So should reading period be done away with, or modified? For many students, the cushion of time before exams does allow added digestion of course materials and a well-deserved mental break, while Faculty are able to assign longer, more comprehensive projects bringing together focal points in their courses.

Goodman says reducing term papers to shorter papers distributed throughout the term would reduce the depth of study.

"Writing a long paper you have to get more in-depth," Goodman says. "When it get's down to writing a 25-page paper, you have to really know what's going on or it will show," he says.

For courses designed with heavy workloads, Goodman says reading period is a safety valve that eases academic pressure.

"It would be almost impossible to finish all the work without reading period," says Goodman. "Without it, the work simply wouldn't get done and people would learn less."

Gonzalez also defends reading period, saying it allows students precious moments of repose.

"You have enough time to study once exam period begins, but we all need time to relax," she says.

Reading period also gives students a chance to review a course at length far beyond simple cramming.

Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans notes that many courses hold review session during reading period which allow students to supplement their own study schedules with constructive advice and debate.

"Having taught at institutions that didn't have reading periods, I think [eliminating] it would deprive students of the chance to live with the [course] material," says Charles P. Segal, Klein professor of the Classics. Segal says that without reading period, he would anticipate an increased number of incompletes and unfinished term papers.

"My own sense is that the Faculty do make use of reading period," Segal says. "Maybe the answer would be to prepare students more to deal with the papers."

Segal suggests that professors submit paper topics and possible bibliographic sources to students during the term in order to prepare them in advance for the challenges of reading period.

Conlin echoed Nathans' sentiments, noting that during his undergraduate years, reading period proved crucial for many students.

"It gives students a chance to extend themselves. They can sit back and absorb the courses they're taking not as a series of lectures, but as an integrated whole and start to see their purpose," he says. "It's pretty simple: during reading period you work like mad, play like mad and do a little bit of everything.