The Undergraduate Student Government is starting the process of pushing for a fall break after successfully extending the Thanksgiving break to include Wednesday.

USG spent two years lobbying to get the administration to make Wednesday part of the holiday weekend.

Though many universities, including Stanford and Yale, get an entire week off for Thanksgiving, USG President Monish Tyagi said a fall break in October would be more beneficial.

“What we are exploring right now is a fall break to help students make their way through the semester,” Tyagi said.

Many students said a fall break would be helpful because it would provide much-needed time off to rest during one of the busiest parts of the semester.

“It gives people some time to go home, decompress and get away from the grind for a bit,” said Drew Gerardi, a senior majoring in psychology.

Tyagi said the next step for adding a fall break to the academic calendar is to determine the opinions of different groups on campus, such as faculty, administration and students.

In an effort to gauge student support for a fall break, USG is in the process of conducting an online poll, the preliminary results of which have been positive, Tyagi said.

“Of the students that we have surveyed so far, almost 90 percent were in favor of a fall break,” Tyagi said.

Some students, however, said they are opposed to incorporating a fall break into the schedule out of concerns that it will lead to a longer school year.

“I would rather not have a fall break because that would extend out the school year,” said Jefferson Trieu, a sophomore majoring in biological sciences.

To account for the instructional days that would be lost by adding a fall break, Tyagi said USG will examine several options, including the possibility of starting school earlier in the year.

“The next step is looking at all of those options, and seeing what would be best for the university,” Tyagi said.

The preliminary pollings have shown slightly less student support for creating a fall break than for the extension of the Thanksgiving break.

Nearly 95 percent of students interviewed in a USG survey conducted last school year said they were in favor of having an extra day off for Thanksgiving break.

“I think students are very excited about it,” Tyagi said. “It’s nice to have an extra day to travel and not worry about missing classes.”

Though the break was widely supported by the student body, many said it would be more beneficial to have the entire week off.

Skyler Okey, a junior majoring in communication, said she thinks it would be more beneficial to have the whole week off.

“In my high school we had the whole week off and it was absolutely amazing,” Okey said. “I would definitely take a few days extra at the end of school to have the whole week off.”