Exams May Spoil Election Night

As Election Day nears, many professors have postponed midterms so that students can focus on the presidential race the night of Nov. 2.

But Ec 10—the College’s largest course with 639 students enrolled—will hold its first hourly exam, as planned, on Nov. 3, the day after the election.

Silvia Ardagna, the head TF of Ec 10, said that Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein ’61, who teaches the course, will not change the exam’s date, despite a petition by Ben W. Milder ’08, a student in the class.

As of yesterday evening, Milder’s online petition, which was posted on Wednesday at www.petitiononline.com/ec10exam, had over 100 signatures.

Milder said he set up the petition because students deserve to watch the election returns come in without having to worry about studying.

“Even if we studied in advance, we wouldn’t get enough sleep. Many of us have poured our wallets and our hearts into the campaigns,” Milder said. “From an emotional standpoint, we would not be in the best condition to take a test mere hours after a favored candidate lost.”

Eric S. Lee ’08, who signed the petition, said that a midterm on the day after the election stifles student political participation.

“People always say how young voters just don’t vote, but here at Harvard they do care. But at the same time, these students are facing an annoyance because of a scheduling conflict,” he said.

While Ec 10’s hourly will take place as scheduled, other courses have been more flexible with their exam dates.

Science B-60, “Origins of Knowledge,” had a midterm scheduled for Nov. 3, but professors decided to move it to Friday, Nov. 5, because of the election. There are 95 students enrolled in the course.

“We changed the date so that people could work on or watch the election. I didn’t realize when we made the syllabus that we scheduled it for that day, but it’s not that big of a deal to change the date,” said Morss Professor of Psychology Susan E. Carey, who teaches the class with Berkman Professor of Psychology Elizabeth S. Spelke.

Rudi A. Bonaparte ’05, a student in Science B-60, said that pushing the midterm back makes it easier for him to follow the presidential race the night of the election.

“This change just shows that even in the science department, there’s respect for politics. The professors are not so self-involved,” he said.

This deference to politics also extends to the math department.

Professor Andrew Engelward, who teaches Math 21a, “Multivariable Calculus,” also rescheduled his midterm because of the election. Originally, the exam for the 290-student course was on the night of Nov. 2, but Engelward changed it to Thursday, Nov. 4.

“This is clearly a historic moment as the country chooses which path to pursue for the next four years, and observing as much of this process as possible is very important to a lot of people, both to 21a students and to the teaching staff as well,” he said.

“Imagine if Game 7 of the World Series had fallen on Tuesday and I’d simply told people ‘Don’t worry, you’ll find out the score of the game tomorrow,” he added. “Your watching the game doesn’t make any difference to the outcome.’”

“The result would not have been that I would have persuaded any students that taking math midterms is more important than the Red Sox winning their first World Championship in 86 years,” he said. “Instead I would have just convinced a bunch more students of the false stereotype that mathematicians aren’t connected to the real world in any meaningful way!”