By Kayla Pickrell

The lack of a fall break on campus has led to quite a controversy.

In the past week, students have been aware that although most other universities will be taking or have taken a short hiatus from school, UK will not.

“It would be nice to have a break in school before Thanksgiving break because I feel like that falls too late in the semester,” sociology sophomore Tiffany Smith said. “Students get burnt out.”

“The school cannot support (a fall break),” said Kyle Kirk, a student representative in last year’s University Senate Council. He said there are too many factors to take into consideration.

“The way our classes are scheduled and the way labs are ran, and the way graduate students use the university calendar” are major factors to take into account when thinking about a fall break, he said.

Last year, the strive for a fall break was taken up by Kirk, former Student Government President Ryan Smith and Joe Quinn, former SG chief of staff.

“After countless hours of work on trying to get one, I am a little disappointed, but at this time, our university is not able to support a fall break,” Kirk said.

Kirk said that according to UK administration, students technically have a fall break.

In fall 2007, students would have to attend class the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. By giving that day off to students, that day is called a “fall break,” Assistant Provost Richard Greissman said.

“In order to have a fall break, students would have to start fall semester on a Monday instead of Wednesday, dismantle K Week for freshmen and move the move-in for dorms to the middle of the previous week,” Greissman said. “It would be difficult to ask parents to take off of work to move freshmen in during the week.”

Joshua Hoke, a political science and sustainable agriculture freshman, said not having a fall break is fine.

“I take school pretty seriously and I feel that we have enough breaks that are pretty long already,” he said.

Some students didn’t even notice a lack of a break.

“I wasn’t expecting a fall break, but when my friends at different universities said they had one, I suddenly realized the difference in our school to others,” said Marie Nazari, a Spanish freshman.

Students get a month of a holiday break in December and January between the semesters.

“After countless tries, we decided that it would be a battle for someone else in the future,” Kirk said.