Like many college students, returning to school from time off is just an extension to our breaks. Classes are shorter than they should be. Everyone is feeling fine. Parties are going on every night, but … that is not the case for those poor soles who attend DePaul University.
A typical syllabus week goes a little something like this: You are greeted into the new class by a smiling professor and all your peers, nice and refreshed from their break. You are handed a hot new syllabus straight from the copy machine after a brief introduction and summary of the semester ahead. The room is filled with the words “see you next time” with not even a mention of homework or studying. The rest of the week is filled with an excess of alcohol and Netflix. We are lucky to get out of class five minutes early, let alone half an hour.
If patrons of syllabus week happen to get one of those teachers who doesn’t let them out early (how dare they,) the class will be filled with extensive icebreakers and lame introductions with fun facts no one really cares about, or napping. Yes, we do receive our syllabus in class, but it cannot be considered Syllabus Week when you also have multiple papers due, and hey, guess what, I see a quiz on the calendar. Our first class is more like a brief introduction from the professor because we do not have the time to waste with the long lecture ahead of us. While other students have a nice ease into the new semester, we are thrown in similarly to getting hit by a moving car on the expressway.
As tragic as it is, we have just accepted the fact that the quarter system does not have a place in its heart for the phenomenon that is syllabus week. We do not need this mystical week because we are better students without it (whether we like it or not). We have adapted to this non-syllabus week to make us better students. We should appreciate the dedication shown by our professors. Our lazy friends will be slacking the rest of their semester because they had an extra-long break. The first week back to class also means the first week back to all our friends. This amps up our social life which means an even harder first week back and having to balance both. We will learn great time annulment from our non-syllabus week.
We should not be jealous of our friends who have no homework, because that homework is making us the better students. At the end of the day, college is just for taking classes and learning, right?
