I am firm believer that college is a proving ground for the rest of your life. I tell students that once they leave these ivory towers, bosses and clients tend to be lot less understanding of why you couldn't get your presentations done on time. You can always retake a failed class. A pink slip, on the other hand, is a different story altogether.
To reinforce this believe, I do not accept late papers under any circumstances. On the surface, this policy may seem harsh, especially given that most of my classes are of the introductory variety. But I balance this by giving my students options. I accept papers via email. I accept papers early. And I do my best to give students the assignment information as close the the first day of class as I can manage. For most students, this policy is not a problem.
Regardless of my best laid plans, real life has a funny way of rearing its head. Printers fail. Hard drives crash. People get sick and relatives die. Things come up, and these types of unexpected events are the reasons why I post assignments early, preach against procrastination and remind my students often--both in class and online--of impending due dates and deadlines. And while I don't tell my students this, they're also why I will accept late papers in the most extreme of circumstances when I deem an excuse to be valid. However, if there's one thing I've learned in my brief "non-tenure" of teaching, it's that my students and I often have wildly divergent ideas on what is and what is not a valid excuse for missing a deadline.
My general rule is one of "totality of circumstances" when deciding whether to accept a paper late. I'll consider all extenuating factors involved before making my decision. And these rare exceptions always--always--require some sort of documentation. In some cases, requiring documentation works to the student's advantage. In others, it helps me weed out the legitimate excuses from the sketchy attempts to work the system.
Sometimes the most valiant efforts to substantiate a sketchy excuse backfire in spectacular fashion. The best example of this came from a student I had in class about four years ago and a garden-variety research paper, topic to be chosen by the student. On the morning the paper was due, I received several emails from students, all outlining their excuses and begging for clemency. All but one received my standard reply of "no" with a reiteration of my assignment policy.
This email was short and hastily written, with a time-stamp of 3:00 a.m. This particular student was up late working on the aforementioned paper. During a break, he and his roommate got in a fight. After a harsh shove from his roommate, my student had a close encounter with his desk and knocked out his front tooth. He had penned the email while waiting for the ambulance to show up.
The Cliff's Notes version of this story is that he didn't finish the paper because he was in the emergency room for the remainder of the night. And before you think me cruel and heartless, in most circumstances, being the victim of an assault and battery that results in an emergency room visit is enough to trump even my "no late papers under any circumstances" rule.
This was not one of those circumstances.
A fight and an ambulance ride are easy to verify, and even the most oblivious of students aren't likely to lie about easily-verified facts. So I sent a quick reply telling him to bring me documentation and copy of his completed paper when he returned to class and I would consider accepting it late. Had this student brought me a receipt from his ER visit, I probably would have accepted his paper and sent him on his way with a stern warning about procrastination. But this particular student decided to cover all his bases. Unfortunately, in doing so he crossed that invisible line between "just enough proof" and "way too much."
Wanting to show that wasn't making up the incident, he sent me a follow up email further explaining his sitation. This is where the wheels came off the wagon. Strike one was his admission that he had started the paper that night, despite the fact the paper had been assigned nearly four weeks prior. Strike two--his detailed explanation of the fight, which was less of an assault and more an attempt at Monday Night Raw, the Home Game. But the final nails in the coffin containing this excuse were the two pictures attached to the email. This first was a close up of the bloody tooth. The second was a wider shot of said student, pointing to both the bloody hole where the tooth had once been and the offending desk. This creative, albeit gruesome, documentation was meant to save him. Unfortunately it would have been much more effective had he moved the empty bottle of Jagermeister and collection of shot glasses off the desk before he had posed for the picture.
Game...set...match.
This student learned a powerful lesson that day--one you can't find in a textbook. Documentation isn't always your friend, and a good story for the frat house is not necessarily a good story for the professor. Totality of circumstances can work both ways.
Did I accept his paper late, you ask?
What do you think?
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