I teach accounting. My college decided a few years ago to split a 14 week course into two, 7 week courses. I do not approve. I do not get to choose. So. We now have 4 separate courses, where we used to have two.

In the first part of the current semester, there was a strike, and snow, and various and sundry acts of God that made everyone’s head fall off. Consequently the due dates for the two exams, midterm and final, were changed, and I allowed a do over for the midterm because it was seriously a cluster fucking shit show.

Fast forward to the current course. Several students take the first course, and then follow it the seconde 7 weeks with the second course. These are stand alone courses, although the first is prerequisite for the second.

A student in my first course decided to email me her midterm 30 minutes late for the current course. I was in a mood and shot back, “explain to me why I should accept this late?” It clearly states in the syllabus that no late submissions will be accepted. She sent back a long email laying out all the other things she had to do for the 9 days the midterm was open. Obviously, they were all more important than completing this exam on time. I said, nope, not accepting it. She stayed after class and tried to convince me that I should accept it. Again, I said no.

Can we assume that no one has ever told this girl no before?

The next day, I get an email stating that she’s initiating a formal appeal. She’s basing this on what happened in the previous course. Umm, no. I refrained from responding, instead I sent all of it to the Dean. Today, the Assistant Dean got back to me. He said, nope, don’t respond yet, and furthermore, she’s pretty much full of shit. Okay, he didn’t say that, but it’s what he meant.

Meanwhile, this is something I really don’t want to deal with. Geesh!

In other news, Bear got his treatment on Monday, He will be tired for a day or so and then hopefully feeling better by Thursday. I think I’ll make a chocolate cake on Friday.

*Update

I met with the student. She’s determined to take this to the next level since I refuse to “come to a compromise.” I reiterated my position and again pointed out the part of the syllabus that backs me up. She again stated her reasons for being late. I told her that none of that was a valid excuse, that she had failed to plan her time well and that frankly, it was not my problem. She doesn’t see why she can’t get partial credit. I said, no one else has received an exception and actually no one else has asked for partial credit. It was like talking to a wall. I’d bet she’s gotten a trophy for showing up all her life and she just doesn’t know how to process being told no. I’m pretty confident that it won’t go anywhere, the syllabus clearly states that there are no makeups or extensions without extenuating circumstances, which must be communicated to me. Failure to plan is not an extenuating circumstance. I pretty much said it was a waste of time, but if she wanted to do it, go for it. Hopefully she’ll learn something.

The Bear had a day yesterday, this stuff is exhausting. He slept very late today but is feeling pretty darned good today! He’s greatly looking forward to the cake, which will probably be pushed to Saturday since one of my friends is making him whoopie pies for tomorrow. I’ll share the recipe should it be a good one!