It takes an immense amount of time for instructors, department heads, and administrators to create, collect, review, revise, and approve syllabi for every class across the entire institution. New course evaluation and approval takes the above process to the next level with extensive review and changing of hands. Every semester or academic year an instructor or administrator must take time to ensure that all department and institutional policies are present and up‑to‑date.

Here’s a very conservative example:

• If it takes 3 hours in total to create, review, revise, and approve a syllabus (highly conservative),
• Multiply 3 hours by over 4,200 syllabi at the University of Pennsylvania = 12,600 hours.
• 12,600 divided by 60 minutes = 210 hours to create and evaluate 4,200 (still conservative).
• 210 hours divided by a 40 hour work week = 5.25 weeks dedicated to creating and evaluating 4,200 syllabi.
• Multiply the weekly salary ($1,250) of an academic employee that earns $65K annually by 5.25 weeks,

• And the grand (conservative) total for creating and evaluating syllabi at U Penn would cost $6,562.
• The truth is, doubling the creation and evaluation process would present a more accurate total, $13,125.