Letters to the Editor: Partial lab credit is not warranted

With regard to The Chronicle's Friday, Jan. 30 staff editorial on partial laboratory credits, the statement that lab work "translates to between a doubling and quadrupling of time committed to one course" does not seem to be accurate. It appears that it was calculated purely on the basis of in-class time.

I believe that a fair expectation of the faculty is that students spend a significant amount of time outside class working on course assignments, readings, etc. If students are indeed meeting this expectation, I would doubt that labs double or quadruple time spent on a course. Further, I wonder whether the "uneven playing field" analogy holds up if all the out-of-class time spent by humanities and social science students on readings is taken into account.

Prasad Kasibhatla

Associate Professor, Nicholas School