By With the holiday season looming around the corner, some students may be upset with the early Christmas present of a split-week finals schedule.
According to the Cal State Long Beach website, finals week will take place from Thursday, Dec. 12 to Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Most CSULB students will have a “dead day” on Dec. 11 to study and prepare for their final exams.
Last fall, students did not have a “dead day” and instead began their finals on Monday, Dec. 10.
While this year’s final schedule may be welcomed by some students, we think it brings more worry and stress than it should.
The benefit of last year’s finals schedule was that once students finished their courses, they had at least a full weekend to study and prepare.
With this year’s finals schedule, however, some students are expected to attend two days of class, have one day to prepare and then begin finals.
An unforeseen consequence of this year’s finals schedule is that students who take Wednesday-only courses are unfairly penalized.
Theoretically, the purpose of the change in finals schedule was to give students a “dead day” to study.
Students who take Wednesday-only courses, however, have their finals on the dead day.
What’s the point of creating a day for students to study when some still have to take finals on that day?
Yes, students still have the weekend of Dec. 14 and 15 to study, but what about students who have the majority of their finals on Thursday and Friday?
The finals schedule needs to be revised in the best interests of students, which means making the finals schedule as least stressful as possible.
Finals are stressful enough on their own. The finals schedule shouldn’t add even more stress.
In the future, we’d like to see CSULB have an entire “dead week” or at leave give students a full weekend to prepare for finals.
More than half of the CSUs on the semester system avoid holding finals over two weeks. CSULB should follow their lead.
In attempt to change the finals schedule to how it was before, associate history professor and director of Jewish studies Jeffrey Blutinger has agreed to propose a resolution to the College of Liberal Arts Faculty Council on Dec. 4.
We hope Blutinger will be successful in his attempt to bring back last year’s finals schedule.
Regardless, we hope professors will take into account this year’s finals schedule and plan accordingly so that students are not overwhelmed.
Let’s face it. This year’s finals schedule is not our idea of a great stocking stuffer.
