HSC to have fall break

The break will be the Friday before the OU/Texas football game.

Cheyenne Hopkins - Daily Staff Writer

4/2/02

The Health Sciences Center will join an OU-Norman tradition and have a fall break for the first time next year. Their break will be the first Friday of October, the Friday before the OU/Texas football game.

HSC Provost Joseph Ferretti said deans at the HSC are still working out the date of the make-up day which has not been decided yet.

The deans of each college are working together to try to make the make-up day uniform for the campus. The Health Sciences Center will have to make up the Friday of missed class.

The Health Sciences Center was the only college campus in Oklahoma that did not have a fall break, said Robie Herman, former HSC Student Association president.

HSC has not had a fall break because students at the HSC have to do clinical work in addition to classes, Ferretti said. Along with canceling class, students will not have to go to clinics that day.

The initiative for a fall break came from HSC students. The idea was born by students last year, Herman said. During a student leaders retreat in September, the student leaders decided to make getting a fall break that coincides with the Norman campus a priority for HSC. A resolution to support a fall break passed the HSC Student Association Senate in September.

A few weeks ago, the HSC deans, as well as Ferretti and OU President David Boren approved the break. HSC Student Association President Scott Dawkins said he found out about the break approval Wednesday at the OU Board of Regents meeting.

Ferretti said all HSC students have not yet been notified of the break because the details of the make-up date are still being worked out.

Dawkins said the HSC season football ticket holders brought the issue to the senate. He said the Health Sciences Center has 500 season ticket holders and many go the OU/Texas game. But he said the break was not just about football.

"Not only does it benefit the 500 season ticket holders but it benefits all students, because it allows students to have a break," Dawkins said.

Dawkins said the change was done because of the continuous push by students. After passing the resolution, student leaders wrote letters to their deans to explain the importance of the break and ask the deans for their support.

Student Senate Chair Paul Dillon said this approval of the break gives HSC students the same privileges as the Norman campus.

"Students at the Health Sciences Center are starting to reap more and more of the benefits that students at Norman reap," Dillon said. "In this way we are becoming more alike than different."
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