Prep week leaves room for interpretation

Prep the autopsy slab for prep week. Kill dead week because it's already dead — it just doesn't know it yet.

And each semester it rots a little more.

The economics version of dead week is called collusion or price fixing. The basic idea is that if all the producers of a certain thing agree to set their price at a certain level, then all customers will have to pay that price. And each company will make loads of money.

The problem is that inevitably one producer will decide to screw over his competitors and drop his price just a little bit so that he can make a ton of money. Eventually, all the other producers have to drop their prices to keep up and the whole scheme falls apart until it happens again.

Professors are producers of knowledge and learning, but, most importantly, tests, quizzes and projects. A long, long time ago, it was decided that they would all not produce any of those on this dead week so that their students wouldn't become suicidal as they attempted to juggle class and study for finals.

Just like collusion though, eventually one professor figured out that he could squeeze a last couple of grades into prep week. Since the regulations surrounding the last week before finals are pretty much open to interpretation, he was free to give a quiz-shaped test or a homework-shaped project.

These quizzes, projects and tests could be huge, as students could focus their undivided attention on them without worrying about other classes. He broke the collusion.

Just like the other producers, other professors soon followed suit, lest they be cut out of the grading market.

And so the regulations of dead week have been all but set aside. Each professor assumes that he or she is the only one crafty enough to sneak an extra grade into the last week.

The 15th week of class can never be a true preparatory week for final exams if this is the way it is handled. Since there is no penalty for bending the rules in the last class sessions, one can't be expected.

As some classes don't even have a final exam to fill their exam time with, their big end-of-the-semester grade has to come from projects that will be due during dead/prep/15th week.

So why even pretend that we have such a beast? Why lie to the student body and perpetuate the myth that Purdue cares enough about ensuring our health and stress level before exams that they'd give a week to work in advance?

It's cynical, yes, but it's better than deluding ourselves year after year and still getting overworked right before finals.

n Editorial Board: Keith Thomas, Tom McHenry, Melissa Davis and Laura Pelner.

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