RRC not joining Winnipeg universities in fall break

Tamika Reid, CONTRIBUTOR

Red River College students won’t get a college-wide fall reading week anytime soon, since the RRC Students’ Association president says students have not brought the topic to his attention.

Adam Taplin, RRCSA president, wrote in an email that in order for RRC to be approved for a fall reading week, the college’s board of governors needs to vote on it. Afterward, the implementation of a fall reading week would take a few years to plan out.

“The first step would be for the students’ association to conduct a survey to see if it is wanted,” Taplin wrote. “I would recommend holding a referendum, so all students have the chance to vote yes or no.”

Diana Blumczynski and Breanna Hradowy are graphic design students at RRC who said they think a fall reading week would benefit them.

Hradowy and Blumczynski are in seven classes this semester.

“It’s stressful to keep in touch with family or have a life outside of school,” Hradowy said.

“I hate having to tell my family ‘see you at Christmas,’ because I live a block away,” Blumczynski added.

Oleksandr Bokov, a business information technology student at RRC, said he finds it difficult to go to school and work full time.

“I think a fall reading week would help me out to catch up on stuff,” said Bokov, 22.

This year the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg implemented a break in the fall term for the first time.

UM Today says Katie Kuryk, health and wellness educator at the U of M, wrote in a letter that students could use the fall break to “reassess, if needed, the current state of their mental health for the remainder of the semester.”

In 2015, the U of W was the first post-secondary institution in Manitoba to endorse a week-long fall break.

“We recognize that our students lead busy lives and that time off mid-semester will help them to recharge,” U of W president and vice-chancellor Annette Trimbee said in a news release in May 2015.

Taplin said he doesn’t think there’s a bonus to a fall reading week, since U of W students will still have to make up the time.

Fall classes started a day early at the U of W this year, and Saturdays may be used during the exam period, according to the May 2015 news release.

The U of M’s fall break was October 6 and 7, running into the long weekend, and the U of W’s was October 10 to 14.