Oh Ginnie, you are so naive. Don't ask the students for the address --
they'll give you one. We had one who went to the effort of placing an
obit in a US paper for his "fiance". Got him  admitted back into the
program till his then girlfriend told on him a couple of years later
(his standard form of cheating by the way was to retype the mid-term
exam after it was returned, rewrite his answers more accurately than the
first time and ask for a remark. Worked for years apparently). The U
actually had some backbone and retracted the last two years of his
university grades after he was readmitted on improper grounds.

Now if only he had spent half as much time on studying. But no one ever
said crims were smart.

Sally

Virginia Maurer wrote:

> I like the sympathy card, too. And actually, you wouldn't even have to
> send
> it; you could just ask the student for his father's address so that
> you can
> write him a note in sympathy for the loss of the grandmother. That should
> produce something interesting.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Susan Rogers" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 12:59 PM
> Subject: Re: students missing finals
>
>
> I think the sympathy card is a great idea!  and the payment scheme even
> better, although I'm pretty sure UW wouldn't go for it...
>
>> One problem with student excuses is the difficulty in verifying the
>> veracity of their excuse. &nbsp;I have many students that I trust
>> implicitly and some that I doubt much of what they say. &nbsp;It is a
>> real problem at my school because urgent personal business is a common
>> excuse and my definition of urgent and the student's definition
>> frequently differ. &nbsp;This semester I got a call from a student at
>> 6:00 pm telling me that a roommate had been taken to the emergency room
>> and that my student was planning to be at the hospital all night to be
>> with her roommate. &nbsp;The call was made on the way to the emergency
>> room and was pre-diagnosis. &nbsp;Certainly, hospital stays and deaths
>> in the family need to be accommodated. &nbsp;A problem arises when
>> students come in with a death notice but the last names aren't the same.
>> &nbsp;While it could be legitimate, who knows? &nbsp;In the past I have
>> granted a make-up and sent a sympathy card to their homes with quite
>> interesting phone calls from the parents or guardians a few days later.
>> &nbsp;Since we're trying to train students for the business world, I
>> often think that I would never have said to my boss, when I managed in
>> the banking industry, that I couldn't finish a report, or meet a
>> deadline, because I had an upset stomach and couldn't concentrate.A
>> small school that I taught at in the beginning of my career had an
>> interesting policy. &nbsp;They charged for make-up tests and the money
>> went to the faculty member administering the make-up. &nbsp;Back in the
>> 1970's it was $25.00 and I don't know what it is now, or even if they
>> still have the same policy. &nbsp;I can tell you that once the policy
>> went into effect, there was a lot less illness in Delaware and the death
>> rate of relatives was markedly cut.&nbsp;Michael A. Katz, J.D.Delaware
>> State UniversityDepartment of Accounting and Finance1200 North DuPont
>> HighwayMBNA America Building, Rm 206 DDover, DE 19901(302) 857-6918(302)
>> 857-6924 (fax)&lt;[log in to unmask]&gt;
>
>