A little rest and relaxation for students and faculty during the fall semester might come in the form of a school break if university officials approve the proposal.

The University Committee on Academic Policy created a subcommittee in 2000 to evaluate the fall break recommendation. The proposal has been floating in the Academic Governance system until now — six years later.

It remains under evaluation in Academic Governance.

"Nobody knows what happened," said Robert Murphy, ASMSU's Academic Assembly chairperson. "Because proposals can last from year to year, we pretty much agree it's still alive. Leaving a half-done proposal in governance for six years is pretty ridiculous."

ASMSU is MSU's undergraduate student government.

The fall break is proposed for a Friday in mid-October right after midterms, Murphy said.

While time off during the fall semester allows some students to catch up on assignments, not all students and universities feel the break would be beneficial.

In 2002, the University of Michigan approved a two-day break for mid-October. Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs at U-M, said he was involved in the implementation of the fall break.

"We're all for doing things that assist our students in their success as scholars," he said. "It has created some problems for us because it has really squeezed our semester to the point where we butt up against winter break in December."

The break increases the challenge in scheduling the number of days in a semester, Monts said.

He added that semesters used to be a full 15 weeks long, and some universities are not quite making the full 15 weeks.

"We've looked at a number of things, like starting classes before Labor Day," he said. "We've customarily started our semester after Labor Day. You can see the constraints we have sticking a two-day break in there. It gives students a breather in terms of catching up on things, and I'm sure the faculty puts that time to good use as well."

MSU osteopathic medicine graduate student Reshma Mohiuddin said a fall break would be a good rest after midterms.

"I'm from Chicago, and I'd probably go home to relax for a couple of days," she said. "I definitely wouldn't do anything over the break."

Judith Ruderman, vice provost for academic and administrative services at Duke University in Durham, N.C., said there was some discussion about eliminating the two-day fall break at the university.

"The decision was reiterated not to get rid of the fall break because of the mental health of our students," said Ruderman, who also chairs the University Schedule Committee that deals with changing the university's schedule. "Our feeling is, why do we have a spring break but not a fall break?

"We either need a break or we don't," she added. "At Duke, the semesters are 14 weeks long, and both semesters are the same length. It doesn't make sense to have a break in one semester and not the other."