weekend with no readings, assignments or homework in general – for the weekend of Oct. 18 and 19. This would not be a decrease in the workload, just a redistribution of it.

We at the Lanthorn would like to encourage all professors to participate.

As stated in Hannah Lentz’s article, students are less able to study and concentrate throughout the semester as it carries on for so long. It has been shown that more students get sick during this time and therefore miss more classes. The break would also be helpful for faculty, who can get just as exhausted throughout the semester as the students.

If the fall breather is widely implemented throughout campus this year, it could provide valuable data to the university next time the issue of a fall break is brought to the table. This could be the tipping point in convincing UAS that a break is not only beneficial for GVSU, but that it is necessary.

Students, ask your professors if they will be taking part in the fall “breather.” It won’t happen if the push doesn’t come from you. You are the majority on campus and have the loudest voice.

Students and faculty need the chance to recuperate part way through the semester before the work is really piled on – a break after midterms and before final exams. It could lead to the eventual implementation of a fall break. Faculty, think about how big of an impact you could make by choosing to participate.