We at The Daily Eastern News believe that our administrators and educators should always be examining their processes and making sure that they are productive and purposeful.

Students do not need to be taught in certain ways because that’s what people are used to; we need to be taught and assessed in whatever methods are actually best.

We believe that this criticism extends to the Electronic Writing Portfolio which students at Eastern are required to complete before graduation.

During our time here, the vast majority of students must turn in three essays of at least 750 words, written in English.

“Papers such as lists, outlines, lesson plans, poems, short stories, plays, group assignments, compilation assignments, or written in a foreign language will not be accepted,” according to information on Eastern’s website about these requirements.

Beyond that, explanation of the requirements is sparse; very few students know what they’re allowed to use, and whether the quality of their submission even matters.

Students are told that EWPs are meant to track the progress they make throughout their time at Eastern, and each submission is rated on a scale of one to four.

However, it is unclear to students what impact that rating has.

It doesn’t affect our grades. It doesn’t affect our ability to graduate. If the data is being used by anyone in administration, it seems that even other faculty members are unaware of that work.

The EWP has become a completely arbitrary part of the student experience at Eastern which do nothing at best and cause stress at worst.

Administrators: either clarify the purpose of the EWP or remove it altogether. Stop wasting our time.