Spring Break
Column: Students prepare for the final battle
Krystal Moya / Administration Editor
Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: Opinions
The rain will pour on the South Quad the next few days, soaking the fields of battle under an ominously gray sky. Valiantly, the squads of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors will gear up in their barracks and prepare for war.
As the rain falls, professors will sit in their forts ready to deploy their weapons of mass destruction: term papers, research projects, comprehensive finals and more.
During the next three weeks, students will fight with courage, some falling on the rain-soaked sod, killed in action, branded with a mark of failure.
Some have plans as strategic as the great military leaders of history: studying and researching for weeks in small increments preparing for the culmination of the end of the year. Others fight on instinct: pulling all-nighters and cram sessions, hoping to take professors (and themselves) by surprise.
But professors have their own strategies for the next three weeks.
They join forces across the educational departments of the university to blitz students with day-after-day assignments that are worth chunks of their grade that cannot withstand a battle loss.
It has already been foretold, written in the stars as the fate of students and teachers alike do battle.
Who will be the victor is irrelevant. Both sides are weighed down by the losses. Teachers are now rumored to be insane, workaholics, and students are worn down, distraught from the workload, losing motivation from semester to semester.
So, though this year is already decided, lessons planned and work distributed, I propose that professors and students resolve in a truce and finally end the war that is repeated every fall and spring.
Thus, it should be said, through a simple spreading out of the material this war could be ended. By allowing large projects and tests to be disbursed throughout the semester, both sides could live amicably with each other.
For projects that need to be collected at the end of the year, all professors should have mandatory checkup deadlines: idea proposals due by midterms, outlines due a week later, annotated bibliographies due the next.
Quizzes should be given throughout the semester to lead up to finals. Notes should be collected and professors should point out a missing point, even grade them.
Making it mandatory flexes the muscles of professors, leaving the dynamic in favor of their power, but it also allows students to feel on top of things and distresses the end of the semester.
Students will respect their teachers and teachers will get quality work from more students.
So, I call for both teachers and students to lay down their arms and call a truce for the year of 2009-2010. Peace will not be found this semester, but it can be changed for the future.
Instead of letting the rain fall and the battle rage, let the sun come out and spread a sense of peace across the campus.
Krystal Moya is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.
As the rain falls, professors will sit in their forts ready to deploy their weapons of mass destruction: term papers, research projects, comprehensive finals and more.
During the next three weeks, students will fight with courage, some falling on the rain-soaked sod, killed in action, branded with a mark of failure.
Some have plans as strategic as the great military leaders of history: studying and researching for weeks in small increments preparing for the culmination of the end of the year. Others fight on instinct: pulling all-nighters and cram sessions, hoping to take professors (and themselves) by surprise.
But professors have their own strategies for the next three weeks.
They join forces across the educational departments of the university to blitz students with day-after-day assignments that are worth chunks of their grade that cannot withstand a battle loss.
It has already been foretold, written in the stars as the fate of students and teachers alike do battle.
Who will be the victor is irrelevant. Both sides are weighed down by the losses. Teachers are now rumored to be insane, workaholics, and students are worn down, distraught from the workload, losing motivation from semester to semester.
So, though this year is already decided, lessons planned and work distributed, I propose that professors and students resolve in a truce and finally end the war that is repeated every fall and spring.
Thus, it should be said, through a simple spreading out of the material this war could be ended. By allowing large projects and tests to be disbursed throughout the semester, both sides could live amicably with each other.
For projects that need to be collected at the end of the year, all professors should have mandatory checkup deadlines: idea proposals due by midterms, outlines due a week later, annotated bibliographies due the next.
Quizzes should be given throughout the semester to lead up to finals. Notes should be collected and professors should point out a missing point, even grade them.
Making it mandatory flexes the muscles of professors, leaving the dynamic in favor of their power, but it also allows students to feel on top of things and distresses the end of the semester.
Students will respect their teachers and teachers will get quality work from more students.
So, I call for both teachers and students to lay down their arms and call a truce for the year of 2009-2010. Peace will not be found this semester, but it can be changed for the future.
Instead of letting the rain fall and the battle rage, let the sun come out and spread a sense of peace across the campus.
Krystal Moya is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.
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