While some students at Sacramento State are happy to end the fall semester early, others think it is an unfair cut to their education when faculty members give finals exams during dead week.

A number of professors at Sac State choose to hold their finals early so that their classes end before finals week. This practice is, however, prohibited according to the finals policy in the university manual, said Jeffrey Mason, dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

The professors who are giving the finals early might not be aware of the guidelines for finals in the university policy manual, Mason said.

“We have so many part-time faculty, some of them do not understand what the policy is and some of the full-timers forget,” Mason said. “I just want to remind them not to give finals early.”

According to the Sac State University policy manual, final exams may not be scheduled during the last week of classes.

However, quizzes, lab exams and other academic assignments may be scheduled for the last week of classes, only if they are specified on the course syllabus and have been approved by the college dean. No unscheduled or additional requirements may be imposed on students during the last week of classes.

Mason said it is impossible for the university to catch a professor who does not follow the policy because there are too many of them.

The only way for anyone to get caught is if a student files a complaint. This would start a department investigation to see if the claim was true or if it was just a misunderstanding between the student and teacher, he said.

If the situation gets more serious and both the chair and dean of the department think the matter is a problem, they would talk to the faculty to see what they think about the issue and if they were aware of the policy, Mason said.

While the problem is serious, Mason does not want teachers to be fired or penalized, but instead wants to make the best situation available to the students, he said.

“In the four years I’ve been here, no one has ever complained, in my office, about an instructor giving a final early,” Mason said.

However, some students disagree with having finals early because they want the extra time to study, he said.

Mason said there are too many faculty members in the university and too many policies for the campus to teach every new professor each guideline.

“The policy is in place to protect and support the students, but there needs to be more clarity that specifies what makes up a final,” said Tim Howard, professor of communication studies.

This semester may be different than the others due to furloughs.

Professors have an excuse for giving finals early since some of them are furloughed during the last day of finals, said computer science graduate student Dane Jew.

Some are bypassing the finals policy while still adhering to it by giving section exams, projects or other assignments in the place of the final exam, he said.

“One of my communication classes is having the final during the last week of classes because the professor is taking a furlough during the day we were scheduled to have our finals during finals week,” said Rachelle Blakeslee, junior child development major.

Blakeslee said she is fine with ending the semester a week early and that a lot of students think similarly.

Some students agree that having finals a week early in general education classes is acceptable. However, they would like to have the extra week to study in classes that are part of their major.

“It depends on the class, if it was a class I cared about I would not want it to end early because you’re cutting off education,” said Abby Costa, junior accounting major. “If it was just a general education class I would not mind it getting out early.”

Blazej Bruzda can be reached at [email protected].