Texas A&M Faculty Senate is encouraging students to prevent professors and faculty from violating the final exams schedule by reporting the problem before it prevents them from performing to the best of their ability.
According to the rules set by the Registrar’s Office, all finals must be proctored during the allotted time, which is set according to class time. The only classes exempt from this rule are labs or one hour classes. Professors are not allowed to give final exams during reading days of dead week.
However, there are some occurrences within Texas A&M faculty when professors will change final exam times in order to better suit schedules or grading needs.
Members of Faculty Senate stressed that the final exam schedule is constructed in a way to benefit students, and should not be compromised by any faculty member.
“It’s to help spread your finals over a few days; it enhances your chance to perform to your optimum ability,” said Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Chairwoman Melinda Grant. “If it even affects one student and affects that student to not perform to their optimum, then we’ve done a disservice.”
Grant emphasized that it is the job of the professors to make a student’s education easily accessible.
“We can’t put a student at a disadvantage for our own convenience,” Grant said.
The problem of a faculty member violating the final exams rules is one that is known to occur in the University. However, due to the large numbers of faculty and staff, it is impossible for deans to account for the practices of each individual course and professor within their college.
“There was never a way administratively to police that,” said Kolin Loveless, academic affairs chairman in Student Senate. “There was no way for deans to watch over that.”
Therefore, in order to improve the flow of communication, Faculty Senate is urging students to be the ones watching for faculty violators.
“We can’t fix a problem that we don’t know is broken, and we don’t know it’s broken if students don’t tell us,” Grant said.
If a student is in a class with a professor who schedules a final exam outside of the allotted time, the student should first approach the professor to attempt to solve the problem. If the problem is not remedied or if a student does not feel comfortable confronting their professor, the student should approach the department head of the course. After the department head, a student can approach the dean and the Dean of Faculty.
It’s beneficial for the issue to be dealt with at the level of the individual professor; however, deans and department heads are more than willing to aid students when the problem is presented.
With this line of communication, students can ensure that the faculty and staff abide by the registrar regulations.
“Since it’s students and faculty working together, it’s a good way to improve the overall academic experience,” Loveless said.
The best way for a student to deal with a final exam violation is to respectfully approach the professor. Although the task may seem daunting, Grant assured that the result will be worth the effort.
“If a rule is being broken, be willing to step up-that’s what Aggies do. It’s a basic Aggie Honor Code thing,” Grant said. “It’s not bad to step up.”