When reading days were removed at the end of the fall 2015 semester, they were done so without consultation from students and student leaders on this campus.

These student leaders are the same leaders who work tirelessly and often without pay with solely the best interests of the campus student body in mind.

Reading days are essential to the mental well-being of UVM students, despite how they choose to spend their day. As a day without scheduled exams or classes, reading days give students the opportunity to sleep, study, ski and, yes, even drink.

Students at this public ivy are drilled all semester long by professors who expect them to uphold rigorous academic standards, as they should.

Students are given no control over when and where their final exams will take place; reading days are, essentially, the only day during exam periods where all students have the agency to choose how they want to spend their entire day during this stressful week.

Removing reading days without consulting the student body was nothing more than a slap in the face for the academic process throughout this entire campus.

Now, SGA is calling on the Faculty Senate to reconsider adding reading days to the academic calendar. This move is imperative, and the motives of SGA should be taken very seriously by members of the faculty.

Of course, professors at this University work tirelessly as well, and their efforts during exam periods are stressful in their own ways.

But members of the Faculty Senate are not the ones taking exams. They are not the ones tasked with writing multiple term papers to be due in a single week. Their most important job is to advocate for the well-being of students.

The best way for the Faculty Senate to prove they have the best interests of the student body in mind would be to work with the SGA to reinstate reading days in a timely fashion.