The end-of-semester grind is well underway for students at St. Thomas University, but what about the group less-considered: professors?
Like students, professors get a bigger work load at the end of the term. Not only are there exams, assignments and papers to grade, but professors have lives outside of academia they need to tend to as well.
Professor Rodger Wilkie said his term follows a perfectly predictable trajectory from beginning to end.
“I start out really relaxed and mellow and as midterm approaches, stress levels rise, because marking starts to pile up,” said Wilkie. “By the end of the term I’m mostly a marking machine and, only secondary to that, a human being.”
He said this time of the year is his absolute busiest time.
Wilkie handles his work load like the students he teaches – lots of coffee and late nights.
“I drink a lot of caffeine, and a lot of late-night marking binges. That’s just part of the life I’ve always known,” said Wilkie.
He said one of the most difficult parts of the term is deadlines. There is a deadline for professors to submit their marks, and this becomes difficult when students haven’t submitted their assignments on time. He understands sometimes extensions are necessary.
After years of teaching Wilkie said he can distance himself from his work and can de-stress by going through walks in the woods and spending time with his family.
Wilkie said after all his marking has been done and his semester is over, he treats himself.
“It might be a particular book I’ve been hankering after, it might be a nice meal with my girlfriend, it might be a number of things, but there’s a reward at the end,” said Wilkie.
He said it’s important to reward your own achievements.
Jamie Gillies, a communications professor at STU, said he’s not really affected by stress, but he has to pay attention to time management when it comes to his end of the year grind.
“We know that students want their marks and grades back to them as quickly as possible and that they are often trying to make decisions about their lives based on completing those classes,” said Gillies.
“At the same time, we are trying to grade three and sometimes four classes and get exams and assignments back to students with the feedback they need.”
Stress doesn’t hit all profs at the end of the semester. For some, it comes at the beginning.
“The first four weeks of the semester, starting at Labour Day and going right through to the first long weekend in October; that is the most stressful time of the term for me,” said religious studies professor Derek Simon.
He finds the rest of the semester enjoyable. He said later in the term students have developed better communication and have a good grasp the course content.
At the end of the year, Simon feels a heavy marking load provides a change from his regular routine and finds it comes at a good time.
“The end of class comes at a good time for everybody,” said Simon. “After 13 weeks, we’ve put in a solid effort. We’re all ready for a change.”
Simon is part of the St. Thomas University Wellness Committee. He encourages professors to take advantage of these resources earlier on in the semester so stress levels can be reduced by the end of the term.
