With studying, safety and family on their brains, University of Alabama students signed their names onto a makeshift petition on the quad Wednesday morning asking for an extended Thanksgiving break.

UA Talk Turkey aims to gauge public interest in having a week off for Thanksgiving break instead of Wednesday through Friday. According to their online petition, more than half of the students they’ve spoken to support their cause.

A group of students in a public relations campaign class created the the petition for the UA Talk Turkey campaign. The students said they feel this is important since traveling home on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is not only expensive, but dangerous.

According to the group’s online petition, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the most dangerous day of the year for college students to travel. They said the need for a week-long Thanksgiving break is “not only a luxury, but a necessity to ensure the safety of our UA family.”

The group said it feels that since more than half of UA students are out-of-state, travel concerns are real concerns.

Brookley Valencia, a senior majoring in public relations and member of the UA Talk Turkey campaign, feels not having a week off for Thanksgiving break is a real issue for a multitude of reasons.

“This is a safety issue, it is a cost issue, and it’s an athletics issue,” said Valencia, noting that a short break makes it much harder for students to get back for the Iron Bowl.

Valencia said the group also found that, for students who have to travel on Monday or Tuesday, missing classes was an added stressor. There was a group of students who also said they bought plane tickets to come home on Wednesday, only to have their professors cancel class on Monday or Tuesday last minute.

“There’s a frustration that they could’ve been home,” Valencia said

Of the students asked to sign the table petition, the majority enthusiastically agreed. Most of the few who declined said they were running late to class, but they would be back later.

Christina Schoose, a freshman majoring in chemistry, said she signed the petition on the quad because, as an out-of-state student, she was almost unable to go home since the break for Thanksgiving was so short.

“That was really hard for me because I had never been without my family on Thanksgiving,” Schoose said.

Ian Dinkins, a junior majoring in advertising, said he was in support of the UA Talk Turkey campaign as well, not only because it gives him more time to be with his family and friends, but for academic reasons as well, noting that Thanksgiving is just two weeks before finals.

“[Having a week off] gives me more time to study too,” Dinkins said.

UA Talk Turkey has not brought their campaign to administration, though they may later. Instead they have been working on researching, conducting interviews, holding focus groups and getting signatures for petitions to make sure this is something the student body wants.

The group has not only spoken with students, but with family and faculty, and got positive feedback from them too.

UA Talk Turkey will be on the Quad from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. today. Students in support of a week-long Thanksgiving break are encouraged to go, sign the petition and talk to the campaign members.

People can sign the group’s online petition here.