Reading Period Time Inadequate

To the Editor:

Students checking their mailboxes this week might have missed the nasty surprise the administration left in store for us. Next semester’s academic calendar exposes just how short reading period has become. Next fall’s reading period will begin on Saturday, Dec. 15, and end on Monday, Dec. 17. That’s two days-and-half-days, composed mostly of weekend days. Reading period is perhaps the most important time during the whole semester for students to bring together all the knowledge they have accumulated, and its reduction to two-and-a-half days is an unconscionable insult to the efforts of students trying to produce the best work they are capable of. 
Oberlin’s schedule is slanted distinctly against the grain when compared with its fellow institutions. Yale University allows ten days for reading period. TEN DAYS. Princeton allows eight. Next semester these schools will be giving their students four and five times as much time to complete their final papers and study for finals. Can you imagine what you could accomplish in even half that time? The discrepancy is striking. Even when examining a school such as Wesleyan, often seen as a near identical twin to Oberlin, one finds that their reading period lasts from Wednesday through Sunday. That gives Wesleyan students three weekdays and one-and-a-half weekend days to complete a comparable amount of academic work. Surely the workload at Oberlin is equal to or even surpasses that of other schools, yet, the administrators persist in foisting a miniscule reading period on us. 
The consequences of a shortened reading period are clear: students have less time to complete quality work, rush to finish all their final assignments from multiple classes in a haphazard and frenetic fashion and overall lose the incentive to take difficult classes because of the stress associated with the workload. The solution to this problem is simple: take off one or two days of classes, lopping off the Friday and even the Thursday before the reading period. This way, teachers would only lose one day of classes, and the academic calendar would require no large-scale reorganization. It is high time that ResLife and Student Life and Services heard about the stinging impact this has on our lives and the quality of our work. So, speak up and let the Office of Residential Life and Services know how you feel by e-mailing Office.of.Residential.Life@oberlin.edu or calling at 775-8472.

–Doug Diesenhaus
College junior

–MacKenzie Moore
College junior