The Skyline View editorial has no byline because it is the voice of TSV’s editorial staff.

Semesters tend to have a habit of dragging on for a little too long; this is especially prevalent at Skyline where the semesters are 18 weeks, as opposed to the 16 week semesters seen at most other community colleges. Shortened, the semester would serve to help students, especially since longer semesters contribute to burnout: it hits almost every student and it is significantly more common the longer the semester goes on.
It sounds like it would not make such a difference with only a two week change, but those two weeks matter a lot for the wellness of the students. Mental health should be a top priority and if that means cutting off a couple weeks of the semester, by all means do that. Students already have finals to worry about and not only does burnout make that even more stressful, it often causes them to perform worse during said finals.
Shortening semesters would help out students by providing a better incentive to finish the semester strong, using longer breaks as motivation and lessening the amount of time students need to stress over their classes. Skyline needs to catch up with the times and finally implement this change like so many other colleges have.