In recent years, many universities, including Brock University, Western University, and McMaster University, have implemented Fall reading weeks. The University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus will have its first Fall reading break in 2016. McGill currently does not have a Fall reading week, although the idea has been discussed several times in the past few years.
This year, however, administrative headway has been made. Last June, a working group published a consultation draft of a Fall reading break proposal. Since then, there have been several rounds of discussion between students, faculty, and administrative staff. According to Executive Director of Enrolment Services Kathleen Massey, the proposed reading break would add two extra days of holiday in the Fall term. Although no models have yet been finalized, one includes extending the Thanksgiving holiday to include the Friday before Thanksgiving weekend and the Tuesday after. Another model includes incorporating the two days of break into a weekend in November, creating a long weekend.
Although further consultation and revision of the proposal is required, it could be implemented by the 2018-2019 school year.
Benefits and trade-offs
According to Arts Senator Erin Sobat, who is a member of the working group, a Fall reading break would have positive mental health outcomes for students.
“The mental health benefits of an added break seem intuitive,” Sobat said. “However, we do have data from other Canadian universities showing that a Fall break generally decreases stress levels and improves academic performance, particularly for first-year students. More and more schools are moving towards a Fall reading break as a proactive response to concerns around student mental health and well being.”
In order to accommodate the extra days off, several adjustments to McGill’s calendar were proposed. Sobat underscored that the proposal aimed to preserve course time—McGill currently allocates 39 hours of meeting time per semester per course.
“When consulting students, we knew that there [were] going to have to be trade-offs,” Sobat said. “We knew that we couldn’t compromise too much on the teaching days, because that has been a concern, certainly, from faculty members in the past. [This is also a concern] of some students who don’t necessarily want to get less for what they’re paying for, for example, in terms of the course.”
Other trade-offs that were proposed included having Saturday exams and beginning the Fall semester before Labour Day.
“Saturday exams […] wouldn’t happen every year, given the calendar,” Sobat stated. “It would depend on the calendar dates […] maybe once every three years. We thought it was a reasonable compromise, and students took that as the least bad.”
Holding Saturday exams would also cost an additional $25,000 per year.
“These are the Enrolment Services’ costs for opening rooms, paying for porters and cleaners, and exam staffing,” Massey said. “It doesn’t take into account any additional costs that may be incurred by the faculties. I don’t know what those costs may be yet.”
Renee Sieber, associate professor in the Department of Geography and a council member of the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) explained that faculty members were generally in favour of a Fall reading break, but they were against starting the semester before Labour Day.
“The one thing that we didn’t favour is […] a Fall reading break forcing classes to start before Labour Day,” Sieber said. “We’ve had [experiences where] students don’t tend to come to class if it’s held before Labour Day.”
Sieber continued to highlight the need to re-evaluate the current structure of McGill’s course calendars.
“Why do we have 13-week courses?” said Sieber. “[…] A number of Canadian universities are moving to shorter semesters.”
Another point of discussion was the potential date of the Fall reading break. Although most students favoured incorporating the days off into the Thanksgiving weekend, Massey underscored the concerns about holding the break in October.
“While the students prefer Thanksgiving, some faculty believe believe that that’s too early in the term, [and] that not enough has happened yet to make it a worthwhile thing to do that early,” she said. “By November, you’ll have experienced more work as a student.”
Another concern was how a Fall break would affect scheduling of classes with lab components.
“The variety of class types across the university is staggering,” Sieber said. “For classes that have labs, [a Fall break] could affect a considerable number of labs in the course. A student may have a Friday [or] Monday lab—there’s two labs that disappear from the schedule.”
Faculty and student consultation
Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens, explained the process of introducing the proposal to the McGill administration.
“The first thing [the working group did was], we brought it to [the Enrolment and Student Affairs Committee (ESAC)],” he said. “ESAC is a sub committee of the Senate. ESAC is an advisory committee. The people who sit on ESAC, most of them are associate deans from all the faculties [….] We brought the idea of the Fall reading week to ESAC and they thought it was an interesting.”
Last semester, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) additionally released a survey to consult students about a Fall reading break. MAUT also conducted a survey amongst its members, and the Faculty of Arts is currently conducting a survey for its students.
Sieber explained that MAUT was displeased with the level of consultation they had received from the McGill administration.
“[MAUT] was asked by the administration to investigate [the proposed Fall break],” Sieber said. “This was long after they talked to other organizations so we were not pleased that they spoke to us, what seemed to be after the fact [….] Some faculty were [consulted early on], but that's not the way MAUT does things. MAUT was hoping that as an association, we would have been consulted because we represent the faculty.”
Pending further consultation and revision of the proposed Fall reading break draft, the proposal will have to get approved by Senate.
“We were hoping that it would be able to go through [Senate] this term, with the goal of bringing a revised calendar to senate to actually revise the 2017-2018 year,” Sobat said. “It’s not looking like that’s going to be possible at this point, I think we’re too late. So we’re probably pushing [it] to 2018-2019, which is too bad, most of us will still be around.”
Nevertheless, Massey remains hopeful that the proposal will pass.
“People are in favour of a fall break in principle,” Massey said. “It’s just about figuring out that ideal set of tradeoffs and addressing these challenges. I feel very positive about it, particularly since I’ve seen positive survey feedback from [students and] the faculty.”