- September 08, 2025
- By Annie Krakower
A new academic year can be a rush as students arrive and re-energize campus, residence halls become home, and classes and clubs get rolling. But as courses ramp up to midterms, that buzz can soon become just “busy.”
Starting this year, Terps won’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to ease up on the gas. The University of Maryland is introducing a two-day fall break for students on the second Monday and Tuesday each October (Indigenous Peoples Day/Columbus Day and the following day). Monday will also be an observed holiday for faculty and staff. This fall, the break will take place Oct. 13-14.
“The reason I think this fall break will really be helpful is in its function as a pressure release valve,” said Counseling Center Director Chetan Joshi, who was among a group of administrators who developed the plan. “It was an incredibly complicated decision, but what I appreciated being a part of the task force was this pretty clear understanding right from the get-go that there is a need, there is an impact.”
It all began with an exploration by the University Senate’s Academic Procedures and Standards Committee of potential policies to promote student health and well-being in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the group’s recommendations in December 2022 was for UMD to explore the benefits and complications of adding a fall break before Thanksgiving.
That time of year tends to be especially stressful for students, said Joshi, who often sees a spike in those seeking services around then.
“We have a lot of incoming students, and this is their first time coming into a college setting,” he said. For all students returning from summer break, it can be “a very stark transition, going from a place where you were relaxed to where academic rigor is high.”
In Spring 2023, Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice charged a new working group—including then-Senior Associate Provost Betsy Beise, Joshi and representatives from Enrollment Management, the Office of Undergraduate Studies, student government and other academic units—to research the possibilities. It had several intertwining factors to consider: state regulations for credit hours and academic calendars, the potential impact on lab classes that only meet once a week, the break’s ideal length and timing, and practices in place at peer institutions.
The working group’s survey of academic units and campus stakeholders brought mostly positive feedback. With enough lead time to prepare, a fall break would be doable, and the benefits would outweigh the scheduling challenges, according to most faculty and staff respondents. Lab course meeting times could be rearranged, calendars for studio and performance classes would be flexible enough, and Resident Life and Dining Services could coordinate accommodating students who needed to stay on campus.
The group also determined that a two-day break in mid-October, about halfway through the semester, would make the most sense and align with peer practices: Of the 14 members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance at the time, nine had fall breaks, with six scheduling them then.
Because academic calendars are made years in advance, the earliest the university could implement such a plan would be Fall 2025. The work group is hopeful the time off will give Terps a chance to recharge in the academic years going forward.
“Having a period of just a break to take a breath is clearly going to be helpful,” said Beise, who chaired the working group.