By ROB PELKEY
Online Editor
 

Enter October Break. According to popular legend, it was instituted to preserve students' sanity after the stress of working straight through from Labor Day to Thanksgiving resulted in "a rash of suicides." Though this was not the actual case - it was instituted as part of a broader reform of the academic calendar in 1981, which included cutting Short Term from six weeks to five - the general level of stress on campus come mid-October, left unchecked, would no doubt result in a significant rate of burnout by the end of the term.

Despite the genuine, demonstrable need for a recess at mid-semester, every year the same forces that create the stressful work climate during the term conspire to reduce October Break to simply another time for academic work. Many professors give larger assignments than usual to be done over break, turning the long weekend - or at least a very intense Sunday at the end - into something more like the daily grind from which the break is supposed to provide relief.

What good is a break when the vast majority of students find themselves find themselves unable to truly set aside their work, and instead feel the spectre of their unfinished studies hanging over their heads? At this point in the semester, a release of some type from the usual campus climate of stress and workaholism is deserved. This climate is oppressive enough as is during the year - why else do hundreds of Batesies, only two weeks after the holiday break, flee Lewiston in droves to hit the slopes on Martin Luther King Day? Perhaps extending the break to a full week, allowing all concerned parties more time to both catch up on work and more fully unwind before resuming the year, would make October Break more like the break it is intended to be, and more than just a speed bump on the long drive from Labor Day straight through Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, we must all do what we can to ensure the sanctity of what little time we have left in the calendar for ourselves. To faculty: respect that a vacation is intended to be just that - enough said. And to students: unless you're on academic probation, leave your books in Lewiston and go do something relaxing. Don't rob yourself of this rare opportunity to take some time off; as a wise burger-flipper once put it, "You Deserve A Break Today.(TM)"