<p>"One of my colleagues was once asked about a make-up midterm exam by a student who had been out partying to celebrate his 21st birthday the evening before, and slept through the exam. My colleague did not permit a make-up. He told the student in a rather dead-pan voice, “Welcome to adulthood.” I realize that there are arguments in favor of that approach. It did not mean that the student automatically failed the course, though.</p>
<h2>On the other hand, one of my most distinguished colleagues actually slept through part of an exam that he was supposed to be giving! He wasn’t even aware of it until a prof who was teaching another section of the same course–which had a common final exam for all sections–called to ask where he was."</h2>
<p>See, there’s an example where ADULTS are usually easier on each other. I doubt that sleeping prof received any kind of punishment. Was his pay docked? No. In the real world, adults tend to look by “one time” or very infrequent screw ups. A teacher will flip-out if an otherwise perfect student accidentally leaves his book in his locker or his homework at home, but the same teacher will delay giving a test because she had something in her life that came up (or she left something at home.) Does the principal give her an F for the day? no. </p>
<p>I’m a believer in the “everyone gets a hall pass every once in a while.” Those who abuse that, don’t get more hall passes. </p>
<p>" Unfortunately for her, colleges don’t send a report if a student is out drinking on school nights, so any grade less than a “B” will serve as an indictor that she doesn’t know how to keep fun in its proper time and place. She should consider herself warned."</p>
<p>Yikes… I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be at few engineering classes in my DS’s future where he will studying his butt off and be happy with a C… I know I was happy to get in C in Chemistry way back then… Not everyone in college is at least B student in every class…</p>
<p>I agree. few employers are going to turn down a prospective applicant who has a few B’s or even a C on transcript…especially in STEM majors. Eng’g transcripts are often peppered with B’s and a C or two. </p>
<p>My younger son has a few B’s on his transcript and they aren’t due to partying. </p>
<p>My older son got a C in a course because he slept through a midterm. He didn’t even bother to plead with the professor, he calculated that with all A’s on his work up to then the worst he could do was a C for the course. </p>
<p>“See, there’s an example where ADULTS are usually easier on each other. I doubt that sleeping prof received any kind of punishment. Was his pay docked? No. In the real world, adults tend to look by “one time” or very infrequent screw ups.”</p>
<p>This is in academia, though, and the person who caught the sleeper was his peer, not his superior.</p>
<p>If I partied too hard and slept through court or a deposition when the senior lawyers expected me…BIG BIG trouble, likely termination. I’ve seen it happen once where the lawyer overslept due to pulling three consecutive all-nighters at the firm’s insistence, and yeah, he still made partner that year. But even though the cause of the problem was working too hard, someone who didn’t have a spotless eight-year track record at the time would have been toast.</p>
<p>“This is in academia, though, and the person who caught the sleeper was his peer, not his superior.”</p>
<p>True, but even if it were the dept head who made the call, I doubt there would have been a serious repercussion…especially if this was a rare event. Do you think his pay would get docked? no.</p>
<p>Professionals allow for an occasional issue (flat tire, car accident, illness, back pain, alarm didn’t go off, etc) that causes someone to miss work. </p>
<p>Wow, I hear you, mom2collegekids, with the post about adults being easier on each other! All too true! Once when QMP was in elementary school, our printer broke down at about 8 pm, the night before a “big” project with a poster was due (in this case, a project spread over 3 or 4 days, since it was elementary school). QMP was essentially working on it continuously from the time it was announced.</p>
<p>My spouse took the printer apart, practically to the last screw, reassembled it, and it worked! However, this kept all of us up late.</p>
<p>Later that same year, when the semester report cards were due out, the school’s printer broke down. Sorry, no report cards–printer’s broken. It took about 4 or 5 days before they were issued.</p>
<p>I am still finding this more annoying than amusing, although the balance is shifting over time.</p>
<p>The issue is a little more complex than simply adult in work force vs. student. As an adult in the work force, I have more than 20 years of history with my employer. They know me and my habits well enough to know that if I call and say I’ll be late coming back from lunch because my car just overheated (really happened–somebody from the office had to come pick me up at a repair shop and take me back to work), such an event is very rare indeed. Were something like that to happen when I was on the job less than 2 months and caused me to miss a big work event, I’d expect a different reaction.</p>
<p>We may very well see the same thing for students. Once a student has established a reputation with a prof or in a department, allowances may be more forthcoming.</p>
<p>And in this very specific instance described by the OP, let’s not forget that the events were not outside of the student’s control like a tire blowing out or a power outage that shut off her alarm. The cause of the oversleeping was partying the night before. And we have to remember that the actions of this student had a direct impact on the presentations (performance ) of the others. Encourage the student to go to the prof. I usually grade the research part of the assignment as well as the presentation itself. Zero presentation points might result in a low grade, but credit for the preparation might just save the whole class grade from becoming an F. </p>
<p>I think the punishment should fit the crime. Substantially lowering a student’s grade - i,e, the best you can do on the make-up presentation is a C - fine. Giving a student a 0 with no chance of a make-up seems harsh to me.</p>
<p>As for the D, how irresponsible she was being depends. Did she get drunk, or just have a beer? Did she stay out until 6AM, or until 2? Has she ever slept through her alarms before? The fact that she went to a friend’s party doesn’t mean that she stumbled home in a drunken stupor three hours before class. Depending on the circumstances, setting multiple alarms might have reasonably seemed like an adequate precaution.</p>
<p>First, the case presented by OP is due to the student’s decision to party late/hard enough to oversleep for the presentation the following day. Not for an unforeseeable emergency or something reasonable. </p>
<p>Second, my experience regarding student vs professional is the near opposite of that. In college, I was amazed at how many extensions my Profs would give my classmates for even goofing off/procrastinating till the very last minute. Two classmates I’ve had for several classes were notorious for asking for multiple extensions…and getting them without argument. And yes, such Profs probably would have given the OP’s D an extension for what I and many old-school Profs/teachers would consider a frivolous self-inflicted issue. </p>
<p>This issue has caused those two college classmates and colleagues from other colleges with the same lenient attitude to run into serious issues in the professional workplace where supervisors weren’t going to be as accommodating. In the case of those fresh graduate colleagues at one financial firm, most didn’t even finish the first month or two out of the six month probationary period as a result. </p>
<p>Agree with oldfort that if you can’t/not sure you can party the night before without being 100% sure you won’t oversleep/mess up a big presentation, exam, or job where one’s presence is paramount to the position, one should pass on the partying. I faced this very decision back in undergrad when one Prof offered to allow me to sample some exotic liquor at his home and I declined because I had an exam the following morning. </p>
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<p>Oldfort’s much more generous than my supervisors at that firm would have been. People would get called in and put on notice for being a few minutes late( < 5 minutes). If I partied so late I didn’t arrive till 11:30 am while I was supposed to be at my desk by 9 am sharp, termination would be SOP. </p>
<p>My supervisor and his superiors were of the mind that lessons learned from being late for reasons like partying the previous night should have been learned and integrated into the minds of entry-level employees before graduation and certainly before they show up for the first day of employment. </p>
<p>I’m a little unclear why the OP’s husband was so livid. Their daughter made a mistake. It’s not the end of the world. And she’s 21 years old! Worst case scenario, she has to drop the class. In that case, the 21 year old can pay for the make up class. </p>
<p>^^
Maybe it will delay graduation by a semester? If so, then it’s more than just paying for a class. It could be $20k or more. Even if she has to take it over the summer, it’s still a big cost…housing, and maybe loss of wages that she would have earned over the summer or loss of an internship opp.</p>
<p>and, will dropping the class or the bad grade affect aid or scholarships?</p>
<p>“Their daughter made a mistake.”</p>
<p>Well, it’s not just a “mistake”. A mistake that’s more easily forgiven is one that comes from just innocent human error. Being out too late with for 21yo Bday party was not wise before such a presentation anyway…on a school night! Likely a lot of drinking was also involved which caused the “sleeping thru”. The dad is likely angry about that.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this doesn’t delay her graduation. And if it does, well that’s a $20K mistake she’ll certainly learn from. If this was one of our children, we wouldn’t pay the additional fee. A 21 yo is an adult in every sense of the word. She didn’t have to confide in her parents, but she did. Kudos for her for coming clean about it. </p>
<p>I just don’t see how this is worth the angst. It feels like a big deal now, but in the scheme of life, this is just a blip in the road. </p>
<p>I think it will all depend on the ramifications. If she can squeeze in a retake or not end up with a crummy grade then super.</p>
<p>If it requires an add’l semester of school, then telling her to pay may just be blowing in the wind. Where’s she supposed to just come up with that much money? She can’t borrow it by herself. </p>
<p>(I hope other students reading this thread pay attention. A 21yo Bday (or whatever!) doesn’t have to be celebrated on THE DAY when the next day is a school night. And, if it does have to be celebrated, then keep it to a minimum with a larger celebration on the weekend. I imagine the Bday girl feels badly, too. :(</p>
<p>The main difference is the printer didn’t go out and party the previous night. It was an unforseen breakdown.</p>
<p>Seriously the daughter knew she had a presentation. She knew that it had a significant impact on her grade, and not only her grade but also some classmates. She made a choice and unfortunately, she made the wrong one. I’m not saying she couldn’t go out the previous night at all but she needed to make sure she could get up in the morning. </p>
<p>^^^
No, the point was that there was a time when kids would get in trouble at school if they couldn’t print out their homework because their printer was broken. </p>
<p>Yes, our printer didn’t go out and party the night before the project was due, either. But we fixed it (at some cost to our nerves and sleep), and the school didn’t fix theirs.</p>
<p>We have the most irresponsible printers I have ever known. They break, go strangely off-line, run out of ink, flash error messages, jam paper in their innards… Always when someone has waited to the last possible moment to print some very important paper. </p>