Students want longer breaks
By Robyn Kriel
Staff Reporter

TCU’s winter break is 22 days long this year. Two years ago, it was 30 days.

Chris Kotze, a sophomore kinesiology major and a swimmer for the TCU men’s swim team, said it takes him 24 hours of flying to get to his home country of South Africa.

“The swimming team has a training session in Colorado for a few days during the break anyway,” he said. “So if I went home, I would probably only be there for about four days.”

Kotze said he would not be returning to South Africa for Christmas because of the shortened break, so he will not see his parents until next summer.

Registrar Patrick Miller said there are slight variations in the length of the Christmas break, but it is virtually impossible to lengthen it because of the school’s summer class schedule.

“It is because of the three-week mini-mester and the two five-week sessions after that,” Miller said. “These make it very hard to shorten the summer at all, and so we end up shortening the winter break instead.”
Miller, who has been the registrar for 15 years, said the three-week mini-mester and five-week sessions are very popular with both the students and faculty.

Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas each have 31 days for their winter break, a full nine days more than TCU.

“We usually match up pretty well with the state schools,” Miller said. “I am surprised to see a significant difference.”

Miller said he has just finished constructing the 2007-08 academic calendar.

“I go ‘til the end of the fall semester and find the Saturday closest to Christmas that is no later than the 22nd of December,” Miller said. “Then I work backwards from there on a calendar-year basis.”

Nilson Goes, a senior marketing major, said he thinks the Christmas break should be lengthened so students can enjoy more time with their families.

“During the summer, we get so caught up in internships and jobs,” Goes said. “Christmas is really the time that we can be with our families, especially for those students who do not have the luxury of having their families 30 minutes away.”

Bria Lanzara, a senior kinesiology major, said that she actually prefers having a longer summer break and does not mind the shorter winter break.

“I like getting out earlier than the other schools during the summer,” Lanzara said. “It means we get a head start with finding internships and jobs, and that is a definite plus.”