In the recent examination period,
the Economics Department
chose to reschedule its Econ. I final
to an irregular time in the evening
on January 20. As it happened, all
exams for English 3-8 were given
the following morning. Hence, since
Econ. I is also predominantly a
sophomore course, many students
were deprived of any study time
closely preceding the English final
(unless they went without sleep),
and effectually forced to sacrifice
one course to the other. In one
case, this situation combined with
accidents of legitimate scheduling
forced a student to take four exams
in less than 48 hours.
If we are to believe our students'
accounts, the Economics instructors
were made aware of this
situation and refused to reconsider
the exam date, or to give make-ups
to individuals in special cases. The
Deans, too, refused to intervene,
ruling that the Economics instructors
should have final say in the
matter.
As instructors in the English 3-8
program, we feel that the Economics
Department's decision was
purely self-serving, unfeeling
toward the students, and arrogant
toward us and our courses. We are
puzzled that the Administration
felt itself unable to intervene in
such an arbitrary departure from
usual examination procedure, so
manifestly unfair to a majority or
near-majority of the students.
Alan Williamson
Raymond J. Nelson
J. F. Loucks
