Reading Day Ressurection
Reading Day has long since been a dead holiday at Whitman.
Other schools allow at least a few days or even the better part of a week between the close of classes and the commencement of final examinations. Not at Whitman though, where a 1 day break between the two periods is barely standard practice as the administration often takes the liberty to call Saturday, a day which hosts no classes in the first place, a 'Reading Day'. That's tantamount to forcing a salaried employee use up a vacation day to take a weekend off, and overall this practice is really more insulting than scheduling no reading days at all.
Of course, some professors allow adequate time for the study of course material in-between the last class and the day of the exam. However, such liberties taken by professors to arrange take-home final exams or canceled classes to create more of a study buffer is not mandated by any administrative or departmental policy, meaning students stuck with strict schedulers also bear the burden of the inflexibility of the exam schedule.
This academic year, Fall 2005 allows no reading period, and instead the administration wields the weekend as the in-between study days and unfairly steals both rest and relaxation from busybody students. Spring gives us one reading day in the middle of the week, with classes ending on Tuesday and exams commencing Thursday. Students, in the interest of quality academic work and personal sanity, should demand that the administration afford them a longer period to absorb and analyze the marathon's worth of knowledge given in classes before the culmination of classes.
The cost of scheduling more reading days seems large, as it entails canceling all organized academic activity to allow for personal study and research, but inserting a mere two-day period into the academic calendar per semester is a matter of priorities for when the year begins and ends. Another concern that some may have is that an extension of reading days will allow those with a proclivity to par-tay more time to waste in the interim (and perhaps even perpetuating a constant hangover into the exam days themselves). I say, better to afford students at least one extra day per semester to use how they wish than to force some to spontaneously combust from the simultaneous stressors of caffeine, sleep deprivation and cramming fests. If one were to be accepted to Whitman in the first place, it can only be assumed that these days will be used wisely.
So let's try and ressurect Reading Day for the years to come so that it's not a mere label on the mere weekend betwixt classes and exams and allow everyone the opportunity to decompress--or at least cram that extra bit more. After that, we can work on official recognition of Guy Fawkes Day.
Other schools allow at least a few days or even the better part of a week between the close of classes and the commencement of final examinations. Not at Whitman though, where a 1 day break between the two periods is barely standard practice as the administration often takes the liberty to call Saturday, a day which hosts no classes in the first place, a 'Reading Day'. That's tantamount to forcing a salaried employee use up a vacation day to take a weekend off, and overall this practice is really more insulting than scheduling no reading days at all.
Of course, some professors allow adequate time for the study of course material in-between the last class and the day of the exam. However, such liberties taken by professors to arrange take-home final exams or canceled classes to create more of a study buffer is not mandated by any administrative or departmental policy, meaning students stuck with strict schedulers also bear the burden of the inflexibility of the exam schedule.
This academic year, Fall 2005 allows no reading period, and instead the administration wields the weekend as the in-between study days and unfairly steals both rest and relaxation from busybody students. Spring gives us one reading day in the middle of the week, with classes ending on Tuesday and exams commencing Thursday. Students, in the interest of quality academic work and personal sanity, should demand that the administration afford them a longer period to absorb and analyze the marathon's worth of knowledge given in classes before the culmination of classes.
The cost of scheduling more reading days seems large, as it entails canceling all organized academic activity to allow for personal study and research, but inserting a mere two-day period into the academic calendar per semester is a matter of priorities for when the year begins and ends. Another concern that some may have is that an extension of reading days will allow those with a proclivity to par-tay more time to waste in the interim (and perhaps even perpetuating a constant hangover into the exam days themselves). I say, better to afford students at least one extra day per semester to use how they wish than to force some to spontaneously combust from the simultaneous stressors of caffeine, sleep deprivation and cramming fests. If one were to be accepted to Whitman in the first place, it can only be assumed that these days will be used wisely.
So let's try and ressurect Reading Day for the years to come so that it's not a mere label on the mere weekend betwixt classes and exams and allow everyone the opportunity to decompress--or at least cram that extra bit more. After that, we can work on official recognition of Guy Fawkes Day.
posted by tom at
2:17 PM
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