For out-of-state students, it’s a nightmare.

As many students on campus have experienced, not all professors are equally as lenient when it comes to missing class. The more laid back faculty members, realizing that their students have absolutely no interest in going to classes before Thanksgiving, call off classes and wish the kids a safe holiday. Others, particularly those with weekly Wednesday classes, can be much more hard-assed. But this isn’t the issue.

It’s one thing to say that students should go to class on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It’s another thing to close campus immediately after late afternoon classes get out.

Students outside of driving distance need to book flights home, an expensive and often frustrating process. It doesn’t help that some students don’t get more than a window of a couple hours to get off campus to catch a flight when certain professors are adamant in having class and include attendance as part of the grade.

There’s simply not enough time for a lot of students to get off of campus if they have afternoon classes next Wednesday. Whether there’s a flight or a 12-hour drive to southern Virginia ahead of them, it’s not fair that out-of-state students get screwed annually, in addition to paying more to go here, because the had to go to their 4:15 p.m. biology class.

The solution? It’s probably not cutting Wednesday classes. That would simply lead to students complaining about Tuesday classes and wanting another day off. Even now, a lot of students are working out their schedules so they can head out on Monday.

The only sensible way to deal with the Thanksgiving holiday is to give students, faculty and staff the entire week off.

It’s not exactly an enormous sacrifice. The crippled fragment of a week rarely produces anything other than students looking forward to the holiday ahead. Plus, students are skipping a solid part of classes that week anyway. Just axe the week and get it over with.

There’s a spring break, why not a fall break? The timing of the holiday is great, especially with final papers and projects in the looming future. It gives students a great chance to catch up on their work or do something less productive and get their minds off of school for a bit.

Most importantly, a week off would allow students ample time to get home if the deadline to get off campus was Saturday at noon, the same as it is with winter break. If the University did close the campus on Friday, it would still be better as this generation as a whole has already made clear their stance on attending Friday classes.

The repercussions? Lengthen the semester a couple of days. Maybe start the semester earlier like, I don’t know, most other universities in the country. UMass is notorious for starting its semesters late, to no one’s apparent benefit.

Some may argue that this is why they made nine-month housing and off-campus apartments. But, coming in as freshmen, do you think a lot of students are thinking about how they’re going to get home for Thanksgiving break when they select housing?

The University has stated that it intends to market itself more towards out-of-state students. It would only make sense for the school to make it easier for those students to get home for a solid vacation instead of asking some students to drive 20-plus hours over what is really just a super-long weekend.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian editorial board.