And TJ Swan, t-Bird, Yago…and of course, Mad Dog. Damn, I can’t believe we drank that shit.
Regards,
Shodan
One of the labs I’m responsible for is the audio production lab. Most of the time, students must schedule an appointment with me so I can be there to help. I’m supposed to help one student put together an aircheck tape. He contacted his advisor (who happens to be my boss), who contacted me about setting up a time. The student must take the initiative to contact me, and this one hasn’t. I guess he doesn’t need the aircheck as much anymore.
I just don’t have the time or inclination to chase after students who desperately need my help but don’t follow through.
Robin
I worked at a temp agency while I was in college. I wasn’t a temp. I was the guy who interviewed, hired, pestered the folks to go to work, etc. I suspect all of those bad liars ended up working there. We recorded each excuse in there file, did they think we were stupid? There were at least 3 people who had more than 2 grandmothers die.
Some pople do have more than 2 grandmothers. It’s one indirect consequense of “your, mine and our kids” families.
I thought of a good story to balance some of your bad ones, ACC. Way back when when I was in first year English, I missed the final exam because I got the time wrong - the exam was in the morning, and I showed up in the afternoon, ready to go. My instructor had no obligation whatsoever to help me with MY problem of missing the final, but she let me write the exam in her office while she graded other papers, etc. I think she did that because I had shown up to every class, read the required books, participated in class, and handed in my assignments on time up to that point.
To this day, I still think fondly of her. I learned a very valuable lesson that day - try not to screw up, and if you do, act decently before then so that people might help you when you need it. I got an excellent grade in that course, by the way. 
Why do you hate America?
I do not quite see the problem. When I went to university the lecturers would give clear instructions of everything and give timelines. For example -1st paper due in 4 weeks on the 26th of March worth 15% of final grade. For every day late in giving in the paper there will be a 10% reduction in the marks given on that paper. If you have a major genuine issue come up please bring documentation as soon as possible to your tutor.
No excuses for missing any test or exam. But for missing tests only, an extra paper can be attempted to make up for the test.
When everything was explained in a clear way(obviously much better than I am explaining here) there is no room for students making up lies to gain anything.
(my emphasis)
Wow. Didn’t think I’d be seeing “It’s Dubya’s fault!” posts in this thread. That was entirely surprising and refreshing.
Yes, and my son has three. However, most of the time, it’s one hell of a coincidence that they all die right around when the student has major projects/papers/exams due. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but it’s not likely.
Robin
Yep, people are shit. A long ago ex-coworker once called off of work using the excuse that her mother had died when in fact she hadn’t! Another guy was the butt of a running joke because of his frequent call-offs due to an amazing run of family crises (sister had a miscarriage, bro-in-law in a car accident, father-in-law having chest pains, mother had a stroke, wife having baby multiple times, etc.). We even had a betting pool going about which family member was going to be struck down next! And you gotta love the people who call off sick but manage to make it in to pick up their paychecks (not looking the least bit sick)!
(emphasis mine, this time)
Wow. Didn’t think I’d be seeing “It’s Clinton’s fault!” posts in this thread. That was entirely surprising and refreshing.
I never understood those situations. I think I’ve asked for a rescheduled exam only once – I had pneumonia and couldn’t get up.
However, If I can’t miss two or three weeks out of a sixteen week semester class and still get a good grade, not because I fell behind, but because you have “valuable assignments” that have to be “completed on time, for credit”, you’re not worth my fucking time as an educator. I’ll do better in the library. I realize that any exam given off-schedule would have to be different from the others, so if possible I will try to withdraw from the class or take my chances. However, if possible, I will ask for an earlier exam, not a later one. If you cannot possibly accommodate that because you can’t spare the four hours it takes to write an exam, I’ll probably do better in the library as well.
Finally, if I have a medical problem, and you ask for documentation, I will bring you documentation. If I have jury duty, and you ask for documentation, i will bring you documentation. If I have death in the immediate family, and you ask for documentation, you are very liable to have it delivered in a very colorful, very graphic 4’x3’ collage poster super glued to your door. (depicting such useful evidence as funeral and autopsy pictures)
I’m glad I got my degree and I’m taking a short break from school for now,
Groman
P.S. This pitting reminded me of a psychology professor I had who claimed to accommodate any reasonable excuse for missing an exam. “Crash your car? Come in as soon as possible, and we’ll give you the exam. Sick? Get better, come in, we’ll give you the exam. Jail? Call me, I have connections with department of corrections, I will come and proctor the exam in jail.” I asked him if anybody ever took him up on his offer, seeing as how he taught giant lecture rooms of 150-200 people. He admitted that it only happened twice, but both times the students manged to pass the class from jail. 
Actually, if you miss three weeks’ worth of classes (out of 15) in my course, you’ll probably fail even if you complete all your assignments on time. And the reason for this is precisely because a university education is about more than going to the library and reading the books.
If you’re at all interested in the extended rationale behind my position, you can find it this rather long thread, where we hashed out the issue a couple of years ago.
If you can’t be bothered to show up to class or do your assignments on time, what makes you think you’re worth the instructor’s time as a student?
Marc
For even more on the endless conflict, try this. Scroll down to the “Chuff Charlie” response in particular.
First off, if you miss three weeks in my class, that’s generally two entire books, plus secondary literature, so, congratulations, you will be behind. Furthermore, I have had students come to me after missing EIGHT WEEKS of a fourteen week semester and expect me to act like everything will be fine. I have had students miss FOUR WEEKS of a six week summer course and threaten to appeal their failing grade.
As for the work, why in the blue hell should I let you, or any other student dicker around for three weeks and then turn in work off-schedule? It’s courteous to turn your work in on time because college instructors (at least ones like me who are either ABD or pre-tenure) have a ton of things to do and we block out time for grading. As I tell my students: turn in your work on time so that I can grade it during the time I have scheduled for grading, and you’ll have it back in less than a week. Turn it in late, so that I receive it during a time I have blocked off for articles, chapter reviews or university service work, and your assignment will not even be looked at until all that other work is done. Also, why should I reward you with full credit for making my life harder?
ETA: If you turn in work late because your absence is excused, I will make an effort to grade it as quickly as possible. The above applies to people who just don’t see the need to turn their work in on time.
This was the first hard lesson I learned about teaching: an instructor who is not a stickler for deadlines and “rewards” late work by not assessing severe penalties or by handing it back quickly will be grading work all semester.
In addition to the courtesy issue, at least in my class, these assignments build on each other. I require a 20-25 page research paper from students in my advanced seminars, and I make them turn in various components (statement, preliminary bibliography, etc.). These assignments ARE valuable, because the percentage of students who know how to write a paper that is at the level of polish and originality I demand is miniscule. However, I can teach them, and that is one of the points of the whole course. Students who don’t turn these assignments in on time are unprepared to write the larger paper and generally sabotage themselves in my course.
Are you aware of how hard it is to write a decent exam? Are you aware that any decent instructor will write multiple drafts of an exam and have to have people read it to check the questions for clarity? It takes far longer than four hours. I don’t give them most of the time because the material I teach is not conducive to exams, but it would take a lot of time for me to write two good exams.
The entire fucking point of my Pit post is that at some level I wouldn’t blame you for sticking it on the door (but I’ll fail your ass if you glue it to any of my funny cartoons or frontispieces) because it is horrible to have to ask for documentation for something like that and I really fucking hate doing it.
If I gave you the address of one of the many lying liars who necessitate all your instructors asking for documentation, would you go slide the autopsy photos under their door instead?
Right, but should that not be their choice? One size does not fit all, even in a large class. Can I ask you what you do in case somebody simply submits the entire paper on deadline at the end, without having done any of the interim assignments? I’ve had a class like that, and that’s what I did, and even though my grade on tests and the paper was in the 95% range I still got a C- in the class because *the interim parts of the paper were 20% of the semester grade. * It wasn’t a composition class, and requiring me to adapt to the professor’s particular sequence/timing in case I didn’t know how to write a research paper, but didn’t know it myself is fucking unbelievably insulting. Now I don’t know what you teach (You mentioned being a composition tutor) and if it’s advanced writing or composition, then that sort of thing is correct. If you’re teaching classics, on the other hand, I’d much rather take the risk of writing a bad paper and getting a bad grade than writing a good paper but getting a bad grade because I didn’t jump through all the hoops in all the right order.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually agree with your pit. People should not lie about serious subject matter because it makes things bad for everybody. I am a tad touchy about the subject because my brother died three months ago, and since this happened in Russia, and I’m in California, I wouldn’t be able to produce any documentation if I needed it, anyway. However, I’m out of school and this was not an issue at work. I’m also a little spoiled by my work, I suppose, where we don’t even keep track of sick days or single day absences for personal time. I understand where you’re coming from and I was always horrified when I saw professors forgo their raison d’etre just to babysit people who don’t care anyway.
This is what made my university so truly horrible, and I don’t know if this is true elsewhere. Everybody had to take something like 12-15 general education courses, which is fine. 85% of the time in each one of them was devoted to the “You guys don’t know how to write papers, so I’m going to teach you, whether you want to or not” principle. Sure, most of the people in those classes didn’t know how to write papers, but it’s not because nobody taught them! If I’m sitting through a year of “United States History”, even if it’s general education, I expect academic college-level content. I don’t want to hear anything about bibliographies other then the words “APA” or “MLA”. I don’t want three class sessions devoted to field trips to the library where we learn how to use Infotrac, for the bazillionth time. I don’t want an hour long lecture explaining the difference between a peer reviewed journal and a letter to the editor section of the Weekly World News. I don’t want to hear the words “We were going to expand more on the Vietnam War, but after talking to a few of you I decided to devote one more class period to final review instead.” The lines between middle school and college are getting more and more blurry. Someday I am going to go to graduate school, and I hope to do so before this sort of babysitting ruins the very concept.
I agree with this. The purpose of going to school is so that you can prove to your teacher that you know the material. If you know the material, and you can prove it, you should pass.
So if your boss wants a portion of a project (like a budget or estimate) finished before the deadline for the whole thing, you should blow it off?