It’s a general consensus among students that our classes at UT are rigorous. The University of Texas is a prestigious institution, and we students pride ourselves on being academically challenged. We work hard during the week to get our assignments, quizzes and exams done in time and spend hours studying in order to succeed. Because of this constant rigor, weekends are a necessary time to take a break and relax from the constant stress of the school week. 

This semester, my weekends became disrupted when an instructor of mine began assigning quizzes that were only open for 24 hours over the weekend. This created some problems — on one occasion, I was at a UT football game when I realized I had a quiz due in an hour.  

Assigning tests and quizzes that are due over the weekend makes it difficult for students to find time to take the assessment, relax and participate in UT activities. As such, UT should bar professors from making assignments, quizzes and tests that are only open over the weekend. 

Plan II and sustainability sophomore Dylan Gross faced these struggles with her biweekly biology quizzes only being available over the weekend. 

“Taking quizzes over the weekend has been frustrating because it has coincided with certain events such as my parents visiting, and they only come once, maybe twice a year, so I had to schedule time out of being with them to study for and take this quiz,” Gross said. “I have to make sure that I’m in a place that’s quiet so it doesn’t flag me for noise, which is difficult, especially when I live in a sorority house with a bunch of other girls who are constantly doing their own thing.”

When a quiz or test is only available to take over the weekend, students may be hard-pressed to find a quiet place to take it. Many students live with roommates and need to find a quiet place, but campus buildings are often closed over the weekend or have restricted hours. 

Laurel Rogers, an assistant instructor for RTF 317, Narrative Strategies and Media Design, explained the reasoning behind quizzes open only over the weekend for her course.

“When the course was kind of a little bit more asynchronous (during COVID-19), we thought it would be easier to accommodate things like people’s schedules and people who needed extra time,” Rogers said. “We don’t have to give up a class session anymore to (have quizzes,) so we have more time for discussing screenings and stuff like that. So that’s why it’s appealing to us to continue doing this.” 

While this reasoning may make sense for COVID-19 times, society is moving away from the COVID-19 era and this policy for quizzes should be too. Alternatively, professors could open assignments before the weekend, giving students ample time to complete them before the weekend begins. 

The draw for professors to have more class time to teach with weekend assignments is understandable. However, this does not take into account that students have to find time on their own to take these quizzes, as well as staying on top of homework for the class.

The weekends are meant to be a time that belongs to students. We deserve to be stress-free for at least 48 hours as we spend the rest of the week powering through our classes. Assigning quizzes over the weekend may make instructors’ lives easier, but it makes students’ lives much harder. 

Melinger is a radio-television-film sophomore from Highland Park, Illinois.