Initially it was January 2nd. Then January second became January 5th. Now that day has arrived and I am very anxious to see my grades. At the same time, I feel the school has let down the students. We work very hard for our grades so understandably we want to see the results of our studying. To delay the possible release of the grades until January 5th is over the top.
Understand that if a professor hasn’t turned the grades in yet, I am aware they can not post them. If a professor lazily submits grades in February, that’s another critique. In this case, I know two of my four professors were ready to turn in grades two weeks ago, if not sooner. I would really like to see those grades if at all possible, but I can’t because of some bureaucratic reason or another. [Edit: The following sentence is an update.] Our associate dean has sent out two emails telling students not to email or call about grades and reminded us the school was closed for the holidays as if the only thing stopping them was those coldhearts from the University. I can just imagine the dean and staff right now, sledgehammers in hand, trying to bust through the locks so they could get the grades in. The only thing stopping them would be an army of security and campus police force strictly enforcing that nobody touch campus property until the school calendar said so.
What it all comes down to for me is this: We pay $798 per hour. There are roughly 1,000 students attending law school averaging somewhere around 13 hours. That adds to $10,374,000 per semester. So $10,000,000 per semester and they can’t get our grades in ASAP? It’s ridiculous if you think about it. I’m not asking for anyone to work Christmas Eve or Christmas, but I would expect the administrative staff to be able to imput the grades within a week of receiving them. After all, law school is education but it’s still a business. From my understanding, the teachers hadn’t even been given scoring sheets to turn in by January (got an email from a professor). Thus, the expected date moved back. What probably happened was they saw the 2nd fell on a Friday and decided to get in one last weekend.
I’ll probably talk to some of the student organizations and see if we can do anything about this for next Christmas break. I think the grades were up to the professors in the Spring.