The recommendations to professors for regulating Dead Week are a wonderful step. If followed, they could prevent students from falling victim to the stacked deadlines and compounded exams that could build the road to failure.

Students do not need a helping hand with dealing with final examinations, as the stress attached to those tests is part of the college experience. But the administration does need to work to make the policies clearer, as a recommendation does not cut it.

The administration should consider the methods taken by other universities that allow students to take more time to study for final examinations. At Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Georgia—Athens, students are given several days away from classes, during which their only academic obligation is reviewing for final examinations. Similarly, at Tulane University in New Orleans, students are given an extended weekend during which they can review for exams, as well as a weekend between them to review more.

ISU administrators need to review these policies and decide what will work best for ISU students and faculty, with input from both groups. The recommendations currently put forth are a worthy step, but a simple recommendation to consider regulations is too light to have any effect on how final exams work. Professors are still able to assign new material during Dead Week. They can still have projects due during Dead Week. They can still move the final exam to Dead Week.

There is also vast confusion about the policies of Finals Week. While some professors are comfortable not meeting during Finals Week if there is no need, others are adamant about forcing students to attend the session, even if there is no more coursework. So rather than having another two hours to study for another exam, students twiddle their thumbs to appease professors’ fear that their confusion about Dead Week and Finals Week will land them in hot water.

Meanwhile, faculty members writing on the faculty-concerns e-mail listserv, [email protected], are tossing around the idea of doing away with a Finals Week altogether in order to shorten the semester and remove the need for comprehensive final examinations. This, some faculty members say, would serve the needs of those students who are enrolled in courses that don’t have final exams, and could allow them to end the semester earlier. It would also allow for longer breaks between semesters.

Such a step seems drastic, but is at least a more solid solution than the flimsy regulations currently in place. What the university must do now is further the efforts being put forth to clarify Dead Week and Finals Week.

Editorial Board:Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Ayrel Clark, Charlie Weaver, Rachel Faber Machacha.