There are a billion things I can complain about when I think about the fall semester, but one thing that makes me livid and almost brings me to tears is the way breaks are scheduled at Luther. I know it’s been over a month, but the last fall break was too short. As someone who has been in this institution since 2018, I think the academic schedule over the last two years has done nothing to prioritize student sanity.

When fall break was approaching, I was excited. We get one whole week off school, why wouldn’t I be excited? Unfortunately, my dreams were violently crushed. Without adding the weekend, we only got three days off of school. If you have to travel via plane, like myself, three days feels like absolutely nothing. Top that with the take-home exams that some professors gave us and homework that many professors assign over break, students almost don’t get a real break.

Last academic year was overwhelming because of the pandemic and the various adjustments that students had to make. Fatigue was a constant state of being for me.  I thought it would get better when things switched back in the spring, only for us to be allotted one day to rest. 

This semester, I expected that the fatigue from COVID and the well-being of students would be taken into consideration with the scheduling of breaks. Luther did not hesitate to prove me wrong. Aside from giving us an extremely short fall break, there have been minimal efforts to help students get out of this state of fatigue.

My concern with the extremely short breaks is not the fact that I don’t have enough time to ignore my school work. I am concerned about the fact that by the end of the semester, I may have lost my mind. 

From the start of the semester until the end, all us students think about is school work. We get about a few hours away from school in the form of procrastination, sleep, or engaging in other activities but after a few hours off, it’s back to the books. Considering the mental toll the last year has had on students, all I really want is a moderately lengthy break.  After the last two years, I think we deserve it.