Success required

Pen in hand, hand cramping and eyes on wrist watch, students at IU take midterm examinations as they do every October: in sheer frustration. Not frustration at the concepts or at their professors' lack of teaching ability, but frustration at the crowded schedules with which they have to deal at the eight-week mark in the semester. \nWhen professors set up schedules and consider the best way to teach the material they are charged to explain, it admittedly makes sense that the midway-point of the semester be the place for an examination of their students' progress. Each subject is important at IU, and each has its place as a key contributor to higher education. \nThe problem is that of time. Not only are students overloaded during midterm and finals weeks, occasionally they are required to produce many pages and complete many projects between sessions. It's difficult for students to find time to complete course work, and they are therefore required to pick and choose which assignments to complete. This is no new revelation for sure. Students have no doubt been dealing with this problem since IU's inception in 1820. \nHowever, generations have survived the IU experience.\nProfessors, keep pushing your students. Push, and push, and push. If they fall over, they'll get back up. If they don't get back up, they have learned an important life lesson. College is not for everyone.\nThe ball is in the students' court. Complaining about lack of time and problematic professors who don't understand there is other work to be done will get us about as far as running in a hamster wheel. This does not mean students shouldn't be afforded sympathy. Indeed, balancing college classes is a difficult task for any student to some degree. There are manners by which success is garnered, though, even in a hectic environment of essay tests, term papers and quizzes.\nExcuses such as overload and exhaustion are poor reasons for any student to be unprepared for an exam (including overworked columnists that often find themselves more inclined to drinking and dancing than studying John Stuart Mill). As members of an academic community we're required to deal with the strenuous demands of those trusted with our education: an education that costs all students a pretty penny. Obtaining the knowledge held by professors is the students' primary duty on this campus.\nAlso, many professors are more than willing to assist students who are struggling with time constraints and have fallen behind as a result. Given this access to faculty members, students ought to be able to find an avenue of success at IU. \nFailing an examination may be on the horizon for many this week, and rarely is there excuse for that failure, barring extreme emergencies, family, medical or otherwise. Professors strive to prepare their pupils. It is disrespectful of their time and effort to fail an examination. Study and be successful. It is the duty of every student who dares call himself or herself an Indiana Hoosier.