On Tuesday the SGA Academic Affairs committee sent an e-mail to the student body outlining plans for increased enforcement of Reading Period regulations. The new program involves a system for anonymously reporting infractions to the appropriate advising offices. Now students can pursue multiple avenues when reporting professors who are misusing reading period.
This page appreciates the cooperation between SGA and the administration that produced these measures. It seems likely that through student policing Reading Period infractions will decrease significantly.
It is somewhat unclear, however, why something as minor as due dates during Reading Period may now become one of the best-enforced policies on campus. It is true that having papers, projects and tests during reading period can make finals more stressful, but coincidentally having three tests in one day can be stressful as well, and there are no advertised policies safeguarding this scenario.
The Reading Period policies are good ones, but setting up anonymous tiplines makes these days before finals seem almost sacred. Perhaps the original motivations for pursuing these measures have been lost because of the efficacy of the new guidelines themselves. In that case, the student body needs to be provided with additional information about the threats that Reading Period infractions pose.
Anecdotally, this board has also noticed a marked increase in the amount of work students are coping with in this last week of classes. If Reading Week regulations are going to be enforced with this level of scrutiny, further investigation may be needed into this over-burdened last week of class.
