Unfair finals policy
calls for more cash

The Faculty Senate and the Deans’ Council are in the process of considering a new policy on final exams that would force students to pay $50, instead of the $10 currently required, if they want to take a final at a different time than scheduled.
We agree that too many students ask to take finals early, but we disagree with the proposed solution. Asking for blood money will not solve the problem. Half of the problem is that too many professors do not enforce university policy requiring finals to be administered on the assigned day, and they do so apparently without repercussion.
If all professors gave their finals during finals week at the scheduled time, fewer students would ask for exceptions.
Sometimes, as the proposed policy recognizes, exceptions are merited and should be granted. Other times, students just want to get off campus early. This is where more steps in the process, not a larger fee, should be introduced.
Students should be required to seek permission from the department chair and maybe even the dean, ensuring that the process is administered fairly and reducing the number of frivolous requests.
Under the current policy, some professors do not require any students to pay the fee, while others do. No university policy should be so capriciously administered.
In addition, if only one person decides what an unavoidable circumstance is, the decision on who pays the fee would rest on the judgment of a single person.
Another reason we disagree with the fee increase is that the higher fee will deter only poorer students from asking for a time change. Some students live off their parents and have all the

 

money they need or want. Paying $50 so they can get in a few extra days skiing would not be a deterrent for them.
Others, particularly with the impending tuition increase, have to pinch pennies just to make ends meet. Which day a student takes a final exam should not be determined by the student’s wealth.
There is no doubt that a problem exists with students not wanting to take finals when they are scheduled. We suggest that students asking for an exception should have to pay the current $10 fee, which should go to whoever takes the time to administer the test. We do not believe the solution is to just increase the cost of getting an exemption.