In spite of recent legislation by the Graduate Student Senate and the Government of the Student Body, Faculty Senate opinions regarding a four-week break have not changed.

GSS passed a bill to encourage the University Calendar Committee to support a three-week winter break at its Monday night meeting. GSB passed a similar bill on Jan. 26.

Some ISU faculty members have said a longer break would be beneficial to both faculty and students.

Robert Angelici, distinguished professor of chemistry and faculty senator, said the longer break will help avoid scheduling conflicts with professional conferences.

“I took a survey of all the faculty members in the chemistry department, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the four-week break,” he said. “A number of professional meetings get scheduled during that break, and it could mean not having class during the first week of the semester, which is clearly undesirable.”

Some faculty members hold fast to the idea of a four-week break so they can meet deadlines for grants and proposals.

Angelici said many granting agencies and national science foundations have deadlines the day before classes begin.

“People are trying to finish proposals when they should be preparing for classes,” he said.

Max Porter, professor of civil engineering and faculty senator, said students also should be concerned about distance-education classes. These classes are taught at the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Iowa and Iowa State simultaneously over the Iowa Cable Network.

“If we are going to teach classes through the Iowa Cable Network, we have to have our breaks coordinated; we have to start at the same time,” Porter said. “When we make a decision to offer a course, it often depends on how many people are signed up for the course. If you don’t have enough, the class gets canceled.”

Chris Schilling, Faculty Senate secretary, said he is not concerned whether Iowa State has a three- or four-week break.

“I don’t really care one way or another,” said Schilling, associate professor of materials science and engineering. “We’re under pressure to do distance learning and teach courses on the Web right now. We’ve been working with the U of I, and they have a four-week break, so that makes it a little hard to coordinate.”

Shilling said students and faculty are not on opposing sides in this issue, and, given the right information, students will make the decision that is right for them.

“Give the students the information and let them decide,” he said. “We do want to send a strong message to students that we do care. You’re our biggest supporters. Let’s just look at the data and make the right decision for everybody.”

Grace Kunz, associate professor of textiles and clothing and faculty senator, said she did not expect such strong support for a longer break among faculty members.

“Most of us were quite surprised that there was so much support for the four-week break,” she said.

Angelici said the Faculty Senate does not make the final decision about the winter break.

“This is just input to the committee,” he said. “Whoever makes this ultimate decision will have to take into account all these factors; it isn’t just the Faculty Senate.”

Kunz also said she is unaffected by the decisions made by GSS and GSB.

“It doesn’t make much difference to me,” she said. “I’m not involved in any activities that are affected, but a lot of faculty members are.”