I take Sally's mercy-on-the-poor-sick-saps approach.  Some excuses are
reasonable defenses for why a student could not take a test.  Because my
undergrad classes are HUGE (about 900 or more students per semester - many
attend via the Internet), this approach means that I have to give makeups
every test.  It's just part of my job, I believe.
    Such mercy arms me better, I believe, to argue that I am, in fact, no
ogre when I refuse to extend an unfairly generous break for student pleas
that really are meritless.  (That is one of the points Michael earlier made,
I believe.)
                                      Robert Emerson, in beautiful
Gainesville, Florida


----- Original Message -----
From: "sgunz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: students missing finals


> OK -- apologies in advance if I have completely misunderstood what has
> been said by several people.
>
> Sorry folks but I am incredulous. If you have a student with a medical
> certificate stating the student is incapacitated at that time, and the
> final is worth eg 50 percent of the grade, you won't give them a
> deferred? You give them zero and they fail the course? Am I missing
> something here? You mean some poor sap who has the misfortune of
> succumbing to an illness on the critical date or is run over by a bus
> has their tale of woe compounded by a faculty member who says 'Kid, suck
> it up. Look at the outline. It says no deferred.'   I hope I am
> interpreting this wrong but this sure isn't the way I would like to be
> treated in life -- seems far too harsh and as a fee paying parent, if a
> faculty member did that to my kid and we effectively throw away a course
> and likely (in my program anyway) made them lose a year of schooling, I
> would be furious.
>
> I want my students to sit their exam when they are not impaired by
> illness. I want them to be in a position where they can do the best they
> can -- and if that is they perform badly because they didn't study then
> so be it. But I don't want them to do badly because they were sick. We
> are the ones that say every point of a grade point average is critical
> etc etc. Seems to me we have some responsibility to be fair.
>
> And in case you think my policy (actually, my University policy) makes
> work -- to repeat, if I large class I can expect perhaps one or at most
> two deferred exams. Many years I have none. I don't feel I am being
> exploited and if a dubious (dubious as in med. certificate -- tho' I
> won't challenge a legit doctor) one slips thru' so be it. As I said
> before, those kinds of students invariably do poorly likely because they
> are too busy making excuses and not busy enough studying.
>
> Again -- my apologies if I have misunderstood what is being done.
>
> Sally
>
>
>
> Ginger, Laura wrote:
>
> >This is an easy one for me--I do not let students make up exams ever, for
any reason.  This policy is in my syllabus and I discuss it the first day of
class.  But even my colleagues who permit make up exams for some reasons do
not permit make up exams of the final.  More to your point, no one I know
would let a student make up a final which the student missed merely because
of "writing it down wrong," oversleeping, or other types of student
irresponsibility.  Just say no!
> >Laura Ginger
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From:   Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of
Susan Rogers
> >Sent:   Thu 5/12/2005 9:43 AM
> >To:     [log in to unmask]
> >Cc:
> >Subject:        students missing finals
> >
> >I seem to have an epidemic this year of students missing the final, and
> >wanting to make it up.  In all but one case, the only excuse is: I wrote
> >it down wrong.
> >
> >This means they didn't read the syllabus very carefully, missed several
> >in-class announcements, didn't double check the official schedule etc.
> >
> >I'm just wondering what others do in this situation.  One of my
colleagues
> >said she refused to give the student a make-up, but that student was
> >flunking the class anyway.
> >
> >I have to say, I'm getting a bit fed-up with their level of
irresponsibility!
> >
> >
> >
>