Finals week is eerily creeping up on NYU students. As we continue to struggle balancing internships, part-time jobs and hundreds of other deadlines that we are most likely forgetting, we can’t help but look over our schedule for the next two weeks and dread the exams that are inevitably coming sooner rather than later. However, NYU’s annual Legislative Day has placed an abrupt and unexpected change to those schedules and is more of an inconvenience than the blessing that NYU is attempting to pass it off as.

This year, Legislative Day takes place on Dec. 12, less than a week before finals are set to begin. For most students, this means that they are going to be attending the same classes for three days in a row. Although it is set in the academic calendar early on in the school year, most professors do not realize that there is a change in schedule until a week before Legislative Day takes place. In fact, every single one of my professors has sent me emails this week regarding the schedule change and how it is affecting their academic plans for the final days of the semester. A make-up day seems practical in theory, but if our professors aren’t even notified about the schedule until the last minute, what exactly are we supposed to get out of this change? Sure, we get more review time for our Monday classes, but for the most part, students who have their more rigorous classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays (like myself) are going to be losing more than they’re gaining.

There are many universities that also assign make-up days during the semester because of missed class. George Washington University is also conducting a make-up day on Dec. 12 this year. But make-up sessions that are held on this day are voluntary, not mandatory, and students can use this day as an independent studying day as well. Other institutions, like St. John’s University, arrange their make-up days far earlier into their schedules so as to guarantee students a reading day dedicated to studying before finals begin. NYU’s reading days, on the other hand, have in recent years been held on weekends rather than weekdays. Not only are we forced to take part in a make-up day that is not necessarily beneficial, but the university has also made it clear that time for studying during the week simply isn’t a priority on its agenda, regardless of how vital it may be to several students.

I’m sure that, overall, NYU has good intentions when it comes to make-up days. For students who have difficult Monday schedules, this may come as a benefit rather than an inconvenience. But for others, it is most definitely more of a negative rather than a positive. Rather than enforce Legislative Day, NYU should hold it as an optional reading day. If NYU truly does want to help lessen the high levels of stress on campus at this time of year, then it can start by giving the student body the legitimate study day that it deserves.

Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them. Email Melanie Pineda at [email protected].