University of Virginia Library

Colloquium

A Case For E-School
Reading Days

By Bill Huyett

—Ed.)

It has been argued that there is
no need for reading days in the
engineering school before exams
since the school is a professional
education institution. With the
large amount of technical
information that an engineer must
master the previous claim seems to
support the call for reading days
more strongly. All engineering
students will attest to the fact that
they need a short span of time
between their classes and exams to
bring together the mass of technical
information into meaningful
application.

Of the six undergraduate schools
at the University the engineering
school is the only school without
reading days. The College of Arts
and Sciences and the education
school have five days. The
professional School of Architecture
has five days. The Schools of
Nursing and Commerce have two
days each.

The existing review days during
the last two days of the semester
are considered by most students to
be worthless. As in the past
attendance is not good, because
most students know that such a
large amount of technical material
cannot be reviewed in one day.
Usually it is only the advanced
students who ask difficult questions
and take most of the class time who
get anything out of the class. For
those students reading days would
serve them better in that they could
go the instructor for the answer
to his specific problem. Another
point to consider about review days
is that homework can be due on
one of these review days thus
forcing the student to work on new
material right up to exams. This
could affect the performance on his
exams.

Many professors feel that by
granting reading days they will give
the students another vacation. It
seems hard to believe that any
conscientious engineering student
who wanted to do well on his
exams would take off for two days.
The fact that exams are so close
and the fact that engineers usually
have to study hard for them would
hold them close to the books.

At a meeting with Dean Quarles
on November 19 the officers of the
Engineering Council made a
productive efforts to seek out the
Dean's opinion on the best
procedure for obtaining the
students wishes. It was the original
intent of the council to call for five
reading days (similar to the
college). When it was learned from
the Dean that this would not pass
in a faculty vote, the officers, on
the advice of the Dean, and support
of the council, decided to ask for
two days. The intent of the officers
is to come to the most agreeable
solution. Last Thursday night the
Engineering Council passed a
motion to petition the faculty of
the Engineering School for two
reading days. The Dean has given
every indication that he would call
for a special faculty meeting to
consider the question.

The officers feel that it is in the
best interest of the school for the
faculty to pass this motion. Small
moves such as this can help stop the
drop-out rate in the school but
more importantly will give the
engineering student a feeling that
he is being treated a little more
fairly. By the time this article is
printed many instructors and
professors will have been
approached by students in their
respective departments. The
Engineering Council sincerely hopes
that they will give this issue their
full consideration.