Syllabus week does not exist
Syllabus week does not exist—it never has, and it never will. There might be one day of going over the syllabus in each class, but that is usually the extent of review, which I feel the majority of the student body would agree with. While this may be an opinion article, I do have some factual evidence that will be included, so take that as you will, Geneseo...
To start off, I am an education major, which I know can say a lot; people think it is easy to be a childhood education major—you may in fact think that all we do is color. Well, you might not be wrong, as on the first day of classes I made some beautiful, and, I might add, very colorful name tags. We did spend that first class together going over expectations, assignments, and fieldwork hours outside of class; however, all these classes ended with what readings were due for the next class. Therefore, as an education major, I had a dedicated syllabus day.
On the other hand, I am very close with multiple STEM majors, and man, have any of you syllabus-week believers looked over their syllabi? I heard that many of them had work due on the first day of classes, which I personally feel should be illegal. I get stressed even after I know what my professor is looking for; I cannot imagine what stress they have to deal with.
I understand that there cannot be an entire week of looking at syllabi even though some are five to ten pages long, indicating the need for multiple days to review instead of the professor saying that some parts are not a big deal. So, if it is only one day, do not call it a syllabus week! It is just one more expectation for new students that Geneseo does not uphold.
I know that I am not alone in having the opinion that there is no real syllabus week. Who else could have used an entire week to adjust to going to classes, having time to buy books, and figuring out where cheap off-campus food is? Most students moved in about two days prior to the start of classes—where is the adjustment period? Does Geneseo even care about our mental health? I suppose the immediate start of classes after move-in is in inspired by the hope that the student body will feel too overwhelmed to go out to party and get drunk; but that doesn’t work, especially for first-years that actually have an adjustment period and were here four days before the returners.
In summary: syllabus week should be called syllabus day, or rather something along the lines of overwhelming the student body week!