This semester, Elizabethtown College will hold finals Saturday, May 8. Students and faculty alike were surprised to see exams take place on a weekend, and the change resulted in mixed feelings for many. While the administration has stated that it was necessary to hold finals on that day to ensure a timely Commencement Day and more face-to-face instruction, a lot of students found the change as an additional vessel for stress.
In an academic year full of change, having exams on a Saturday offered a quick gateway to the summer vacation. “I thought that it was weird having an exam on the weekend,” freshman biology pre-vet major Madison Carey said, “but if I had the choice of taking the exam over the weekend or the following week, I would choose the former because that means I could go home and enjoy summer sooner!”
However, not all students would prefer to have their exams on a Saturday, so how did Etown’s administration come to this decision? I asked the Office of Registration and Records about the reasoning behind the change and was redirected to the Office of Academic Affairs.
“The change to the final exam schedule was made this Spring 2021 semester in order to allow the offering of the greatest amount of face-to-face instruction and a timely Commencement date,” their statement read.
My other two questions, asking about possible re-implementation in the future and about if student workload was considered, were not answered. I suspect that, as many decisions this year, future re-implementation and possible outcomes were still uncertain.
Inquiries about the extra workload this might have on students are crucial, especially that this semester has had less days of break than previous ones. Indeed, this is how senior communications major and the Student Senate publicity and marketing chairperson Giovanni Zapata felt about the decision to have exams on the weekend.
“I just hope that students having exams on that Saturday are not overwhelmed,” he said, “Especially since the last day of classes is so close to the beginning of finals.”
Zapata’s concerns are well-placed. The last day of classes is Thursday, May 6, which is only two days before some students have to take their first final exam. Trying to find pockets of time to study for that exam during the week might prove to be a real challenge.
It is worth pointing out that this change does not affect all students. As some students take their finals on that Saturday, others will be spending it studying for their upcoming finals. This is concerning, as it could put some students at a disadvantage relative to their peers.
“It is definitely weird seeing that finals are on a Saturday,” Zapata reasoned, encompassing many of what his peers thought of the change, “but seeing how weird school has been in general this year, I am not that shocked.”
Many of those changes that make this school year unusual are also still opaque in terms of their effectiveness. Deciding whether to re-implement these new changes in the future so that weird becomes the new normal will depend wholly on the results of this year.
Undoubtedly, Etown’s administration had the students’ best interests in mind when they made this decision. Such decisions in unusual times are notably difficult to make, and persuading others that these decisions are better for them is even harder.
Additionally, the issue is multi-layered and is bound to spark both agreements and discord. However, let us all remember that whether we prefer to have finals on a weekend or not, we all have the same goal: getting to the summer faster.
