Three-day weekend – a phrase that is music to a college student’s ears.

During an afternoon meeting Tuesday, University Senate debated the issue of giving students an extra day off in the fall of the 2002-2003 school year.

The motion for the 2002-2003 calendar year brought some discontentment among the body.

Many of the senators said the fall semester was too long and that by the end, many students and faculty were dragging.

They suggested having two extra days off during the semester. The motion was then amended down to one day.

But the Senate was undecided on which day the fall break would land on.

Then Provost Ronald Satz told the body they could arrange the break at a later date. So the Senate passed the motion, with one more day off during the fall semester with the date of the break to be determined.

The purpose of the Senate’s last meeting of the semester was to finish up year-end motions.

First the Senate brought up some old business from the Academic Policies Committee on waiving the service-learning requirement for veterans.

This was tabled until results would be available from a focus group developed to look at the effectiveness of the service- learning requirement.

Senator Fred Kolb also gave a special report to the Senate on the Wisconsin Economic Summit, held Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 in Milwaukee.

“The Chippewa Valley is viewed as a bright spot in Wisconsin,” Kolb said.

He also told the Senate the summit emphasized breaking away from UW-Madison.

“It will give each school in each region the opportunity to break away and see what they can do,” he said.

With only about 45 minutes left in the two-hour meeting, the Senate ran through their reports.

Lastly, they looked at the pay plan for the 2001-2002 school year.

“This is just what we have added now, larger changes can take effect in the following year,” Senator Michael Wick said.

Wick said the motion just filled in a couple of gaps left out by the old salary plan that was brought to the Senate’s attention in an open forum and through e-mails.

After going over the allotted time for the meeting, the Senate quickly passed the motion and adjourned until its first meeting of the spring semester, 3 p.m. Jan. 13 in the Tamarack Room of the Davies Center.