October is almost over, which means there are four weeks until Thanksgiving break, seven weeks until finals week and eight weeks until this semester is finally over. Stressed students can be found anywhere; walking like zombies around campus, sleeping in class (or anywhere) or hopping down the hallways because of the five cups of coffee or nasty-tasting energy drinks they drink after an all-nighter.

Midterm reports have been sent out, and you have to decide whether to drop the classes that might kill your already wounded GPA. You have until this Friday to decide if you want to spend more time hitting the books or if you want to get that class out of the way — for now. To make matters worse, it seems that every test, class project and other major assignment is due the same week, and if you have any special events during the weekend, it means that you will not sleep that week. What I can say is “­Viva el caf‚!” (Hooray for coffee!)

When you finally find time to eat, which means you might have time to think about something not related to school, you realize that Thanksgiving break is still far away and you need a break right now … well, at least I do.

Though spring break perfectly divides the spring semester in half, fall break is right at the end of the semester. We leave for Thanksgiving break — a lovely time for you to relax and for your family to pamper you (if you’re lucky enough to visit them) — then, when we return to Iowa State, there’s only a week of class, dead week and, of course, finals week. Instead of being more motivated for the end of the semester, most students return and are still on vacation mode. Those last three weeks of the semester are torture.

Although Iowa State does not offer a fall break before Thanksgiving week, it has been considered in the past. Fall semesters in 1983, 1984 and 1985 offered a “fall break.” It was a three-day weekend in the middle of the semester; however, Thanksgiving break was three weekdays long instead of five.

In fall 2002, President Geoffroy appointed an Academic Calendar Task Force that would propose different options for the ISU academic calendar. After a year of surveys and debates, it was decided to keep the current calendar. Of the four calendars proposed, the two most popular were the current calendar — which Iowa State has followed for almost two decades — and a second option that offered a mini fall break, longer winter and summer breaks, and only 14 weeks of classes. Unfortunately, students would have to sit in class for five more minutes.

Five more minutes doesn’t seem like a lot when you are not sitting in a classroom, but when you are struggling to keep your eyes open while taking legible notes, five minutes seems like an hour. Not to mention that a 14-week semester takes away at least two days of instruction per class, so those that came to college to learn will miss out on two days worth of important information, and those who came to college to party will have one less week of drinking with their buddies.

So a year after the calendar debates, the subject is on the table once again — and students need a fall break.

We don’t need longer classes and shorter semesters. We don’t even need mini-mesters (10-day semesters). All we need is a break in the middle of our fall semester, even if it is a four-day weekend.

Think about it. The same calendar could be kept, and, since many of us would be willing to give up two days of our Thanksgiving break, we could have two weekdays off in the middle of the semester.

And for those who still want a week for Thanksgiving break, wouldn’t you be willing to start classes on a Thursday, a week earlier?

If we had a break this weekend, what would you do? You could catch up with schoolwork, visit your family for some delicious home-cooked meals, or sleep until 3 p.m.