Sacramento State sophomore Carissa Castillo will be in class thedays before Thanksgiving while her sister, a student at FullertonState, is at home relaxing with their family.

“It’s just not fair,” Castillo said. “Mysister gets an entire week off and I only get two days.”

Castillo said as a result of traveling home in a rush on TurkeyDay, she ends up feeling stressed out.

Chico State, Humboldt State, Cal State-Fullerton and MaritimeAcademy begin fall classes a week earlier than Sac State and otherCSU campuses with a shorter Thanksgiving recess. Sac State’sThanksgiving break consists of Thanksgiving day and the day after.Fullerton adopted the weeklong recess in 1997, after facing afamiliar problem with class disruption.

Paula Seleyek, of Cal State-Fullerton public affairs, said therewere often problems with such a brief mid-week holiday break.

“We found that there were disruptions in the learningprocess, especially for science labs which relied on full-weekinstruction,” Seleyek said. “It became easier to beginthe fall semester earlier and give students and faculty a longerbreak.”

Bozena McCants, a junior studying fine arts at Fullerton, saidafter a long summer break she does not mind starting the fallsemester earlier in exchange for a little extra time off during theholidays.

“I have to fly home and this way, it feels worth the priceof the plane ticket,” McCants said. “I actually get tovisit.”

Chico State has been adapted to the weeklong Thanksgiving breakfor more than 20 years, said Joe Willis, director of public affairsat Chico.

“Chico, like a lot of the CSU campuses, is a destinationcampus,” Willis said. “Most students aren’t fromthe area and we try to provide an opportunity for students to gohome for a visit.”

Willis said that Chico tries to include at least one day fortravel in each break.

At Fresno State, Sonoma State and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, theday preceding Thanksgiving is added to the break as a travelday.

Out of 23 CSU campuses, seven have extended the break to eithera full-week or three-day period.

“Before, it felt like we were fighting a losing battle,students weren’t showing up,” Willis said in referenceto Chico’s previous two-day break.

Assistant professor of sociology James Curiel said that duringThanksgiving week there is a drop-off in student attendance ofabout 15 percent.

“It becomes really difficult to teach,” Curiel said.”The students that do show up are there in body, but not inmind. It is obvious that they would rather be elsewhere.”

Each faculty member at Sac State is allowed one personal holidayper semester in which they may cancel their classes. Curiel saidthat it is common for faculty to use their personal holiday for ascheduled day of class during Thanksgiving week.

“By this late in the semester, everyone is getting burnedout,” Curiel said. “We are all getting tired and no onewants to be there the day before Thanksgiving.”

Curiel said it would be easier to teach if Sac State added theday before Thanksgiving to the recess.

Sac State spokeswoman Ann Reed said that there has been nodiscussion of changing the Thanksgiving vacation and the break willremain as Thursday and Friday off, as it has always been.