The results are in: students want a fall break.
Yesterday, the Student Government Association issued a press release announcing the results for the recent student survey concerning the interest in a fall break occurring during the 2013-2014 school year.
SGA President Owen Parrish said that the results were very positive and encouraging.
"If you look at the data, students are indicating that they want a fall break," Parrish said.
The results do seem to indicate that students are in favor of the calendar change next year.
According to the official press release, 69 percent of respondents stated that in general the University should add a two-day fall break.
Seventy percent said they would personally prefer to have such a break.
Approximately 21 percent of respondents did not want to see a fall break implemented, and 10 percent had no opinion.
The press release also showed that 65 percent of students stated that they would be better prepared to perform academically if a fall break was implemented.
Respondents stressed that students do not want a fall break at the expense of a week-long Thanksgiving break.
The fall break task force and SGA have agreed that Thanksgiving break should not and will not be shortened.
Only four percent of respondents suggested this option, but half of the respondents suggested that the two missed days could possibly be made up by beginning fall semester on a Monday instead of a Wednesday.
Now that the student survey is in, SGA Chief of Staff and student leader of FBTF Collier Tynes said there's still a lot of work to be done.
"Now that we have the student recommendations, we'll be conducting a faculty survey," Tynes said. "After we get those results in, if they're both positive then we'll send a recommendation to the University Senate Executive Committee."
According to the planning of the FBTF, after the recommendation is sent to the Senate, they will decide whether to forward it to the Academic Calendar Committee.
If the Academic Calendar Committee decides that the Senate should vote on the issue, then a recommendation will be sent to the Provost's office for approval and then the President's office for approval.
If a fall break does occur during the 2013-2014 school year it would mostly likely occur in October, right after the middle of the semester, according to Tynes.
However, the exact date of the proposed break will be decided by the Academic Calendar Committee.
The survey, which opened on July 2 and closed on July 15, received approximately 4,700 responses.
Seniors were the top class represented, with 32 percent of respondents identifying themselves as such.
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