My students always test my boundaries where there are low costs and no potential penalties for doing so. After all, what do they have to lose by it?

However, I think there is a difference between people asking for a better grade when they don’t bother to do the work, and people who are trying hard asking for extensions or makeups. When I eventually TA (to the extent to which TAs have discretion over these things, and on deadlines they often do in practice at my institution, especially on minor assignments) and if I eventually become a professor, that distinction will probably remain important to me.

Ombudsmen are easy to deal with.

My first experience came during an anti-communist, witch-hunting period, in the late 1950’s.

I was a new assistant professor.

An adult student came to my office at the start of the course to “discuss” his expectations of receiving an “A.”

He opened his briefcase, moved aside the cocked and locked Colt M1911A1 pistol and handed me a piece of stationary for his very own private church.

“This is a completely legal organization,” he said, “the state knows about it.”

On the right side of the letterhead I saw the names of every organization on the government’s subversive list, starting with the American Communist Party.

On the left side of the letterhead he had a list of names of with himself as “Head Priest,” his spouse as “Vestal Virgin,” and a dozen names as “Significant Contributors.”

“I write crank letters to J. Edgar Hoover,” he said, “on a run of letterhead with the names of people who piss me off as my Significant Contributors.”

He smiled, told me it was a pleasure to meet me, and he looked forward to the course.

The student was quite bright and easily finished at the head of the class, but he brought his briefcase to every class, perhaps just in case.

In the real world, you either do the work well and turn it in on time, or you’ll probably flunk out.

Sorry, no appeal, no mercy.

That’s why we call it the real world.

If you don’t flunk out, you lucked out, even though you didn’t deserve it. Somebody screwed up. Don’t count on it ever happening again.

Have a nice day!

Antti

1. I accidentally did the wrong test; please let me re-take it even though you’ve now posted the answer key. (No.)

2. I accidentally forgot to take the final exam; please grade me as though I were not required to have done so. (No.)

3. I have great difficulty writing good research papers because you’re the first instructor I’ve ever had who required me to use the APA citation format. Please give my paper an “A” because of my inexperience with this standard. (No.)

4. I should get an “A” on my research paper because no professor has ever asked me to use good grammar and speling before so i didn’t know that was a requirement. (I don’t think so.)

5. Please give me an “A” on the final exam even though I turned it in to the wrong instructor in the wrong class. (No.)

6. Please submit a grade change card raising my grade from a “D” to an “A” because no instructor has ever given me less than an “A” before in my entire time at this school. I paid my money, I deserve the grade. (I beg your pardon? No.)

The only time I’ve ever granted such a “special request” like this was when I got this one for a quiz turned in half an hour late:

7. Please accept my quiz even though it is submitted half an hour late. The power went out because the Taliban cut off the electricity to the bunker and my unit had to be dispatched to neutralize the enemy. I was able to reconstruct my work, but unfortunately HQ had to file a report of these events first and that ate up most of our bandwidth as the deadline for the quiz was passing. /s/ Sgt. [Student’s name omitted], somewhere near Kabul, Afghanistan.

That last one seemed like a pretty good excuse.

I think the extreme humorous shock stance taken here at the request is too much. Sure, you can say no, but what’s the real problem with accepting late work at a lower credit rate? Maybe for every year late it has to be 20% better to get the same grade ;)

Late, but well done, work in real life, is often far more valuable than on time, adequately but slipshodly done work. In real life you have to maintain your code, you have the potential of second and third and subsequent printings of your book… the endeavors that favor doing it adequately on time are relatively limited.

I agree that the rhetoric in the letter is inappropriate to the situation. Maybe I’ve just been out of academia too long to see the point in the generalized rejection. What would be wrong, in theory, of giving students unlimited time to turn in work, and withholding their grades till it was all turned in? I’m probably missing something terribly obvious.

No, he failed to turn in a paper because he’s less smart.

Well, if you decide that you want the certification of education represented by a university degree, you might just have to play the game by the rules. Otherwise, run wild, run free, you autodidact you!

If you ask Mr. Abe Lincoln, he might tell you that there used to be a place for the self-educated. Today you need an Official Document™.

That kid isn’t less smart because he failed to turn in a paper, or because he was insufficiently humble towards a professor.

Scott Adams certainly exagerates for comic effect, but Dilbert maps much more closely to the real world than most college courses.

Uh, Pink Floyd is a band, not a man.

Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?