The break would fall in the three days before Thanksgiving, give students travel time

Students will get a full week to enjoy Thanksgiving in the future, if ASUA Sen. Doug Hartz has his way.

More than 1,000 University of Arizona students have signed Hartz's petition to cancel classes on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Those three days of class would likely be moved to cut into summer vacation time, but students would be gaining the time they needed to travel cross-country during the holiday, Hartz said.

"It seems like most of the students we talked to were supportive," Hartz said.

There will be no extended break this year, and it is unlikely to happen next year, because the process of re-arranging the calendar can lead to scheduling conflicts many months down the road, Hartz said.

The idea behind the campaign is to start the ball rolling so that today's sophomores may have a fall break their senior year.

Hartz plans to collect 5,000 to 8,000 student signatures on the petition before presenting the plan to the Faculty Senate. With support from the Associated Students of Arizona at the three Arizona universities, Extended University, and a number of other organizations, the Faculty Senate is likely to approve the plan, Hartz said.

If the Faculty Senate were to approve the fall break, the Arizona Board of Regents - which approves the calendar for the universities - would be likely to follow the Senate's recommendations and possibly approve the break at all three universities, Hartz said.

Four out of the 15 peer institutions that the UA compares its budget, curriculum, coursework and calendar to have a fall break, according to a UA website http://uaadvancement.arizona.edu/just-facts/peer-institutions.htm.

Students could also use the break to take classes through the UA Extended University, which would provide a quick way for students to pick up credits, and income for the UA in the form of tuition, Hartz said he was told by Dick Roberts, assistant vice president and budget director.

Or students could take a break from classes, and use the vacation to recuperate from the stresses of the academic year and prepare themselves for final exams, Hartz said.

Hartz plans to test whether students show up for classes on the three days before Thanksgiving.

He and other ASUA senators will count the number of students in a few classes this week and next. During the three days before Thanksgiving, Hartz and others will take attendance in those classes again, comparing attendance then with the attendance in previous weeks.

ASUA Sen. Eric Chambers said that he supports adding the fall break to the academic calendar.

"I actually have a friend who goes to Kansas, and he says (the break) is such a great thing during midterms," Chambers said. "I think (the break) is a really great thing."