During the week of Thanksgiving, students at UT Austin are only given Wednesday through Friday off. Students are still expected to attend classes on Monday and Tuesday, and while some professors will cancel their classes on these two days, many others will schedule quizzes and exams to ensure that students do not skip class.

This shortened break prevents many students from truly getting time away from school and with their families for the holidays. Many out-of-state students decide not to travel home for Thanksgiving because the break is too short to justify the high cost of a plane ticket. UT students should be given the entire week of Thanksgiving off.

One issue with students receiving the full week off is that students may then not spend enough days in attendance at UT. However, there is a very simple solution for this issue as well. For the fall semester, students begin their first day of classes on a Wednesday. If this policy were changed so that students began classes on the Monday of that week instead, Thanksgiving break could be extended to the entire week without reducing the number of official class days.

For these reasons, students should be given a longer Thanksgiving break at UT Austin.