Accommodated students abusing their status

[AJ_Katz]

Accommodations are not retroactive. There is no obligation to accommodate students for work due before they got their accommodations approved.

I think so too. That student keeps asking me and I just told him that I am waiting for somebody to reply for the next step. If I just say no, there is a chance that he will also complain and I will again waste hours with administrators.

Is meeting deadlines critical to achieving one of the learning outcomes?  It seems like you should be able to work with the student to identify a new set of deadlines that you both agree upon and write it up as a new contract between you two for the course.  Yes, learning to meet deadlines is an important skill that students should learn in college, but maybe it's not worth sacrificing your happiness at work.  Especially if learning to meet a deadline is not one of the learning outcomes for the course.  It seems to me that if the student is able to meet the learning objectives for your course, perhaps the amount of time it takes them does not matter.

[downer]

s meeting deadlines critical to achieving one of the learning outcomes?  It seems like you should be able to work with the student to identify a new set of deadlines that you both agree upon and write it up as a new contract between you two for the course.  Yes, learning to meet deadlines is an important skill that students should learn in college, but maybe it's not worth sacrificing your happiness at work.  Especially if learning to meet a deadline is not one of the learning outcomes for the course.  It seems to me that if the student is able to meet the learning objectives for your course, perhaps the amount of time it takes them does not matter.

Have you read of any hamburger's other posts?

[Second Chance]

Now there is a new accommodated student. He got a letter to allow him to submit assignments late. He got such letter in the middle of the semester. He asked me to allow him to submit all the previous assignments he missed. I asked his counselor if this is acceptable. No reply from her.

Why not just say "sure". Chances are he won't submit anything, and if he does submit all past assignments and does well, then good for him. If you give people enuf rope, they usually do hang themselves and then can't blame you. Is there some general principle here that you feel really obligated to hang on to for life even if it means making your life harder thatn it needs to be? otherwise, why sweat the small stuff?

[Caracal]

Now there is a new accommodated student. He got a letter to allow him to submit assignments late. He got such letter in the middle of the semester. He asked me to allow him to submit all the previous assignments he missed. I asked his counselor if this is acceptable. No reply from her.

Why not just say "sure". Chances are he won't submit anything, and if he does submit all past assignments and does well, then good for him. If you give people enuf rope, they usually do hang themselves and then can't blame you. Is there some general principle here that you feel really obligated to hang on to for life even if it means making your life harder thatn it needs to be? otherwise, why sweat the small stuff?

Well it all depends on how these things fit, how much they count for etc. I have pretty low stakes reading responses that I don't let students turn in late without special circumstances. The point is that they are supposed to get students to do the reading so what's the point of doing them after that? I don't think I'd let someone just do them months late. But they also only count for a small portion of the overall grade and you can miss a few without penalty. If missing these is going to cause this student to fail, that's a bit different and I'd probably let them turn them in late.

[fishbrains]

Parents call our CC all the time. Perhaps it's just my region of the country here in the US, but we find that, oddly enough, teenagers often lie to their parents about why they are failing a college course. Believe it or not, they often blame their professors! Even if they haven't turned in any freakin' work all semester! Kids just say the darndest things.

[hamburger]

Parents call our CC all the time. Perhaps it's just my region of the country here in the US, but we find that, oddly enough, teenagers often lie to their parents about why they are failing a college course. Believe it or not, they often blame their professors! Even if they haven't turned in any freakin' work all semester! Kids just say the darndest things.

This is true. Several senior colleagues have told me that in my department, students like to blame their failure all on the professors. Some students think that as they have paid, they are entitled to get high marks and professors have to bend the rules for their convenience. When I first joined this department, students also told me that they put all the blames on me because I was new! They said that they did not dare to touch the program coordinator who is a very old professor.

[Hibush]

Parents call our CC all the time. Perhaps it's just my region of the country here in the US, but we find that, oddly enough, teenagers often lie to their parents about why they are failing a college course. Believe it or not, they often blame their professors! Even if they haven't turned in any freakin' work all semester! Kids just say the darndest things.

The Art Linkletter line is so appropriate here. How does that go over when you use it with parents?

[AJ_Katz]

s meeting deadlines critical to achieving one of the learning outcomes?  It seems like you should be able to work with the student to identify a new set of deadlines that you both agree upon and write it up as a new contract between you two for the course.  Yes, learning to meet deadlines is an important skill that students should learn in college, but maybe it's not worth sacrificing your happiness at work.  Especially if learning to meet a deadline is not one of the learning outcomes for the course.  It seems to me that if the student is able to meet the learning objectives for your course, perhaps the amount of time it takes them does not matter.

Have you read of any hamburger's other posts?

Yes...  even if the students are saying that this instructor is not accommodating the students, why not just give them more extensions so they complete the work?  Simply put... accommodate, accommodate, accommodate....  unless it goes against the learning outcomes, why fight this to the point that it's going to the administration as a larger issue. 

Most students that are gaming the system aren't going to succeed in the long run anyway.  Why sacrifice your career to make a point with students like this?

[AJ_Katz]

s meeting deadlines critical to achieving one of the learning outcomes?  It seems like you should be able to work with the student to identify a new set of deadlines that you both agree upon and write it up as a new contract between you two for the course.  Yes, learning to meet deadlines is an important skill that students should learn in college, but maybe it's not worth sacrificing your happiness at work.  Especially if learning to meet a deadline is not one of the learning outcomes for the course.  It seems to me that if the student is able to meet the learning objectives for your course, perhaps the amount of time it takes them does not matter.

Have you read of any hamburger's other posts?

Yes...  even if the students are saying that this instructor is not accommodating the students, why not just give them more extensions so they complete the work?  Simply put... accommodate, accommodate, accommodate....  unless it goes against the learning outcomes, why fight this to the point that it's going to the administration as a larger issue. 

Most students that are gaming the system aren't going to succeed in the long run anyway.  Why sacrifice your career to make a point with students like this?

Following which...  place very explicit guidelines in your syllabus relating to rules on accommodations, how requests MUST be made in writing, cannot be retroactive, etc. etc. and read it out loud at the first class meeting of the semester.

[polly_mer]

Most students that are gaming the system aren't going to succeed in the long run anyway.  Why sacrifice your career to make a point with students like this?

I agree with AJ_Katz.  Set up your policies in writing and then stick to them.  If the culture is everyone gets 28 bites at the apple by filing phony paperwork, then accept the paperwork, allow them their bites, and record the duly earned grades.  People who are gaming the system by regularly postponing the work tend to not turn in high-quality work.  A big stack of Fs at the end of the term is pretty easy to grade.

[downer]

s meeting deadlines critical to achieving one of the learning outcomes?  It seems like you should be able to work with the student to identify a new set of deadlines that you both agree upon and write it up as a new contract between you two for the course.  Yes, learning to meet deadlines is an important skill that students should learn in college, but maybe it's not worth sacrificing your happiness at work.  Especially if learning to meet a deadline is not one of the learning outcomes for the course.  It seems to me that if the student is able to meet the learning objectives for your course, perhaps the amount of time it takes them does not matter.

Have you read of any hamburger's other posts?

Yes...  even if the students are saying that this instructor is not accommodating the students, why not just give them more extensions so they complete the work?  Simply put... accommodate, accommodate, accommodate....  unless it goes against the learning outcomes, why fight this to the point that it's going to the administration as a larger issue. 

Most students that are gaming the system aren't going to succeed in the long run anyway.  Why sacrifice your career to make a point with students like this?

My point was that "hamburger" is not happy at this place anyway and does not have a career there. Taking the posts at face value, this is a terrible place to work. The only rational course of action is to do only what is absolutely required to keep on getting a pay check there for the rest of the semester or the academic year, and to put all other energies into getting a better job elsewhere. Anything which requires the OP to be less efficient with their time should be avoided.

[AJ_Katz]

My point was that "hamburger" is not happy at this place anyway and does not have a career there. Taking the posts at face value, this is a terrible place to work. The only rational course of action is to do only what is absolutely required to keep on getting a pay check there for the rest of the semester or the academic year, and to put all other energies into getting a better job elsewhere. Anything which requires the OP to be less efficient with their time should be avoided.

I agree, it sounds like the OP's department has a strange culture. However, it's one thing to talk about applying for jobs elsewhere and it's a whole other thing to actually get a job offer somewhere better. Since the OP might be stuck in this department for a while, the timing might not be right to just give up trying and do the minimum.  There seems to be a clear set of actions that the OP could take towards preventing this type of treatment in the future and based on that set of issues described in this thread alone, I would be hesitant to encourage the OP go on the job market.  It really seems like something that can be dealt with and avoided in the future. 

[downer]

My point was that "hamburger" is not happy at this place anyway and does not have a career there. Taking the posts at face value, this is a terrible place to work. The only rational course of action is to do only what is absolutely required to keep on getting a pay check there for the rest of the semester or the academic year, and to put all other energies into getting a better job elsewhere. Anything which requires the OP to be less efficient with their time should be avoided.

I agree, it sounds like the OP's department has a strange culture. However, it's one thing to talk about applying for jobs elsewhere and it's a whole other thing to actually get a job offer somewhere better. Since the OP might be stuck in this department for a while, the timing might not be right to just give up trying and do the minimum.  There seems to be a clear set of actions that the OP could take towards preventing this type of treatment in the future and based on that set of issues described in this thread alone, I would be hesitant to encourage the OP go on the job market.  It really seems like something that can be dealt with and avoided in the future.

That's a fair point. But if the OP can't get a teaching job elsewhere (and this is just an adjunct position, I gather, so there should be other better options), then I'd suggest that the OP move into a different line of work. To make a career of academic life, OP needs a big rethink.

The other issue is that the OP seems to have trouble drawing boundaries and asserting themselves. The students, administrators, and even parents seem to be in control. The OP needs to practice saying "no."

[Caracal]

The other issue is that the OP seems to have trouble drawing boundaries and asserting themselves. The students, administrators, and even parents seem to be in control. The OP needs to practice saying "no."

Also practice not taking things with students personally. I've noticed that people who talk a lot about maintaining standards and how bad students are, often seem to not be able to keep and set good boundaries between themselves and students. If you Figure out how you want to handle things like late assignments or students missing class and then apply those policies there's not need to be upset or disappointed with your students. People don't like feeling judged personally and you'll probably find you have less conflict with your students if they don't get the impression that you have lots of feelings about their requests to turn things in late.

[pedanticromantic]

Is anyone else seeing a massive increase in this type of thing? I have more in a single class than I used to get in many years put together. It seems everything needs to be accommodated these days--general anxiety disorder (uh, pretty much all of us introverts have that and still manage to do our work), depression, ADHD.. I mean, at some point, everyone is disabled and then nobody is disabled/deserves special accommodation.