STREETER: Do you think UPEI should have a Fall Reading Week?

The Cadre

5 years ago

By: Allison O’Brien

In Atlantic Canada, several universities such as Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s University, the University of New Brunswick, Acadia, Mount Saint Vincent University, and St. Thomas University have all adopted the Fall Reading Week.

The concept isn’t currently being advocated for or talked about at UPEI, but students have opinions on the matter.

“I think we need the break, we need the time to catch up on homework. We need time to relieve stress, time to rest cause it’s a lot, especially when you’re a student taking six classes, you know? Just trying to keep on top of your work, cause if you’re like me as an Engineering student, you get tired so fast from projects and reports, and just homework and math and physics, it’s a lot. A week off would help with catching up.” – Vernae Philippe, 1st year Engineering student

“I feel like UPEI, compared to the last few years, the amount of different types of people from different parts of the world is increasing. Not everyone is familiar with the ways of teaching here, so if you have reading week in the fall, it could give them time to understand the teaching methods here or it could also help local people here get to learn about the new things about the other people at UPEI, such as different methodologies. – Prabhakar Bholah, 1st year Engineering student

“Exams and midterms are stressful. I think it would be a good time to de-stress, read, and catch up on material. – Holly MacDougall, 3rd year Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture student

“We totally need that! There’s just so much pressure to do everything that we need to do. To get two days off, it’s not enough. It’s a constant pressure on everyone to get everything done and you don’t even have time to breathe. Two days is not enough. A week is way better, definitely way better. I think we should work towards that. – Alexia Riche, 3rd year Diversity and Social Justice Studies & Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture student

“Coming from the perspective of a student, and a student that is passionate towards mental health advocacy, it would be important to include some sort of break for students. When you compare UPEI to other universities, our exams start sooner, our semesters are a little bit shorter, but most other universities have a fall reading week which gives students a chance to unwind.” – Sarah MacEachern, 4th year Kinesiology student & Vice-President Student Life of the UPEISU

The CadreÂ will be looking into this matter more in-depth later next week. Email your questions, comments or concerns to cadreeditor@gmail.com.

This article belongs to The Cadreâ€™s opinion section. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Cadre.