This may amount to idle gossip. However, I’ve heard that the SGA is considering a resolution that would require faculty to post grades on assignments within a week of their submission date. If that’s the case, I hope they’ll reconsider: I can’t speak for other disciplines, but for the humanities, a policy like that spells disaster.
I hope my students will agree that it’s a rare thing for me to take more than a couple of class meetings to post grades for objective assessments like quizzes and tests. However, it takes substantially longer to grade essays. I help students develop voice, improve their style, attend to conventions, analyze content–in short, I teach students how to think by teaching them how to write. It’s a complex endeavor, one that cannot be done justice over the span of seven days.
I believe that teachers posting grades within a week of receiving assignments would be possible only in a fantasy land. Yes, it is good in theory; students can identify exactly what they did wrong while the material is still fresh on their minds. However, this would put a huge strain on our teachers and, frankly, would not be achieved. Teachers have lives, just like students. We become stressed out when we have a very short period of time to complete an assignment, so would our professors. The only difference is, they have to check these assignments… for each student. I see where this concern is coming from, but there is no possibility for this goal to be achieved.