What do you think of when you hear of Thanksgiving break? For most, they think about spending a week at home with family, not thinking about school and recharging their brain. Baylor students are only granted three days of break this year and many aren’t happy about it.
Baylor University has a total enrollment of 17,217 students. Of those students, 65% are from Texas. Many Texas school districts and districts all around the nation normally have a week off to celebrate Thanksgiving break. Thus, many students, especially the 3,366 new freshmen are used to having a week off to spend time with family and keep family holiday traditions alive. Families that have kids in grade school and high school, as well as college, will have to try and make the most of the couple of days that Baylor students have off. Similarly, the professors and people on staff at Baylor who have younger children at home might also be affected. Don’t you think that they would like to have the same time off as their children to just relax and grow closer as a family in this holiday season?
Although majority of the students are from Texas, the 35% who aren’t come from all 50 states and 91 foreign countries. This statistic only adds to the problem of only having three days off
for break. For students who don’t live just a couple of hours away, getting home is not always very easy. During the holiday season, prices for plane tickets go up and are sometimes not very affordable, making three days at home not worth it to some families. Furthermore, airports and traffic during the holidays are a nightmare in themselves. My roommate is from California and he won’t be able to go home this holiday season and spend time with friends and family. He and his family had to take in account two days for travel and they couldn’t justify purchasing a plane ticket for so little time they would get to spend together.
I suggest Baylor students take matters into their own hands by starting a petition to extend Thanksgiving break from three days, to an entire week. Once enough students have signed the petition and voiced their opinion, the hope would be that it would reach Baylor administration and they would consider making this change to our calendar for next school year. This change would better the lives of all the students and staff at Baylor University.
Brooks Helmer
Sophomore
Business marketing major
