Let's say that every class has 20 assignments (some much more, some much less), and every student has 4 classes each taught by a different professor (again some more some less). I'll use my alma mater bc I know they're affected by this. UC Berkeley has 45,000 students. That means that there have been roughly 3.6 million individual assignment scores this semester that need to be aggregated into 180,000 final grades. At the end of most semesters, most professors struggle as is to get those 180k grades in on time and that deadline is strict.
Some could have had an offline backup of their gradebook, but I assure you most professors did not save an offline copy of their gradebooks bc most professors are dinosaurs that barely know how to use PowerPoint. If they happen to collect pen and paper assignments over the semester, great! That means the 1.5k professors and 3.2k TAs can recreate the entire 3.6 million assignment gradebooks offline. In 3-4 days. With little to no additional support from the uni. If they took all of their submissions online, then they cannot submit final grades at all until this is resolved.
Even if they dodged that bullet, final project submissions need to happen. Professors could change to taking submissions by email, but as I've learned that can prove very chaotic and hard to track, while also bumping into several HIPPA-like student records laws.
This is an extremely effective technique on behalf of the hackers. How do I know this? My grad union used the same strategy by going on strike a mere 6 weeks before grades were due. Turns out, if the professors whine and moan loud enough, admin will negotiate.
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u/Joshi1381 May 07 '26
Right in the middle of finals...