Letter to the Editor: Instructors get ‘bad rapp’
Editor,
In the last issue of the Apache (April 30, 1998), columnist Holli Rapp suggested that instructors pile on work during the last few weeks of the semester. Holli noted that a friend of hers had a ten page paper and an eight page paper due within one day of each other. She asked why the work wasn’t spread out a little more. Because there were no more issues last spring, we instructors were left with no chance to respond to the "bad rapp."
In my experience the problem is not as much in the assigning of work as it is when the students choose to complete it. Holli fails to tell us when these papers were assigned. If they were assigned several weeks prior to the due date (which they probably were), student procrastination was probably the problem, not "piling on." College course requirements typically conclude with a final exam and a term paper; term papers are usually announced at the beginning of the semester.
The wise student will spend the early part of the semester collecting information for the term paper and may actually complete it and submit it early. (This has happened!!!) However, if you choose to spend your energy putting off and complaining, you will probably end up like Holli’s friend, staying up late to complete several large assignments that are due at the end of the term.
Mike Phillips
Geology Instructor
Sept. 17, 1998 the Apache