Professor says fall break not neededLast Tuesday, Nov. 25 I saw an article regarding the cancellation of fall break, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Why we even instituted such a custom is still a mystery to me. To assert or insinuate that students are so driven by work that they fall into stress patterns is something short of a joke.  Of course they are under stress if they are really working at getting a degree.  The “worker ants” among our students welcome the break to catch up with their courses.  This is part of a pattern of lulling the students into a soporific state under the guise of easing up on stress from their studies.  I was pleased to see that one of the students said that the “absence of a fall holiday has not affected her grades.” I have no sympathy for a student who says that not having a fall break was “overwhelming.”  Think of those med and law students who don’t seem to have enough hours in the day to keep up with their studies.  Students relax from the stress of work by playing sports, going to a movie or just sitting around chatting with friends.  As for stress around examination time, I can’t remember a time I was not stressed when I was taking final examinations. It’s par for the course and goes naturally with hard work, because a good education calls for hard work.I felt the same way when I heard that students were taking six years to complete the bachelor’s degree!  Six years!  The “official” reason at that time was that students had to work.  My schoolmates and I all had part-time jobs while we were pursuing a bachelor’s degree and finished in four years or even three and a half, and graduating beyond four years was very poorly regarded. Dr. Larry Faulkner, former president of the University of Texas, Austin, had the right idea.  If you go beyond the required number of credits in four years and stay on, you pay.  Let’s get real! Education is hard work, but you discipline yourself and learn to use your time carefully.  Having a fall break is an excuse to take time off, whether you are stressed out or not.Dr. Joseph V. RicapitoProfessor of Spanish, Italian and comparative literature—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]