Next year, Fall Break will change from Thursday and Friday to Monday and Tuesday after a decision by the University Council, a university official said.

TCU Registrar Patrick Miller said the decision was approved overwhelmingly by about 70 percent of the council, which is made up of several faculty, administrators and two Student Government Association officers. The change was prompted by a request from the engineering department.

With both Fall Break and Thanksgiving falling at the end of the school week, classes and labs scheduled those days had been canceled twice during the fall semester, Miller said.

Billy Diong, associate professor of engineering and member of the University Council, said even though he would not call it a major concern, fall break did pose a problem for the department.

Since the inclusion of Thursday to Fall Break, it became evident that students with labs scheduled that day would have three fewer lab days for the semester, Diong said.

“We have several courses with labs that meet on Tuesday and Thursday, and it becomes a problem when there are an unequal amount of Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Diong said.

Diong said the department considered combining classes on the day of labs, but it was unable to do so because of an inadequate amount of lab equipment.

Miller said the new decision will fix this problem.

According to the academic calendar for 2009-10, classes recess on Friday, Oct. 9, for fall break and resume the following Wednesday.

“The new Fall Break will now coincide with Columbus Day,” Diong said. “So not only will it be class convenient, but family-friendly.”

Lauren Lehtonen, a freshman graphic design major, said the change won’t be a problem.

“I’m not sure that it will be that much of difference other than we’ll be coming back in the middle of the week,” Lehtonen said.

Freshman premajor Trip Nistico agreed.

“As long as students are still getting a four-day weekend I don’t see it as being a big deal,” Nistico said.