Jim Tederman

At a good institution, true learning will
always entail hard work but there should
also be a sense of joy in learning, What
bothers me at Grinnell is that, for nlany
people. [his sense of joy is missing We work
too hard and laugh too little, We quite often
take our small world much too seriously and
almost never stand back and laugh at
ourselves

Grinnell has high workloads and stildents
\i‘lth bolh high academic achievemcnl levels
and high personal self-expectations.
Combine this with an incredible pressure for
grades. early academic specialization and
stiff compelllion for graduate school
placement and you have problems, it
creates uhut we all know as ”academic
prcssureupressurc which affects
students. faciiltv. administration and staff
alike. it creates onstant tension ill all of our
relationships with each other,

i personally do not believe that any
constituency of the college is maliciously
creating academic pressure: in fact, much
of it originates from outside sources. i do,
however, see more and more students trying
to figure out who is at fault. Some are
beginning to blame the faculty for
academic pressureund even believing that
thc faculty is consciously creating the
pressureinr at least not concerned about its
chutence,

Paft of the problem appears to be that
thcre is too much emphasis by some
students and faculty on quantity rather than
quality in the class oom, The result of this
emphasis is that if a course is not quan-
titatively difficult, students will use it as a
buffer class, Many of our students have
become grinds who do not even have time to
seriously reflect on what they have just
read. much less to develop friendships, go to
the Physical Education Complex or to
participate in extracurricular activities.
They rush from one reading list to the next
and. in tlle process, kill their intellectual and
social curiosity and excitement.

l have decided not to use my space in this
article discussing final exams, length of
papers, grading systems, etc., but instead to
talk about other reasons for academic
pressure which we Sometimes forget. The
college period is made up of years when
most students experience a tremendous
amount of personal growth Personal
growth problems absorb a great amount of
lime and energy—especially on a campus as
unstructured as ours and on a campus which
places a tremendous amount of personal
responsibility in the hands of its individual
students Most students at. this college are
intensely involved in establishing their
identities and clarifying their values. This is
a valuable process and one that i fear is
suffering due to an over concentration and
concern with grades and academic
assignments.

There is no doubt in my mind that the
classroom should be the central component
of ones college education. but by no means
should it be the only component. I
sometimes fear that all of us, faculty,
students and administrators, are beginning
to treat the classroom as the only important
part ofa student's development at Grinnell.
When this happens, we have lost the distinct
value ofa residential liberal arts program. i
believe part of the reason students feel
academic pressure is that there is a con-
stant conflict within themselves over their
needs for personal growth and their needs
for intellectual growth.

Students find that they do not have enough
time to devote to both of these needs and the
school does little to integrate their personal
and intellectual lives The distance between
llle classroom and lhc residence hall is vast.
We are becoming a college ihat is not fin
President Turner's terms) a “citizen
builder”. but instead a college that builds
such things as political science, pie-med,
prc-law and Russian majors. We need to
teach people how to deal with their lives and
their world as well as how to do graduate
work To summarize, i feel that one of the
causes for academic pressure ts that
students believe they must sacrifice loo
much of their lives for gradcpoints and
future rewards.

Another problem that we have at Council
that contributes to academic pressure is
geographical isolation. Many students do
not mentally and physically r move
themselves from Grinnell for an entire
semester 'rhisinakesitdtfficultlo gctotitni
the academic setting even for short periods
of lime. We turn in on ourselves and literally
make mountains out of molchills Part of
this isoiir own fault. As someone said to me

the other night, “if Grinnell students were in
a foreign country, the last thlngvthey would
do is sit in their hotel rooms, They would be
ollt exploring the countryside, getting lo
know the people and taking advantage oi the
foreign culture, loiva is literally a loreign
country to .urban students, yet they sit in
their residence hall rooms and do not ex-
perience the different culture around
them ” This indifference to our immediate
environment closes ils in to the small world
of the college and gives us no escape from
academia.

flnc other cause for academic pressure is
|he lack of an outside interest which a
person can t v enjoy, The people I know
who ci, y G niicll the most are those who
participate in such things as chess, choir,
paddleball, athletic teams, meditation,
Christian fellowship. swlmming, theatre
and student government, it sounds kind of
trite, but it appears to me that participating
and being involved in something you really
enjoy (even though it takes time) reduces
academic pressure. We have an awful lot of
people on this campus who spend most of
their time being passively enterlained or
lectured, rather than participating in
events

1 find that academic pressure is
sometimes created by loneliness. For some
of our students, Grinnell lS not an “ex-
periment in community" but rather an
experience in isolation, Too many students
build lheir entire world around books, This
is often not out of a choice on their part but
rather out of a lack of personal friends This
sort of loneliness can force students to try to
fulfill all of their personal needs through
their classes,

Another problem that Grinnelliuns have
which creates tension is the automatic
distrust we all often have of each other's
motivations. The administration is not out to
get anyone, the faculty is not out to get
anyone, SGA is not out to get anyone, but
these groups, and individuals within these
gro ps, often do have honest differences of
opi on as to what is best. for Grinnell This
sometimes automatic distrust of each
other's motivation creates at least three
kinds of problems:

llit makes it very difficult to sit down and
calmly and rationally discuss differences of
opinion and arrive at solutions;

2) the distrust of miners motivations
causes some people to give up trying to
make Grinnell better because they decide it
is hopeless;

3) it causes some people to justify
deceitful tactics on their own part, because
they feel the other party cannot be trusted

We need to realize that what we all have in
common is a desire to make Grinnell a
better place to live, work and study, If We
could only establish, and work together on.
some common goals, academic pressure
might become a forgotten issue

I do not believe that there is one simple

reason or any singlc solution to the problem
of academic pressure. As I stated at the
outset, academic pressure always will, and
should, exist at a good college and many of
lhe causes of the present situation come
from outside sources, I do not feel, however,
that this means we should sit back and do
nothing.
i I also realize that I have not offered any
tangible solutions to the problem. in at-
tempting to find solutions, I hope that we do
not totally Concentrate on mechanistic
changes in our grading system, examination
system, academic calendar and so forth,
These mechanistic changes are important,
but we should not lose sight of some of the
attitudinal reasons for feelings of academic
pressure

tudy

academic pressure 5

During the past three months an extensive
study has been undertaken to determine the
perception of academic pressure on this
campus and its effects upon both students and
faculty, Questionnaires probing this situation
were sent to 300 randomlyselected students
and the entire faculty, while Syllabi were
collected for the first-semester courses

The data presented below are based upon a
very high and substantially reliable rate of
return for these major components of the
study: 73 percent of zoo rondomlysclected
students and 75 percent of the total number of
faculty members returned their question
naires, while course syllabi were gathered for
2'06 firstrsemcster courses. or 36 percent of
those offered,

ACADEMIC PRESSURE—GENERAL

in response to the question, “Do you believe
students are justified in complaining about
‘acadcmic pressiire'?” 31.4 percent of the
studcnts and sin percent of the faculty replied
in the affirmative. Both these figures have
risen noticeably since the previous survey in
1973 when only 70percent oi the students and 19
percent of the faculty answered affirmatively
to the same question,

Timing. There was general consensus that
definite periods of increased pressure existed
during the semester. Nearly as percent of the
faculty and 30 percent of the students agreed
that these peaks occurred, and came primarily
at the middle and end of the semester. This was
verified by the fact that the weeks in which the
greatest amount of work was due were im-
mediately before the midrsemester recess and
the end of the term. Twenty percent of all the
quizzes and examinations {exclusive of final
exams) that were given last semester occured
during the eighth week, immediately preceding
the midrSQmCSter recess, and over 17 percent of
all the required papers, projects and lab
reports were due during the last week of
classes.

Sources. In general, subjective student
comments offered at the end of the question
naires indicated that many felt academic
pressure was “self-imposed" by the wide
spread competition for top grades and, in some
cases, by competitiveness among students
trying to out-complain one another. A very
common complaint was that academic
pressure arose from the total combination of a
student's courses, rather than from any one
course in particular. Based upon these comr
merits, this theme was pursued in the faculty
questionnaire and the following results were
obtained: in answer to the question, do you
agree that “academic pressure among
students is mostly self-imposed," 14.9 percent
of the faculty answered “yes;” 49.4 percent
responded “in great part;" 5,7 percent said
“no;” and 29,5) percent felt it was “imposed
equally by students and faculty.”

Following this line of questioning one step
further, the faculty was asked, “Do you believe
that other faculty members subject students to
exccssive work as ignments?" and they

—responded as follow “no”—Z,4 percent: “a

few d0”741l.8 percent, ”several do”724.4
percent; a great number do"——4 9 percent,
and no answer—49.5 percent. Faculty members
who had been here ior at least four years were
relatively split on the issue of whether or not
there had been an increase in academic
pressure over recent years. Fifty—one percent
of the faculty felt there had been an increase in
pressure on students, and 52 percent felt that
they themselves had experienced an increase
in pressures on themselves.

The faculty was also asked if they readjusted
their courses because oi student complaints. in
answer to the question. “Have you found it
necessary to reduce or reschedule assignments
in your courses after the semester has begun
because students have complained about ex-
cessive workloads?" 27 percent of the faculty

The following two pages
with the recent release 0
academic pressure su
conducted earlier
semester—a summary r.
below. Also on these page
two responses to ghe,“
question of academic pres
The response on fhe left-
side of the page is by
Tederman, Dean of Stu
Affairs. The commentar
the opposite side is by
Walker, Dean of the Col

These represent the
dividual feelings of two
ministrators to the exlen
study. Student respo °
directed to an open ioru i
held by the respective de
Tuesday evening at 7:3i
South Lounge.

responded “yes.” Oil the other h
of the faculty responded in t
when asked, “Have you chang.
courses from year to year bei
have complained about excessi

Exanii ions. Siraightfouva
class examinations remain
option with both students and
preference for take-home exam
markedly during the past two
students were almost equally of
preferences for inrclass, hourl
percent) and takerhomes (38,5 p
last survey, however. there wa
change: hourly exams—41.7 per
homes~243 percent. The use
exams, as reported on course sy
declining: 24 percent of the sch
mentioned on the course sylla
homes tcompared with 29 [2‘
ago), and only 15 percent of in”
were takerhomes (compared w
two years ago). More than it
courses offered last seme
examinations at any time during
while an additional 9 percent off
no required final examination,
Reading Assignments. Altho
compiled on the amountof requir
each course. no attempt was
mine its level of difficulty,
There
relationship between the am-u
reading and the student
cumplishmentithe more requir
less the student felt compelled
all.
other Assignments. As was dis
1973 study. students were in
complain about too few writ
assignments than too many, Whi
of the students thought there
balance of written and oral assr
percent felt there were too few a
felt there were too many. Ace
written Comments, it was appar
would have preferred less 1'
with a greater opportunity to de
they were learning. Students dis
course grade based solely on
exam at the end of the semester
more opportunities to cxpres
throughout the entire semester.
Use of Extensions. The numb
needing extensions over the past.
risen dramatically: in 1973 only
the students requested extensio
this study nearly twice as many
However, there is some discr
figure, On the general questio r
students were asked, “Did yg-
extensions on assigned work or
percent responded yes, 34.7 par
and 0,4 percent did not answ
question on the individual c
produced the following results:
the need for an extension during
40,2 percent of the students resp-
59.8 percent said no, whichev
inostaccuratc (and it’s hard t
greatdiscrepancy), it still was
higher than the 1973 figure i?-
Course licquii-oiiiciits us a ti
percent of the student sample f
course requirements did not plac
demand on them. although no .
their courses “appropriatel_
Divisional summaries of these
questions indicate slight variati

Despite the complaints ab-
prcssure. most of the students
complete their course assig
percent completed all requii
semester, compared with

years ago Approximately on
students surveyed felt that lh
reading. exams, and assigume

 

