Kanchi Uttamchandani | Assistant News Editor
Featured illustration by Cedric Wong
Although York takes pride in being a global university with over 6,000 international students, it remains insensitive to their unique needs. We select courses in June, but it’s a fair bet that the first snow of the year will arrive before the final exam schedule. For some students, York’s tardiness can mean being unable to return home or having to pay a pretty penny to do so.
This is on top of the already-ridiculous fees international students cough up.
Yes, I know that professors warn students at the beginning of the year against booking flights during the official exam period and that I shouldn’t have done that. I realize that strict exam guidelines are meant to prevent students taking advantage of the system. But I don’t see why York can’t release schedules in advance.
International students like myself face a double whammy as we scramble to arrange our flights—often booked months in advance to avoid holiday season price inflation—and pray to heaven that our exam schedule doesn’t clash with them. Imagine my dismay when the most dreaded of scenarios came to pass.
One fine afternoon last week, with a tap of the “Enter” button on their computer, a nameless administrator in the Faculty of Health condemned me to weeks of anxiety and one particularly hellish night of negotiating on the phone with my airline to postpone my flight.
York, riddle me this: why do you release exam schedules this late? Not to put too fine of a point on it, but it’s ridiculous having to choose between writing exams and seeing family. Lest anyone accuse me of being unprepared, know that I booked my ticket all the way back in August, but the exam schedule threw a spanner in the works.
Besides the recognized reasons of illness, disability and religious grounds, students are unable to sit out for exams for other reasons. But how do students in unique situations secure accommodations? The prospect of having to deal with the bureaucracy of faculty, advisors and academic petitions is too daunting for most of us.
To fix this, York must create a consistent and accessible way for students facing exam conflicts to voice their concerns. Students should not be discouraged or held back just because their reasons do not align with the established guidelines for negotiating an alternative exam schedule.
And I’m not the only one. Speaking with my friends and peers in other faculties, I get the sense that York’s regulations are not uniform and there seems to be no consensus among faculties about exam-writing rules. We need a system that works for all students: one that is flexible, standardized and accommodates students’ needs.
Whoever said “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” was definitely not referring to York.
So, fix it, York.
