It is almost the end of the semester, which means it is time for dead week, officially known as no-exams week, a time for students to get a break from constant assignments and have a break from the constant stress to study for finals.
However, here at the University of Idaho, dead week is a time that has instead become a major stressor for students. Students who are in a rush to complete projects, assignments and essays, even tests, while also studying for finals.
UI policy states that professors cannot give quizzes or exams during dead week, however this doesn’t stop many of them from giving tests in some way. Either they change the name of the test so it is not technically an exam, or professors will give projects instead to test their students.
On top of this, lab courses are exempt from the no-exam policy, which seems like it disregards the whole point of having a no-exam week for students. These lab exams often function as cumulative final exams for a whole semester of coursework because lab courses don’t give tests during finals week.
On top of that, all the projects and essays are due during this time, each carrying significant weight grade-wise and eating up time that could be used to study for finals. Students have more than just one class to deal with at a time, which means their week is completely full.
Brent McClanahan, a sophomore studying business, said, “I think that dead week is very busy because there are professors still giving out essays and classwork, my ideal dead week would look like having less homework and more time to study for finals, with professors providing more resources to help students during finals week.”
Ultimately, UI is at a crossroads where they can go in two different ways. On one hand, the university can continue this current trajectory of piling more and more on students during dead week, letting teachers get away with subverting the policy and allowing labs to be exempt, which isn’t helping students succeed and only increasing their stress and workload.
Or UI can go a different way. They could review the dead week policy and hopefully add some changes that can bring dead week back to what it was intended to be, a time for students. The university can start enforcing the policy better and expand the non-test rule to include lab courses. On top of that, they could place restrictions on what assignments can be given during this time.
The students of UI deserve to have a successful education, one that supports them during the end of the semester, instead of punishing them with a work overload. Students deserve to have time to study for their finals or complete projects and essays.
Christopher Sprague can be reached at [email protected].