Students upset about this semester’s finals beginning the night after regular classes end might be surprised to discover the Wisconsin tourism industry plays a significant role in their troubles.
According to David Musolf, secretary of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, the tourism industry was the driving force behind legislation stating UW system schools may not begin classes until after September 1.
“[The tourism industry] doesn’t want college students to leave a week earlier than they do,” Musolf said.
This requirement means having a week off to study for finals would be impossible because the fall and spring semesters are to be equal in length, which Musolf said the legislation also requires.
“The system legislation requires we have evenly balanced semesters because we teach the same courses in the fall and spring,” Musolf said. “You can’t take class sessions away because of a shortened semester.”
Musolf added UW tries to give students one full day off to study for finals, but sometimes, especially in the fall semester, it is not possible because of the rigid time constraints. The best they could do this semester was to have the day of December 16 off and start finals in the evening.
“If we could start classes a week earlier, we’d have more flexibility,” Musolf said.
The tourism industry, Musolf added, would like to see classes starting even later.
“There’s been pressure not to start until after Labor Day,” Musolf said, noting this is not a problem when Labor Day is early in the month but can be difficult in years like this, meaning classes would have started September 7.
Though UW does not budget in some days to review before semester’s end, other universities, such as Yale University, do give students time off before finals to study. Karen Chen, a Yale sophomore, said her university’s “reading week,” is a big help when preparing for finals.
“I feel like I need a few days to regroup,” Chen said. “I don’t know what I would do if I had to start finals the day after classes ended.”
Chen also said most students do not spend the entire week studying and usually use the first few days to relax.
“There’s a lot of parties at the beginning of reading week. I think most people use the first three or four days to relax and maybe study a little,” Chen said, adding the beginning of reading week goes by very quickly. “At the end of reading week, people are thinking, ‘Oh crap. Where did my reading week go?'” Chen said.
UW sophomore Josh Peterson said he thought if UW gave a week off to study like other universities before finals, he’d be in better shape.
“By finals, the stress level is at its maximum,” Peterson said. “The extra week would help me to prepare.”
The only way time off before finals would be possible at the University of Wisconsin, according to Musolf, would be a “lame-duck” session after the holidays, which would mean coming back to take finals after two weeks off from school.
Musolf said when he was a student, he took finals during a lame-duck session, and many students spent their break visiting family or going on vacation — not studying — which they might have been more likely to do if they had days off while they were still on campus.
Though Peterson said he would not want to take finals during a lame-duck session, he said he was upset to hear the Wisconsin tourism industry was able to influence university policy in this way and thought something should change.
“This is a perfect example to how politics work in this country,” he said. “We are more concerned with that extra week of money-making than with how our education system works. The tourism industry shouldn’t be able to push around our education system for its own personal gains.”
