I Do Not Get It.

As most of you know, I go to school. I am taking classes to earn a degree. These are college classes, yes people college. They are online, which makes it a little easier on my family, because then I do not have to leave a few nights a week.
Here is the thing though, every week we have to post responses in the main forum. We need to post at least 2 post's 4 days a week. I sometimes do not due that. In order for the post's to count though they need to be 150 words or more. This leads me to what I do not get.
I do not understand how they can say that a post needs to be 150 words to be given credit for it, yet they will accept it if it has 150 words, and the stupid little faces in them. WTF is going on? This is college not friggen junior high. Why would that be acceptable? Would you draw a picture on the bottom of a research paper if you actually had to go to classes?
I do not like these little faces anyways, but I do not think that they should be accepted in a college classroom, whether it is online or not.
On a side note in case you were wondering, no I do not use lol or any of that either, and I will tell you all the same thing I told my children. If I am going to laugh out loud, I will ,and I will tell the person if needed, by typing that I am laughing, because usually if I am laughing it is out loud.