Brooke Hopwood is an environmental management and protection junior at Cal Poly and an opinion columnist at Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
As midterm season approaches, I’ve found myself thinking, “Hasn’t this been going on for a month already?” Several conversations with students and staff have proven I’m not the only one.
“Week three I was like, ‘You have a midterm, you have a midterm, you’re procrastinating,’ and then I realized I had weeks before my first midterm,” said civil engineering sophomore Lola Audan.
Evidently, the connotation of “week three” hasn’t become any less stressful since changing to the semester system.
Upperclassmen, used to the fast-paced, sink-or-swim quarter system, are still fighting off midterm dread — and for a longer time.
So are we just experiencing growing pains?
It’s possible, given that the semester change seems to be garnering positive reactions overall.
Of the 20 or so students I spoke to, most reported lower stress levels, better relationships with classmates and professors and more time for material to sink in.
Personally, my first six quarters at Cal Poly consisted of two-week cycles — falling behind, catching up, falling behind and catching up.
Especially after the first week of midterms, I spent every school day trying to make up for the hours I “wasted” hanging out with my friends over the weekend.
This semester, my stress levels are far lower. I didn’t start falling behind until week six, and miraculously, I caught up quickly.
I’ve had time to hang out with my friends, go to office hours and read my textbooks instead of skimming them.
Many Cal Poly professors have also expressed their approval.
An anonymous professor of mine said he likes going slower, being more deliberate and utilizing more in-class activities than he did on the quarter system. Even after just eight weeks, he could tell students were engaging more with the content.
However, the most interesting part of his semester-system evaluation was his reluctance to share it. Despite offering rational reasons for liking the slower pace, he anticipated judgment from other professors and members of his department.
The implication is that, at Cal Poly, we equate high workloads and stress levels to academic prowess.
Since the quarter system has been part of our school identity for so long, we’ve learned to justify the lost hours of sleep and mid-quarter breakdowns as evidence of our resilience. Somehow, systemic exhaustion has become a source of pride.
The further I dug, the less convinced I was that the midterm blues and the slow-pace shame are short-term, innocuous issues. The ghost of the quarter system is much more than a feeling from quarters past.
First of all, the relief of semester-system pacing isn’t universal. To some students, it seems that professors have opted to add another five weeks of content, maintaining the same fast pace of the quarter system.
Connor Woo, a biomedical engineering freshman, reported taking a midterm during week three — clearly not midway through a 15-week semester.
Without ever experiencing the quarter system himself, Woo could feel that his professors weren’t fully embracing the semester change.
Shortened classes on the semester system also translate into more at-home work and less time for course material to be reinforced in the classroom setting. In other words, pacing that was already barely manageable on the quarter system now feels impossible.
Another anonymous professor moved to Cal Poly from a semester-system institution and only experienced one year of the quarter system before the transition. From her year of observation, she noticed that students on the quarter system were burning out much faster.
She described the quarter system as draining and believes students’ endurance and attention spans are much healthier on the semester system.
Her interpretation compelled me. Where I took every missed assignment on the quarter system as a personal failure, she focused on structural elements that were setting me up to fail.
I realized many of my shortcomings as a student were connected to the sheer workload and onslaught of information I was working to process on the quarter system.
I bring this up to note that after nine weeks of the semester system, we are still seeing the same levels of stress, of crashing when the workload gets too high and the semester moves too fast. I would argue that the school’s culture is still built around pushing students past healthy levels of performance.
Professors are accustomed to pressuring students to meet unrealistic expectations. Students are accustomed to blaming themselves for being unable to meet them.
Instead of absorbing material, we’re focused on keeping up with due dates and “getting through this week but then locking in” (A promise that never comes to fruition).
Consequently, we’re used to getting a shallow understanding of the course material.
Cal Poly has yet to fully make a meaningful change in acknowledging that breaks and extra time to process information are part of a healthy learning environment and work balance, rather than something to be ashamed of.
Though the semester transition has so far been a mostly administration-led, structural change, I believe it’s an opportunity to rethink Cal Poly’s educational climate.
How can we learn to slow down?
For professors, it’s time to soften the harsh expectations for students to adapt to “college-level” academics as a euphemism for pushing themselves past their limits. Our school culture no longer needs to promote a breakneck pace to offer a challenging education.
The semester switch needs to be supported by an academic structure that aims to provide deeper understanding and avoids burnout. Spreading out assignments, assessments and course materials will make better use of the extra five weeks.
For students, the culture change is all-encompassing. Moving forward, we can take the five extra weeks to savor the college experience.
In the classroom, we can rethink how we engage with course materials, especially the parts we’re passionate about. Outside of the classroom, we can spend more time getting involved in clubs, finding new hobbies and building better relationships with professors and classmates.
As people fortunate enough to go to college, we can find ways to make the experience a part of long-term growth and learning. We can take advantage of living in San Luis Obispo, a town with a strong community and endless opportunities.
In any case, I maintain that the lingering symptoms from the semester change will continue unless there is a deliberate effort from the Cal Poly community.
As professors and students, the semester transition isn’t over.
This story originally appeared in the October printed edition of Mustang News. Check out more stories from the issue here.