Students deserve a longer Thanksgiving Break to travel home, spend time with family and not fall behind

by ENYA CEA-LAVIN

Staff Writer

For the University of Mary Washington to conduct its fall semester more efficiently, fall and Thanksgiving break should be combined into one long break at the end of November. This would allow students ample time to travel, visit their families and a better chance to relax or catch up on work before finals. 

For a full-time student who takes on multiple extracurricular activities on top of having a job, breaks are the only possible time to see family. However, a two or three day break does not afford a student enough time to travel home and spend substantial time with their family, especially if their family members work full-time.

Mallory Chardonneau, a sophomore history major at James Madison University, transferred from UMW because of this issue. She stressed how a longer break may have benefited her time at UMW.

“I would’ve actually taken the time to go home and see my family,” she said. “I would’ve been able to see other relatives that I haven’t seen in a while.” 

She continued, “I come from a single-parent household where my parent works during the week. They were not able to pick me up due to work and by the time the weekend would roll around there would be no reason for me to go home.”

A lack of reliable or financially feasible transportation is an issue UMW doesn’t take into account. For many students, having to account for transportation to get home and back turns a three-day break into one day—if they are even able to make it home at all.

Class of 2024 alumna, Abbey McFarland, is from out-of-state and had trouble finding a way to make it home to see family while attending UMW.

“Having been an out-of-state student, it’s hard to get a way home for such a short amount of time, whether that’s having a parent get off work to drive four hours, or spending over 90-100 dollars on a train ticket each way,” she said. 

If a week-long break was available, it would give students time to travel home, complete class assignments and still have enough time to see family. This longer off period would eliminate travel anxiety and stress towards turning assignments in on time. 

“I think combining the breaks would also give you a chance to actually take a break from school work,” said McFarland. “I was lucky enough to be offered a place to stay from a Virginia-based friend last fall break but had such a heavy workload I couldn’t fully relax.”

A singular extended break would give the opportunity to actually decompress. With how close Thanksgiving is to finals week, students wouldn’t have to stress about making time to prepare for finals on top of classes. 

“I feel like it doesn’t really let me go back home and enjoy time with my family,” said Briza Valdes-Llamas, a senior biomedical sciences major. 

With how stressful academia can get and the looming threat of burnout, students deserve a real break in the fall semester before finals. Not only that, but students deserve enough time in their breaks to travel home and rest without the additional stress of transportation times. A full week around Thanksgiving would be an ideal week-long break for more students to do so.