I have to offer background before I tell you what happened last night.
I have a policy of no late assignments, no emailed assignments, in my syllabus. I stand by it. I refer to it during the first couple of weeks of class, and I am ruthless in enforcing it. (At least 10 of my 100+ students have tested the policy and the policy has always won.
Well, until last week that is. A student of mine is in a custody battle with her ex, and I only know some of the more awful particulars because my other half works in our small town court system.
Anyway, on the day an assignment was due, the student embroiled in this hearing sent me - via email - her assignment (15% of the semester grade). And it was late by 15 minutes. I wrote her a nice note back reminding her of the policy, and I also wrote something like, "Because of the extraordinary situation you're involved in, I will accept this material at this time, though my own practice is not to."
Now, what happened last night.
From a Yahoo email address I got a note that said this:
"So, you have policies for favored students and other policies for the rest? Hypocrite! We all liked you up until this, but none of us can ever trust you again."
My first thought was, "Who sent this?" Then it was, "How did they know?" And finally, "What do I do now?"
I don't think of the note as threatening, so I'm not about to involve the IT folks to track down the student(s) who sent it. And, the students are right in a sense.
I made a mistake by allowing the late, emailed assignment, but I wouldn't have felt human not doing so.
Q: What would you have done? Is the original policy just no good? Does a weaker policy that allows more case-by-case judgment going to be better or worse? How do I get out of this one?
Sounds as if the student given the lenience told a classmate (or more). That's an issue you can take up with that student, if you want, but it doesn't change the situation you're in. I'd ignore the Yahoo email (especially/particularly because it doesn't contain a greeting or signature to identify the sender), but if you feel compelled to respond, you could say, "If you know the student who was granted a one-time exception so well that you discuss your progress in the class, you can talk with him/her about the particular circumstances that led to the need for this one-time exception."
ReplyDeleteIf you are truly concerned that student evals will slam you at the end of the semester, you can forward this anonymous email to your chair with your explanation of your decision to make an exception.
I've always liked the idea of hard and fast policies, but I find that I'm uncomfortable treating the truly exceptional cases the same as the snowflakey ones. So, from time to time I make exceptions, too. I've never gotten any direct criticism about that, though.
Good luck!
I don't see any problem with your policy, though your student apparently does. Without giving any particulars, explain to the @yahoo student that there are extraordinary circumstances that require exceptions. If any other students get in similar situations, you will grant them leniency also, but until now no other student has qualified. Explain to the student that you cannot divulge the details due to privacy.
ReplyDeleteI recommend engaging the student, even though there is no salutation or name given in the email. Clearly, he or she is in your class. Without addressing the issue, you let the email author form their own unfavorable opinion of you which the author will share with classmates. You need to push back.
holy crap. I agree with Beaker B., but that just sucks.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how hard and fast the policy, I think there are ALWAYS exceptions. I have done similar things, and if anybody told me that giving the student with cancer going through treatment an extension or the ability to turn stuff in via e-mail from the hospital I would have told them to get fucked. Seriously.
I find it very hard to believe that any student who knew the circumstances in which the exception was granted would send such a hateful, stupid email. However, assholes abound.
ReplyDeleteOf course one grants exceptions in serious emergencies. I like all the above suggestions; email the yahoo student as Beaker Ben suggests, and copy that email to your chair, with an explanatory note. If the yahoo responds, and probably viciously given their first email, you can reply firmly that you are not going to discuss the matter further, and don't reply to further emails from that address. (You probably want to save them though.)
As always, Ben is right on the money.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago I transitioned to a new policy, where students could submit an electronic copy on the due date that I would hold as a placeholder until a hard copy could be turned in. The electronic had to match the hard copy exactly, but it helped folks who had court dates, medical emergencies, etc.
Rarely did someone too lazy to come to class use it because there was no real advantage. I never graded an electronic copy, just the real one when it was handed to me.
DK
Your policy is right and you handled it right and your students are silly, stupid, passive-aggressive little shitbags.
ReplyDeleteI'd engage the student, but focus on the anonymous nature of the email, as follows:
ReplyDeleteLet's see, an anonymous email from an anonymous email account, with no reference to anything specific, nor specifically referencing any class. Additionally, seeing as I've never engaged in favouritism, I have no idea what you are talking about, and I cannot say anything specific to you in response.
Generally speaking, however, once in a blue moon there can be truly exceptional circumstances that lead to an exception from the rules, and the nature and circumstance of the exception is none of your business.
P.S. based on the puerile nature of your email, even though I have no idea who you are I'm pretty sure I don't like you either. I feel better knowing there is reciprocity and mutual agreement on the issues.
The quandary you are in is the one everyone is in:
ReplyDelete1) The no late work - no excuses policy which is draconian. There are always mitigating circumstances.
2) The I take late work only for emergencies. Define "emergency." Even worse: "I take late work only in special and unique circumstances." Well each moment is unique and special as are the little dears, so I always take late work.
It seems you cannot win.
I save time and effort by saying I must have all assignments 10 seconds before I hit enter on the final grade. (The last sentence was said sarcastically.)
It's a really shitty situation that you're in.
ReplyDeleteIt's made worse by the fact that, in some ways, it's a no-win situation. The person who wrote that email is almost certainly also the type of person who won't be satisfied with any explanation, no matter how reasonable.
I'm tossing up between Beaker Ben and Prof Poopiehead's solutions.
I think that, on some level, you have to address the issue. I normally don't even respond to anonymous emails, or emails from email accounts that are not listed as the student's official email address, but in this case silence will probably do you more damage than a response, at least in terms of the students' attitudes.
I wouldn't go so far as to insult the writer (so I'd probably avoid Prof Poopiehead's suggested response), but I also wouldn't want to dignify that email with a full, official reply. I'd probably write something like:
Hello,
I assume that you are in my Basketweaving for Seniors class (BASK307), although the anonymous nature of your message makes it difficult to be sure.
I do have strict rules about late assignments, but there are sometimes cases in which extraordinary circumstances lead me to make allowances for certain students. I do this based not on who the student is, but on the nature of the circumstances. There are no "favored students" in my class, and any student whose circumstances fall into this category would be given similar consideration.
While privacy issues prevent me from discussing any particular student's circumstances with other students, I am happy to discuss my policies with students in my office hours, or in class. Any further correspondence on the matter, however, needs to be carried out in an appropriate manner, and not through anonymous and abusive emails. I will not respond again to anonymous messages on the subject.
Back when I was an undergraduate going to a foreign university I got stuck at home (post-Christmas) and missed a deadline for a piece of work by several days. The instructor wouldn't accept in, despite my producing evidence that I couldn't have physically handed it in and having offered to email it. My supervisor had to go to bat for me and got it accepted due to "acts of God" under some bitty regulation.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is I always remember that situation and my old Navy moto of "remain rigidly flexible" when it comes to due dates. Despite what we sometimes think, students don't live in a different world with only the issues they make. You made the right call, and don't let anyone bully you into thinking you didn't.
I have a similar policy with regard to homework, but with something worth 15% of the grade, I accept it late but with a penalty. You might consider doing that next time. So the student in question would have been able to submit it, but late.
ReplyDeleteAs for this particular situation, I would not have accepted the paper via email. I would have asked the student to turn it in properly. And I would tell her that though I usually didn't accept late papers, I would under this circumstance and charge her a late penalty.
Then, I would have emailed the entire class. "Due to one student's extreme extenuating circumstances, I am accepting a paper late with penalty. Because I do not grant privileges to any one student that I would grant to all, you can each turn in your papers late, with a penalty of one grade per calendar day. You may resubmit if you have submitted already--but keep the penalty in mind."
I agree with you FlatlandDan, but that still requires the little dears to convince me that I should cheerfully suffer becuase of their misfortune. I will only do extra work or grade after the fact etc etc if it really is one of those "acts of god" from an otherwise good student.
ReplyDeleteOthers have largely covered it, but these kinds of situations are what caused me to change my "no late work" policy to one where the students lose a certain amount of credit for every day that the assignment is late.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, I've just moved the goalposts: "But, you see, Dr. Nick, my left leg just dropped off on my way to class which in turn forced me to crawl to health services which is why I was late here see this note from my mom." And then we have to talk about why losing a leg is not a valid enough reason for me not to take off 1/3 from the final grade.
However, I have those conversations much, much, much less often--in fact, I can't readily recall the last time I had one of them--since I revised my policy.
To prevent having to play God, I just have standard late penalties, with Darla's "stop the clock" system whereby I will accept, but not grade, an electronic copy and grade an identical hard copy one when I get it, which must be at the first class meeting after the deadline. If a paper comes in late, but within the class period, it goes 1/3 down. After the class period it's 1 grade down per 24-hour period. So that student of yours would have gotten 1/3 of a grade down, which strikes me as a not big deal compared to, say, custody issues.
ReplyDeleteI would say that it was, unfortunately, favoritism if your other half's knowledge about the student's situation colored your decision to take her paper. If you would have accepted the excuse from anyone, it isn't.
tell the complaining student that on the next assignment every student will have a 15 minute extension.
ReplyDeleteMy policy is no late work on minor assignments. Period. If it's something big, each student gets one emergency, I decide whether the circumstances meet my definition of emergency, and then, if they do, I specify exactly how and when the assignment is to be turned in. If it's not turned in then, it's a zero. My college backs me up on this, and I've never had any issue other than a little backlash from some students on my evaluation comments.
ReplyDeleteIf I got a note like that, next class I would show up in my old blue-piped uniform, and begin assembling metal bits into an object. The students would ask questions but I would go on assembling until the RPK was finshed and a round slammed into the chamber.
ReplyDelete"This is not a prop gun," I would say "but an actual Soviet-made RPK machine gun, a derivative of the famous AK-47. Now who wrote that email? Step forward now, or the class gets it."
Hopefully somebody would lunge forward....
Anonymous email deserves no response nor lost sleep. File a copy away just in case, and make an announcement that email must be signed in order to receive a response.
ReplyDeleteI'm really pissed that I didn't think of Strelly's solution first, though.
You're not dealing with a decent, rational, mature human being, so don't even try. Ignore it and forget about it. Don't give the bastard the satisfaction of acknowledging you even read their cowardly anonymous message. No one can prove you didn't hit the "delete" button, or that it didn't get caught in the spam filter.
ReplyDelete@Strel: That won't work on many snowflakes. They've been so shielded from reality by their helicopter parents, they can't recognize a genuinely dangerous situation, don't know enough to run away from one, and above all, simply cannot imagine that the consequences of you pulling the trigger will apply to them. And an act of self-sacrifice is completely alien to them.
I like Defunct's email, and would probably take a similar approach (except that I don't have such policies, because I, too, would end up finding I couldn't fully enforce them. At the moment, I probably lean too far in the other direction).
ReplyDelete@Froderick Grankensien from Fresno
ReplyDeleteI know they lack everything (no class consciousness, Nietschean Will to Power, simple gut courage) which is why I rant online.