Letter to the editor: Appropriate credit

To the Editor: The comments of Melody Joy Kramer ("Orgo lab gets the shaft," DP, 10/12/05) raise an important point. The observation made is that students taking Chemistry 245 put in a total of 18 hours per week for one credit unit - nine hours in class/lab and nine hours on "homework." My sources tell me that some of the same students quoted by Ms. Kramer would spend 15 hours doing homework in a week for some English courses - resulting also in 18 hours total. As a faculty member at Penn for more than three decades, I have never had a discussion in our department or otherwise about the amount of homework that is attached to one credit unit. Considering the cost of education, 18 hours a week for one credit is a good deal. It means about 72-90 hours per week for 4-5 credits. There are 168 hours per week. If the student sleeps eight hours per day, it still leaves 22-40 hours for eating, fornicating etc. Departments with courses that do not require as much effort as Chemistry 245 are shortchanging the student.

Ponzy Lu The author is a professor of Chemistry

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