With less than a month left of classes, more students will soon be found sitting on the grass with their friends than at a desk doing work.
Although the warm temperatures have disappeared despite the calendar saying it’s spring, students still said their academic motivation is dwindling each day. While some students stayed productive through the winter months, others became procrastinators and have some catching up to do.
Marketing major Ely Lester said, as a senior, he’s been slacking off a lot more than in the past three years.
“I only take three classes this semester, allowing me to have much more free time,” said Lester. “This free time doesn’t always lead to me getting work done: It usually involves relaxing or hanging out with friends more than school work, which I should be doing instead.”
For junior Emily Rosman, though, free time is spent working on long-term assignments. Rosman said until this semester, she didn’t have a specific method of prioritizing semester-long work.
“I used to get so weighed down during spring semester that I couldn’t enjoy the nice weather or focus on my extracurriculars,” said Rosman. “Starting this semester, I made a list of all of my long-term assignments and saved it to my desktop so I could remind myself to get started on them every day.”
Freshman political science major Brendan Thompson said his work ethic has changed since the weather’s become warmer.
“I usually get off to a good start in the semester, however, I started to slack off after spring break,” said Thompson. “This has led to a bit of cramming in April.”
Lester will be cramming, too, as he said he still has two research papers to complete before he graduates.
Students said it’s important to be productive throughout the semester, but it’s worth putting in some extra work in the beginning so there’s more time to relax in the spring.
“No one wants to be worried about a 10-page paper during Spring Weekend,” said Rosman, a French and journalism and mass communication double major. “Personally, I’d rather suck it up and do the long-term work while it’s cold outside and relax while the weather is warming up.”
Thompson agreed and said working hard from the start of a semester will make campus life easier.
“I think it’s more important to start off well, so you don’t fall behind in your classes,” said Thompson. “It will make it easier to study for finals without the pressure of having to do really well to get a good grade in the class.”
The brutal Bonaventure winters are the ideal time to get ahead on work, because once the grass starts showing, the books disappear.
“The nicer the weather gets, the less motivated I am to be in class,” said Rosman.
