EDITORIAL: Rutgers should implement fall break
As the school year gets busier, breaks are important for maintaining mental health of students
By the middle of October, students at Rutgers are usually exhausted, overworked and starting to feel burned out. The fall semester is always long, as we start in September and go until the Thanksgiving holiday.
These months are long and grueling. There is always the initial nervousness at the start of a new school year, there is also always the anxiousness about midterms and there is always — as typical at a university — the feelings of being compelled to have a more robust social life. On so many fronts, students are grinding, and by the middle of October, you realize just how overbearing it all can be.
Rutgers is unique in that we do not have a fall recess. Other universities in New Jersey offer such a break: The College of New Jersey, Princeton University, Monmouth University, Seton Hall University — all have fall holidays that allow students to decompress.
Most fall breaks are not a week long, but they do offer some time for students, usually a long weekend, to escape the various pressures of college life. Even if it is just a long weekend, students can go home, enjoy some time away from the constant demands of school and social lives and just recharge.
Rutgers should plan to incorporate fall recesses in future academic years. Like other universities, the ideal fall break would be either two or three days long and would occur in mid-October.
By this time of the school year, everyone is busy. Students are burdened with papers, midterms and other academic expectations. If students also work, participate in clubs or manage internships, the business of their lives is even more hectic. While it is okay to be busy, we cannot be busy all of the time.
This kind of long weekend would give students and other University personnel the opportunity to recharge for the remainder of the semester. Such a break should be a respite from work, which means that there should not be any due dates during for at least a week after the holiday. Students and faculty need time to not worry about school, and a successful fall recess would allow for a true reparative break.
Some might argue that such a fall break is impossible because there is too much content to cover within the semester. While this is an understandable concern, we expect that the implementation of a fall recess would mean an earlier start date for the school year. This change would be worth it because it prioritizes student needs.
Mental health concerns are pressing issues on college campuses. Giving students a mid-semester respite would show the University's commitment to students' well-being.
One of the most important reasons to implement a fall break is just how overworked we all are. As a result of the integration of technology into the workplace and working from home as a result of the pandemic, individuals have been driven to constantly work.
This culture is a symptom of a larger toxic work culture that hastens burnout. The work piles up, the responsibilities and expectations pile up and our time dries up. We are often left with a mess of work and other responsibilities that force us to neglect our other, just as important, social needs.
A fall holiday would give us a chance to step back and not worry about work — something that we need more of, in general, to promote a healthier work culture.
As Rutgers plans out the academic calendars several years in advance, change is unlikely in the next few years. That does not mean, though, that students cannot give themselves a little mid-semester break. College is always about excess: You want to take as many courses as possible, have as great a social life as possible and you want to experience it all. In such a rush of overextending ourselves, we might overlook our own needs for recuperation.
One way for students to manage the stress and pressures of a semester is to just get off campus and go home for a night or a weekend. Though it sounds simple, going home and sleeping in your own bed, away from the incredibly busy life on a college campus, can restore your mental health and energy in profound ways.
Breaks are important. Rutgers should prioritize giving students a fall break in future years. Students at Rutgers now, though, can also prioritize their own recuperation by giving themselves mini-breaks by going home every now and then.
The Daily Targum's editorials represent the views of the majority of the 154th editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
