Editorial: When Every Hour Counts

One of the most critical elements in the academic experience is a student's ability to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle while preparing for classes.

For this reason, a new plan being thrown around by the university could put students at serious risk.

Hoping to find a way to save money during this budget crisis, the university plans to cut one week out of the school year by taking away one of the dead days before finals and condensing finals into seven days instead of eight in both semesters. This plan would put students' interests second to saving money during the most stressful time of the year.

In relation to other comparable universities, UC Berkeley's dead week is one of the shortest. Still, students have grown to depend on these two days as the desperately-needed time to catch up on reading, meet with study groups and make all the last minute preparations before an exam.

The university's proposed calendar lists three days for "exam prep," but it doesn't mention that two of those days are Saturday and Sunday.

This makes the proposal particularly insidious by disguising the number of days available and ignoring that a number of students have religious obligations on at least one of those days. University administrators do not consider the weekend part of the week's schedule-they should be cautious to demand students consider it part of theirs.

Decreasing the number of days for finals increases the chances that students will be forced to take more than one test in the same day, encouraging fruitless cramming.

The university has already tried to scale back the academic year by attempting to cut six days of instruction, leaving students with a total of 140 for the year.

The benefits, according to the university, would be a later start, expanded summer and offering better access to classes taught during the summer. At the same time students would be receiving less instruction while suffering from an increase in the cost of education.

Fortunately, the UC Office of the President has turned down Berkeley's proposal and is unlikely to approve it in the future, despite continued efforts from UC Berkeley's administrators.

Although pulling one "prep day" and final day would give students five more days of summer, it would also inevitably cause a decrease in student health.

When word of the budget cuts hit campus, students were promised it would not affect academics. If the university approves this new campus schedule, it would be a disappointing example of administrators going back on their word.

Tags: