Giving Grades

Giving grades in this place is an absolutely unbelievable experience. Any procedure or rule or policy you ever had at whatever university you went to would be broken here. There is absolutely nothing consistent or normal or morally right about giving or receiving grades at the University of Prishtina. I actually felt bad for being fair, if that's possible. And after pissing off a few students and having to say NO more times than anyone should be asked to, a few of them took me out for a coffee to thank me for a great semester. Does this make any sense at all?!

Normal to me - Classes end on a given date. For the following week students take final exams for all classes with one or two exams each day. Exam schedule of dates and times are determined by the administration and recognized institution-wide.
Normal for the University of Prishtina - Teachers stop giving lectures on a given date. The next month is reserved for final exams. Dates and time of exams are determined by consensus of teacher and students during the last lecture of the semester. Location often has to be determined at exam time depending on room availability.

Normal to me - Final grades are determined by calculating criteria set at the beginning of the semester by the professor, often including attendance, homework, projects and tests and the final exam being an additional percentage of the total grade.
Normal for the University of Prishtina - The above is true with an added percentage seemingly considered for how hard the student pleads or how good the student's sob story is for why they need or deserve a higher grade. "I live in Skopje (a town 90 minutes away that is in another country) and it was too hard for me to get here for the lectures." Or literally 10 minutes of a student staring at you saying, "This C isn't good enough, I need a B. You'll be nice and give me that, right?"

Normal to me - a low passing grade is better than an incomplete.
Normal to the University of Prishtina - A student would rather have no grade for a class than receive a C. This way, they can come back the next semester, take the exam again and hopefully earn a higher grade.
(to be explained further down . . .)

Normal to me - Transcripts
Normal to the University of Prishtina - Indexes which are small blue books that look like passports with pages on which professors write final grades and give signatures. One signature is given for the fact that the student actually sat for the class and another is given for the final grade.

Normal to me - The final exam is given once at the end of the semester with a grade and credit given and placed permanently on the student's transcript before the next semester begins.
Normal to the University of Prishtina - If a professor determines that a student earned a C based on grading criteria, the student can choose to pass on that grade, as stated above, and take a final exam for the same course at the end of the next semester. The student then has the right to take the second exam grade as their final grade for the course if it is higher than the grade determined the previous semester. Yes, the professor is obligated to offer the exam the next semester even if he/she did not teach the course during the second semester.

Normal to me - It is not possible for a professor to give you a grade for a course that overrides a lower grade given by another professor for the same course in an earlier semester.
Normal to the University of Prishtina - After sitting and participating in a course and earning an A, a student can go to the professor and ask him/her to record the A, allowing the student to cross out the B a different professor gave for the same course during a previous semester.

Normal for me - You must actually receive a grade/credit in order to pass from one level of a course to the next.
Normal for the University of Prishtina - As long as you receive the signature stating you sat for the class you can progress to the next level. The signature for the final grade can be acquired at a later date.

I'm still trying to make sense of it all. Even though I will most likely never teach a class there again, I know I have not heard the last of the University of Prishtina. You can guarantee that come April when the next semester ends, I will have students stopping me in the street asking me to sign their index or give them another final exam so they can get the credit for a course they never even took. Makes the New York school system look like they've got their shit together!

The end of 2006

It was the last sunset of 2006 and I was in Tel Aviv, Israel. "Don't ride the buses," and "Are you Jewish," were most of the responses I got when I told people I was going to spend the New Year in the always conflicted Holy Land. I had been to Jerusalem over 10 years ago on my abroad trip through St. Olaf. An old city where the three converging religions all have an obvious historical presence. From the wailing wall to the moaning mosks and sacred churches marking the steps of Jesus Christ, Jerusalem holds a story for three faiths with a history of disagreement and violence. Tel Aviv, on the other hand, represents the Israel of today with its modern buildings, buses and stores.

Then it was off to Bansko, Bulgaria for a ski weekend with 4 other friends. Along with Romania, Bulgaria has been a member of the EU now for 11 days! Quite the exciting event for all of them and it showed. Crossing the boarder, the blue EU banner with yellow stars - didn't actually count to see if 2 new stars were depicted - were waving everywhere. The signs of communism were still apparent, especially with the 6000 Russian touring skiers being bussed in. But the freshness of a new beginning with the EU could be felt.

And now it's Kosovo's turn . . . or so think some. The status of this place that was supposed to be determined by the end of 2006 has been postponed until after elections to be held in Serbia this month. And then there are proposals, presentations, votes and more talks that have to happen. The native Albanians are getting restless and I can't blame them. I knew politics was always a bunch of rhetoric, but now I'm having beers with some of those doing the talking and realizing that it is literally all talk and diplomacy. As long as you sound good saying what everyone wants to hear, your actual actions aren't all that important. The native Serbians, on the other hand, are beginning to admit defeat. There are so few of them and this problem has been going on for so long that you'd think those left would just say, "here, take it. we'll just move to Serbia." More difficult things have been done. But for some reason it's not that easy. The history of claiming an area as belonging to an ethnic group - that's the Balkans, and it won't change easily.

2006 brought the change I needed. Let's hope it brings to Kosovo the change these people need.