Penn State students will have a weeklong Thanksgiving vacation starting in 2007, administrators announced today, a move that will result in the elimination of the traditional one-day fall break in October.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig called the change "an administrative decision based on faculty and student feedback," citing "considerable input" from the University Faculty Senate and comments from students about a prospective change.

Administrators hope to alleviate problems with student attendance typically seen during the Monday and Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving break, Kendig said. "Anytime you have a break, particularly a shorter break, absences tend to be at a higher rate immediately prior to and after those breaks," Kendig said.

Giving students an entire week off for Thanksgiving will be better, said Ziad Bentahar, a teaching assistant in the department of comparative literature, because significantly fewer students come to class during those days.

"Some TAs schedule a test just before Thanksgiving or make a mandatory assignment to make students come," Bentahar said. "Giving them the week [off] will be better."

Students had mixed feelings about the elimination of fall break and the lengthening of Thanksgiving vacation. The break currently runs from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the weekend.

Neil Forcier (junior-computer engineering) said he was in favor of the plan, pointing out that the current, fragmented Thanksgiving week compromises classes that have a lab requirement.

"If you have the whole week off, everybody misses the lab," Forcier said, adding that currently, "they have to totally restructure the schedule just to compensate for that."

Kristen Gilmore (senior-philosophy and history) said that as a homesick freshman, she had been grateful for the fall break, which provided a midsemester opportunity to return home.

"I like having the little break in between," said Gilmore, adding that it would be hard to go from August to November without any days off. "It's practically a whole semester."

As a result of the change, the fall semester calendar would have the same number of academic days as the spring semester calendar, Penn State President Graham Spanier said at yesterday's Faculty Senate meeting.

"From an instructional perspective, that consistency is critically important to have achieved," Kendig said.

Ambre Muller, a teaching assistant in the French department, said she has grown used to the current difference between the fall and spring calendars, but it would be easier to have the same number of weeks in each semester.

"We're aware that the calendar is a bit different, but it's not really a problem," she said.

Collegian staff writer Catherine Battle contributed to this article.