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A spirit that is not afraid

EDITORIAL: We support the SGA Initiative

Spring 2016 editorial board

The last week of finals can be hectic; the chemistry of the student body shifts.

 Stress runs high as students try to prevent grades from running low. 

Some students resort to “study-drugs” such as Adderall, while others combat finals with more innocuous alternatives such as coffee. 

In an effort to aid students during finals week, SGA President Walker Byrd and SGA President-elect Jesse Westerhouse proposed an initiative: No heavily weighted (more then 10 percent of a student’s final grade), in-class assignments may be assigned during the last five calendar days prior to the study period.

Several other universities have similar policies, and the University of Tennessee’s is almost identical to the proposal.

We support this initiative because instead of students being overwhelmed with coursework at the end of the semester,  students would have more time to meet with professors so they could see where they stand grade-wise. 

An issue with this overwhelming amount of coursework is that it limits the window for feedback that could be used to improve a student’s standing in class.

Receiving feedback is one of the most important parts of the education process.

To pull big assignments a little further before final exams week would strengthen that process. 

College plays a formative role.

It offers students knowledge of the world. It also benefits students by providing a high-stress environment. Exposing students to stress is good because it gives students a chance to learn how to deal with the stress that will almost inevitably occur later on in life, or as some philosophers belonging to older generations eloquently put it, in “the real world.” 

College is, after all, the “fake world,” where things don’t matter and problems are illusionary. Diatribe over. 

Professorial autonomy is important, and professors mean well when creating their syllabuses. 

However, by simple misfortune, many students are swamped with an abundance of heavily weighted coursework, and often times it’s impossible to balance this with jobs, clubs and other nonuniversity activities such as attending church or exercising.


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