Students hope for a restful fall break amidst a busy semester
The University of Maryland’s first-ever fall break could provide freshman students with a mental break and much-needed respite amidst the fast-paced start of the semester.
Chetan Joshi, director of UMD’s counseling center, believes that the break provides students with the opportunity to catch up with their various tasks. In the spring semester, March’s spring break helps mediate academic pressure, but in the fall, there was no such thing, he said.
Maryland’s newly implemented fall break will be on the second Monday and Tuesday of each October, according to the university’s academic calendar. This year, the break lies on Oct. 13-14, and will help students manage their various demands and release some of the pressures they face, according to Joshi. He added that the break can also help students manage their studies, since the fall semester is characterized by a long period before Thanksgiving Break — and is academically rigorous.
“The hope is that by an introduction of the fall break, it will be a pressure release valve that will allow students to perhaps, kind of take a mental break,” Joshi said.
Joshi also emphasized the impact fall break can have on freshman students who are still adjusting to the university.
“It will give them the opportunity to step back from the flow of the semester, and kind of check in with themselves to see how things are going,” Joshi said. “I really hope, especially for first-year students, that they’re able to use this break in a way that allows them to de-stress and kind of re-evaluate where they are.”
Judith Akondo, a freshman chemical engineering major, is excited about fall break and plans to stay on campus and relax. Akondo believes the university made a good decision when implementing fall break, stating the need for a break that splits up the long stretch from the start of the school year until Thanksgiving.
“We’re still finding our balance as freshmen, so I think it’s helpful to get a little bit of a break if things [get] a little bit off balance,” Akondo said.
Reetika Banerjee, a freshman computer science major, is also looking forward to fall break and plans on spending it at home with family.
“I think fall break will be a nice time for me to reset,” Banerjee said.
She also believes the break is necessary for students to keep up with the demands of fall semester.
“I know students definitely need the break,” Banerjee said. “To relax, decompress and get ready for the next thing.”
Silvia Brown, a freshman civil and environmental engineering major, feels similarly, noting that the break will help her de-stress and hopefully give her time to make up for missed work.
“I feel like [it’s not a lot of time], so I hope that I will be able to catch up on work,” Brown said. “I’m very behind on homework and stuff like that.”
The University Senate’s Academic Procedures and Standards committee initially made a recommendation for the university to explore a fall break in 2022. The recommendation was made with the aim of exploring ways to improve student mental health in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
College student mental health in the United States has been improving, even in years after the pandemic, according to the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Students reporting moderate to severe depressive symptoms dropped from 44% to 37% between 2022 and 2025.
In 2023, Senior Vice President and Provost of the university Jennifer King Rice put together a task force with Joshi, then-senior associate Betsy Beise and other representatives from different academic units, to address the issue of improving student mental health, according to Maryland Today.
“Understanding how much the pressure is, the impact on mental health and well being, that was kind of the reasoning we were saying okay well let’s do it,” Joshi said, commenting on the university’s reasoning for putting together a task force. “Obviously [it was] going to take time, but we were able to get to a place where [we are at the point of] implementation.”