The Virginia Tech administration has changed the schedule for the spring 2021 semester, removing spring break and instead assigning 5 random days throughout the semester to be "break days" where no class occur. The decision was announced 10/19/2020, and can be found at this link:

https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/10/unirel-spring-2021-course.html

This decision was made to attempt to reduce travel for spring break to reduce the spread of COVID-19. While this may be a good decision for containing the spread of the virus, all students know that their professors will still assign work to be due the day before or after these "breaks", if not the day of. This plan will do nothing to aid in alleviating burnout of the students, rather, it will cause more stress, by removing the only true break students receive in the spring semester, and effectively extending the semester by a week. This petition is to show the administration that the students disagree with this plan and the decision that will damage the mental health of the community as a whole. Our request is that the Virginia Tech administration reevaluate their plan for the spring semester, and come up with a solution that helps reduce the stress and likelihood of burnout while still ensuring that the university is doing everything they can to slow the spread of COVID-19.