No grades, no pay

It is always frustrating when we stay up all night working on a paper to meet the due date only to chew our nails for two months because our professors are taking their time grading. This can be a mild frustration, but professors’ lateness becomes a lot more than an annoyance when entire semester grades are turned in late. A late semester grade can affect students’ abilities to get their transcripts, which are often needed for job, internship, school transfer and scholarship applications. It can also hinder their ability to receive financial aid and even receive diplomas. As a result, some universities are taking serious measures to combat late grades. \nAccording to an article from Inside Higher Ed, the University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has threatened to delay the paychecks of faculty members who are late in turning in final grades. And Florida State University currently fines the individual colleges in which professors teach with late grades a fee of $10 per late grade. Ten dollars per grade might not sound like much, but when you account for professors with large lectures – some as high as 1,000 students – the tab can get pretty large. “You better get ‘em in or you’re writing me a check for $17,000” Kimberly Barber, the interim registrar at Florida State, reportedly said to the dean of an FSU college with regards to late grades.\nMany professors believe the practice to be unfair because grades are often due as little as three days after the final exam of a term. That doesn’t leave them much time for grading. And we’ve all heard professors note that grading is “no fun!” \nNow please don’t take this the wrong way, professors – we appreciate our education and everything you have done for us – but do your freaking job. Students are so often scolded about the way things are in the “real world” and the importance of meeting deadlines. What kind of example are professors setting when they don’t meet their own deadlines? \nLisa Scully, senior assistant registrar at IU, said a small percentage of grades are submitted late each semester, but it isn’t a huge problem. Scully noted that the number of late grades has declined since professors have had the opportunity to submit their grades online. However, she pointed out that there are no repercussions in place for professors who submit late grades, “besides the inconvenience to students, which we try to emphasize when we call them.”\nWe don’t know exactly what the penalty should be, but we would be in favor of following the examples of FSU and the University of Iowa in setting some type of incentive for professors to be timely. After all, professors are not just here to do conduct research and lecture to 500-student classes. They are also here to help us get internships, scholarships and jobs. And a delayed transcript can literally inhibit us from getting those things.