In this week's Reporter, there is a summary of the last SG Senate meeting.  In this article, it is reported that you presented the academic calendar and took questions about this year's break schedule.  When questioned about this year's 2-2 week schedule for Fall and Winter breaks, the Reporter says that you replied that "the day of the week a holiday falls on makes a difference" and "This year, there wasn't enough time between the last day of finals and Thanksgiving for faculty to process grades".

There are two major problems with this response.  One, Thanksgiving always falls on the same day of the week - Thursday.  Your comment is therefore irrelevant, as last year there seemed to be plenty of time for the faculty to process grades.  Second, if the day of the week a holiday falls on makes a difference, the fact that Christmas falls on the Monday immediately after break begins with the current schedule should have been taken into consideration.  I understand that the problem with this may not immediately be obvious to most faculty and perhaps students, as a large number live relatively near here, at least within driving distance.  However, for those of us from other parts of the country (I myself am from Seattle, WA), our only choice is to buy a plane ticket.  This is normal for breaks, but for this Winter break plane tickets cost considerably more than normal, because flying only two to three days before a major holiday such as Christmas can double or even triple ticket prices.  Please be more considerate to students in the future.

I would like to hear a reasonable justification for the length of Fall break.