Accommodating students in crisis

[Tenured_Feminist]

Maybe I've just become old, but it certainly seems to me that as our institution has changed over the past few years, we are seeing more students with enormously complicated and convoluted problems that make it hard to develop fair accommodations. It seemed like even disability/illness used to be more straightforward. This year I have seen two cases where student affairs sent notes to instructors at the end of the term saying basically "X has provided documentation to support a claim for excused absences for the equivalent of seven weeks of the term." What are faculty to do with this when it arrives during exam week along with the ghost student?

Equally bad are the non-medical spiraling catastrophes. So and so lost her job and couldn't find another one, so she got evicted. While she was staying with friends, her car was broken into and her laptop was stolen. Then one of her friends ODed.

I want to be supportive and helpful and suggest ways for faculty to manage these cases, but how do you basically make up several weeks' content in a reasonable fashion? Many students who get into these messes refuse to withdraw because of the financial aid implications. Failing them doesn't seem fair, but neither does saying, "oh, just do an extra paper," when other students have struggled to keep on top of things perhaps in only slightly less bad circumstances.

[ohnoes]

My struggle is with the students in crisis who don't disclose.  I'd love to be able to offer whatever support I can - and early enough in the term it's substantial and generous.  Once the term ends, I lose the options of flexibility and creativity - and the 'extra paper' just seems like punishment for everyone.

Right now, I am chasing a student in the hopes that hu might turn in *anything* that will permit recording a grade better than the one that currently exists. 

[aside]

In the worst case of this type I experienced recently, the student and I negotiated an "incomplete" grade for the semester.  She simply was not present enough toward the end of the semester to have a chance at passing the final.  She completed the work over the summer.  To me and our accommodations office, this seemed a "reasonable" accommodation, as long as the student agreed.  She had enough medical documentation of both chronic and acute conditions to merit accommodation in the view of the office.

I agree that these situations have gotten more complicated over the years.  Perhaps students are more comfortable sharing information now and might simply have disappeared before, yet that alone would not seem to account for the increased stickiness.  Expectations and restrictions certainly have changed, as was driven home to me at commencement last year, when an emotional therapy dog was allowed to accompany its owner across the stage.  I've seen seeing-eye dogs do this several times over the years and did not think twice about it because the need and benefit of the owner were more obvious than they were for a small therapy dog being carried across the stage.  The student's need for the dog was judged to be sufficient to warrant the accommodation.  I certainly am not qualified to make such judgements or even hold an opinion about the appropriateness of such accommodations.  My point is simply that things have changed and gotten more complicated.

I also want to be supportive and reasonable in accommodating students facing challenges, yet such challenges do seem to be more and more common and more and more challenging.  Having a thread such as this as place to discuss these issues is a good thing.  Thanks for starting it, TF.

[RatGuy]

Equally bad are the non-medical spiraling catastrophes. So and so lost her job and couldn't find another one, so she got evicted. While she was staying with friends, her car was broken into and her laptop was stolen. Then one of her friends ODed.

At my previous institution, this type of tragedy -- or string of tragedies -- weren't unheard of. I had a student whose boyfriend was shot in a drug deal gone bad. Her aunt was later murdered in retaliation. I often make aware to this students that "hardship withdrawals" exist, though as you point out they rarely go through with that. At my current institution we have "academic bankruptcy," for which a student with a record of good performance can petition in the case of extraordinary non-curricular circumstances.

In regards to OP's comment that institutions are changing, I think that's part an parcel of the new narrative that everyone needs to go to college. Thirty years ago, these spiraling students would have never enrolled in the first place.

[the_geneticist]

It's good that there are now more support systems for students in a crisis.  In the 90s, students would have been expected to "suck it up" or drop out if they had a health crisis/death in the family/homelessness.  I figure my job is to point them towards resources & folks who's job is to help (advisor, dean of students, counseling).  But I can't waive course requirements or excuse students from completing the majority of the work.  I've also helped negotiate an "Incomplete" and a "medical leave of absence" with a plan for how the student would complete the course work at a later date.

[Tenured_Feminist]

I think we need a better way of handling financial aid in these circumstances though. Withdrawing from a course, when it causes a student to drop down below full-time enrollment, can make them liable to repay financial aid. I don't see an easy solution, because obviously you don't want to incentivize signing up for a full load and then withdrawing, but some elements of the system do encourage students to stay in the course and beg their faculty members to accommodate them so they can pass a class where the hole is by any reasonable person's standards too deep.

[Puget]

I do mental health related research and most students know that, so I get to hear about a lot of the crises in my office hours. I'm not a therapist, but I apply basic mental health first aid (listen empathically, express care and concern, reinforce hope, connect with appropriate services), alert the care team as needed, and on occasion walk them over to the counseling center.

I'm fairly generous with giving extensions when a student is in some sort of crisis, so long as they set up a concrete plan with me about how they will catch up (we talk about how breaking down tasks into small steps and having a set schedule for when they will complete each reduces stress and anxiety).

If the crisis strikes at the end of the semester and they've been doing well up to that point they have the option of requesting an incomplete which gives them an extra month to complete the work. If it's earlier in the semester and they are really struggling I suggest they have a conversation with their advisor about whether withdrawing from some of their classes might be best-- they are often taking more than the full time minimum, and they can petition for a medical underload if necessary.

Sometimes they really need to take a medical leave for a semester, but in many cases this might not be the best choice for them-- they can end up isolated at home, feeling lousy about themselves and doubting their ability to succeed, and have a hard time returning. Whereas if they stay with a reduced load and a lot of support they can learn better coping strategies and improve.

[the_geneticist]

I think we need a better way of handling financial aid in these circumstances though. Withdrawing from a course, when it causes a student to drop down below full-time enrollment, can make them liable to repay financial aid. I don't see an easy solution, because obviously you don't want to incentivize signing up for a full load and then withdrawing, but some elements of the system do encourage students to stay in the course and beg their faculty members to accommodate them so they can pass a class where the hole is by any reasonable person's standards too deep.

There are ways to have a student take a leave of absence without hurting their financial aid.  It's tricky, but that's why we have a dean of students to handle these things.

[marshwiggle]

It's good that there are now more support systems for students in a crisis.  In the 90s, students would have been expected to "suck it up" or drop out if they had a health crisis/death in the family/homelessness. I figure my job is to point them towards resources & folks who's job is to help (advisor, dean of students, counseling). But I can't waive course requirements or excuse students from completing the majority of the work.  I've also helped negotiate an "Incomplete" and a "medical leave of absence" with a plan for how the student would complete the course work at a later date.

This is what I have done on occasion because some sort of major life crisis (or crises) will likely affect all of their courses, and so it makes more sense for the response to be coordinated institutionally. A student may not even realize such an option exists.

[spork]

Right now I'm listening to a presentation about the student mental health climate among U.S. undergraduates. In 2016, for the first time, a majority of students entering college described their mental health as below average. Usage of campus mental health counseling increased by 40% with only a 5% increase in enrollment (didn't catch the time period). At my university, about 18% of undergrads now use campus counseling services, and that figure has increased steadily over the last decade.

At my university, 90% of students accessing campus counseling have GPAs above 3.0. I don't know what the average GPA is here or how it might have changed over time, but to me this indicates that the anxiety of many of the students who enroll here is driven by learned helplessness and fear of failure -- something originating in their home environments.

[Tenured_Feminist]

Part of the problem by us is that Student Affairs encourages students to come to them and present their problems. SA then generates a boilerplate letter that basically says, "so and so has presented evidence documenting valid reasons for absence from class on X date and should be permitted to make up missing assignments, exams, etc." and asks the student to contact faculty for accommodations.

I'm dealing with several of these now. In case #1, the letter covered seven weeks of a 14-week term. Case #2 involved a student who turned in one assignment and has been AWOL since and also covered multiple weeks. Case #3, if I've got this right, green-lighted a student who, as far as the faculty member can ascertain, ditched his final to fly cross-country to take advantage of an opportunity that looks to be either a Ponzi scheme or a cult.

[Antiphon1]

I dumped a properly administrative response to this thread. 

It's certainly true that our students face a higher financial threshold than I did.  My first class at a public R1 cost $34.  At the private university, a full 15 hour semester tuition cost $1250.  Room and board was another $600.  So, including books and incidentals a year probably cost about $5000.  Even in early the early eighties, that amount is not undoable with a part time job and working full time during the summer.  Oh, and Fafsa was much more liberally awarded.  It wasn't at all uncommon for students to leave that big name private college little or no debt.  Now?  Not so much.  Even the public R1 is a financial stretch for many families.  A student can't attend a residential community college for much less than $10,000 a year. 

That student who comes to me with a slow rolling disaster is most times a first generation student who has no idea how to navigate the bureaucracy.  And being asked to sign a mortgage for an education at 18 years old?  No wonder the students are stressed.  It's not my job to walk the students through a semester, but I do.  Sending them to Student Affairs creates a record for the college but actually does very little to help the student find a way through the semester gone awry. 

For my part, I am almost always amenable to providing reasonable accommodations.  It costs me very little to exercise a bit of discretion.  Allowing the possibility of salvaging a semester doesn't mean the student gets an A.  It means that person is allowed to complete whatever part of the incomplete work agreed to.  So, yes, I understand the need for flexibility and the need for having standards.  It's about humanity more than anything. There but for the grade of God go I.  How do we want to be treated in a crisis?  This is where we begin modeling how to be an excellent human being.

[Tenured_Feminist]

I agree, Antiphon, and a lot of my students in trouble are first gens with few financial resources and little external support of any kind. I try to help as much as I can and I do exercise my discretion on their behalf. But all the discretion and generosity in the world does not help if a student has missed so much class and so many assignments that catching them up is not a realistic possibility. And I don't think the answer is to increase our faculty's teaching responsibilities, especially our adjuncts.

In case #2 mentioned above, my colleague's student completed one assignment out of many. The student then disappeared. My colleague followed our departmental protocols -- reached out to me and our staff person to alert us around the midpoint. He reached out to the student. We reached out to the student. Crickets. The next thing he heard was his receipt by email of a boilerplate letter from SA after graduation verifying the student's excuse for pretty much the whole second half of the semester. Our own institutional policies forbid assigning an incomplete grade to students who have not completed almost all the coursework, yet this is mentioned in the SA letter, which the student also receives, as an option.

How would I want to be treated in such a circumstance? It's easy to say "with compassion and respect," but I am not sure I interpret this the way some of our students do. This student wants to be permitted to do the course as an independent study with my colleague. We are suggesting a medical withdrawal. I am almost finished dealing with another student who repeatedly demanded that she be permitted to take her final exam in a format and at a time that she chooses (one more than a month after the semester has ended). This is not a disability issue; she just blew off most of the course and thinks that if she gets to set the terms and conditions of the final, she will somehow magically extract a passing grade. She is very, very angry that we have told her no and is looking for some way to entice Student Affairs into helping her achieve the desired end run. I don't doubt at all that she has problems in her life, but I can't see how clearing her path to three more credits of F helps her, nor does it help her to reinforce her belief that she can somehow get through college by doing this. (Again, we have suggested medical withdrawal for the course.)

I don't know the right answer.

[Antiphon1]

There is a huge difference between choosing to do whatever it is this student did instead of coming to class and dealing with a crisis.  This is where Student Affairs comes in handy.  And I, too, wouldn't allow a delayed final just because the student requested the accommodation without a documented disability.  Demanding special treatment doesn't usually end well unless you have a really good reason for that demand.  Wasting your money isn't a good enough reason.  I'd say this is an empathy/sympathy call.  I rarely fell sorry for self sabotage even when I understand the selfish reasons.

This student isn't going to give up easily. 

[Caracal]

There is a huge difference between choosing to do whatever it is this student did instead of coming to class and dealing with a crisis.  This is where Student Affairs comes in handy.  And I, too, wouldn't allow a delayed final just because the student requested the accommodation without a documented disability.  Demanding special treatment doesn't usually end well unless you have a really good reason for that demand.  Wasting your money isn't a good enough reason.  I'd say this is an empathy/sympathy call.  I rarely fell sorry for self sabotage even when I understand the selfish reasons.

Yeah my feeling tends to be that if a student is working with me and staying in touch, I'll try to get them through the class, even if that means accepting some stuff really late. But if you're just gone most of the semester, that isn't really something I can fix. I actually feel quite sorry for some of these students, but classes take place within an artificial timeline. You can't turn back the clock and fix it all at the end.