Dead Week May Not Be What it Claims

  Many students, from high school all the way to doctorate programs, understand that the last two weeks of school are full of heavily weighted assignments and even heavier eyelids.

  Theater major John Baine attended the University of Mississippi for three years before he left to attend St. Louis University for his senior year.

  "Ole Miss didn't have a dead week, but we do at St. Louis University. I have to honestly say that I believe I had to stay more focused at Ole Miss without the extra week of study. At St. Louis University I was already stressed out for finals and having the week essentially off just made me want to sleep in late and hang out with friends, not work," Baine said.

  This seems to be a common trend. In psychology there is the theme of give an inch, take a mile and that may be the case with the addition of a dead week.

  On top of this is the fact that the dead week may not improve the performance of students during finals week, it may also add more time, and perhaps more money to an already long and expensive semester.

  According to the Christian Science Monitor tuition at a 4 year university has risen 73 percent from 1999 to 2009, with average family income decreasing at a rate of 7 percent. Couple this with an average student loan debt of around $25,000 and a new question arises: do we really need a longer semester?

  Whitman Smith is the Director of Enrollment Services at Ole Miss, and he ushers in each new Rebel class with open arms. His opinions reflect what the student body wants as well as what parents of these students want.

  Smith never had a dead week in school himself and he is unsure of whether or not a dead week would be beneficial to Ole Miss students.

  "I myself am not in favor of having a dead week at all," Smith said.

  Even with some obvious hesitance from the Ole Miss community the Associated Student Body is still pushing to get the resolution passed. This effort was led by Emmalee Rainey and former ASB president Taylor McGraw.

  "I get the sense that most professors are already very conscious of the workload they are placing on students and plan their syllabi very carefully," McGraw said. "Obviously they cannot coordinate with every other professor on campus, so some students may feel like they have a disproportionate amount of work the week before finals, and I can sympathize with those students," (from DM article February 23, 2012).