We have reached the last week of classes. Finals are upon us, which is synonymous with saying that coffee brewers located anywhere near a college campus will rake in a large portion of the year’s profits, and hundreds of sleep-deprived students will be wandering across the Central Mall in a zombie-like daze.

Marquette’s current academic policy states final exams are to be administered during the period designated for those exams in the published exam schedule, which appears on CheckMarq at the beginning of every semester. This policy is in place to ease the undue burden earlier finals place on students, causing them to neglect other subjects, and to keep professors from teaching fewer instructional hours in class than required by standards.

But in the experience of this editorial board – and in the experience of our friends and classmates – such a policy is not strictly adhered to. Across colleges and majors, professors have found ways to evade this policy’s restrictions and assign major assignments or tests prior to exam week. If it is not explicitly an exam, it is perhaps an essay, a project or a quiz that replaces or is equivalent to a final exam.

At this point in the semester, it is not uncommon for students to need to miss classes just to complete work for another class.

Part of the responsibility for work not getting done lies with the student who may have procrastinated. However, part of the problem lies in the fact courses have not always progressed to a point where students are able to do these papers and projects any earlier.

And of course, there is the problem of simply not having enough time to do high-quality work for every class’s projects and papers while continuing to have a job, be involved in leadership activities and volunteer in the Milwaukee area, and cultivate friendships and community on campus — part of what makes Marquette so special in the first place.

Many other universities – including Northwestern University and Notre Dame University – provide students with a “dead week” or “reading week.” This is a week, or a few days, during which students have no classes or exams and can focus entirely on studying for their finals.

If final exams were not such a big part of a student’s grade, this matter would be less relevant, but final exams are often worth 30 percent of a student’s grade, or more. As such, they require an ample amount of time to adequately prepare, especially since cumulative exams cover approximately 45 hours worth of instruction.

Considering the cost of each course at Marquette, the difficulty of fulfilling all course requirements in four years and the limited eight-semester longevity of most university scholarships, most students simply cannot afford to not pass a class due to a poor final exam grade.

We would like to propose not a dead week — a week of no classes does seem a bit excessive — but dead days separating the end of classes and beginning of exams. Our suggestion is to not have any scheduled classes on the Thursday and Friday before exams. Following the model of other schools, professors would not be able to have any papers or projects due during “dead days,” and student organizations would not be allowed to meet, giving the entire campus two days to prepare for their cumulative exams.

We realize the administration may be concerned with students not using this time well and spending two days partying instead of effectively preparing themselves for their exams. This concern is understandable. But those students who are going to waste that time drinking would likely use the weekend before exams in the same way.

We think the majority of students would use the extra time well. The Raynor Memorial Libraries and other study spots on campus have become busier than ever during the past two weeks, packed with students working on end-of-semester assignments. From past experience, we can expect these places will only continue to get busier.

Two dead days would help keep everyone’s level of stress reduced and ensure students have the chance to get enough sleep to stay healthy before exams. It would encourage actual learning of material and not just memorization.

And most importantly, having those extra days at the semester’s end would ensure students feel adequately prepared for their exams and have a more wholesome educational experience at Marquette each semester — the reason we’re here to begin with.