CUE Debates Banning Reading Period Assignments

Though discussion of a proposal to alter reading period was eclipsed by revelations about the extent of faculty email searches at Tuesday’s faculty meeting, the Committee on Undergraduate Education continued to debate the possibly of banning due dates for assignments during reading period at their meeting Wednesday afternoon.

If adopted, the policy, first discussed at a meeting on Feb. 6, would eliminate assignments due during reading period and instead set specific due dates for final projects and papers during exam period. English professor Amanda J. Claybaugh said the group entertained making the proposal outline when assignments should “ordinarily” be due, rather than stipulating a strict requirement.

“[There could be] a policy that says, ‘Ordinarily, faculty will not assign something during reading period,’ with the understanding that some people may well decide that their pedagogical needs would override that ordinarily, rather than an always,” Claybaugh said.

Claybaugh said the committee highlighted the effect the proposal may have for classes with problem sets and said she would not want to “set a hard and fast rule” for them.

Jen Q. Zhu ’14, vice president of the Undergraduate Council, said that there is a valid concern that the policy could adversely affect math classes that currently assign problem sets as review material during reading period and grade them in time for students to study for their exams. She said student feedback to the proposal so far has been “overwhelmingly positive” and is looking for more going forward.

“I think it would be really important to solicit feedback from the students that are taking these math classes and their impression of how effective it is to have p-sets due during that period of time,” Zhu said. “We need to have a greater understanding of the students that would impact and those teachers in the math department.”

The committee also addressed that some classes both assign final papers and give exams. Ultimately, Claybaugh said, she hopes the proposal will inspire faculty to further consider how they structure assignments.

“I think that the point of this policy should just be to encourage everybody to reflect on whether the kinds of things we’re assigning during reading period really need to happen then, just to reflect on what our actions mean for students when they’re multiplied by four classes,” Claybaugh said.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Conway can be reached at mconway@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @MadelineRConway.