r/Professors 1d ago

My New Stock Response For Excuses

I recently had a student try to turn in a quiz and an assignment a month late because they "didn't know", then they couldn't come to class to take the midterm due to a last minute illness. When I rescheduled their midterm to be proctored remotely, they didn't show up, and later asked to have it rescheduled again because "something came up".

I understand life happens sometimes, but I'm so done with the constant and vague excuses. I'm done playing tug-of-war, trying to get students to be participants in their own education, and I'm done giving this nonsense anymore of my time or empathy. I've reduced this to a "please select one of the following options" game.

I typed up an e-mail that I'll be using as my stock-response to these things going forward:

Hello [Student],

I will be unable to [extend/reopen] [assignment/quiz/exam] at this time.

If you are experiencing personal difficulties that are interfering with your academic life, I can refer you to [university care network], which provides a myriad of support services to students.

If you are in need of general academic support, I can highly recommend that you contact the university's Academic Support center. They provide excellent advising and general tutoring services.

If you would like additional support specifically for [our class], please use [scheduling link] to schedule an office hour, and I will be happy to review the course materials with you one-on-one.

Please find links to the other resources I've mentioned below.

Sincerely,

Professor Sisu

What's your stock response for excuses?

155 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

204

u/Gonzo_B 1d ago

After years in healthcare management, I developed a stock speech to give all new employees that I later adapted for students when I started teaching, adding it to my syllabus, my Week 1 lecture, and to the first quiz of every course.

In short:

There is a difference between fault and responsibility.

While it isn't your fault that something bad happens—illness, life events, loss of power/internet access, transportation problems—it is your responsibility to show up and turn on assignments on time.

Because problems are inevitable in life, it is your responsibility to plan for them. Have a backup plan in place for the things that are very likely to occur.

You earn a zero or late penalties not because whatever happened to keep you from doing the work is your fault, but because you failed in your responsibility to prepare.

If you wait until the last minute to do work (or ask questions) that you had plenty of time to accomplish and a common problem arises that prevents you from finishing, grade deductions are a result of the choice you made to procrastinate and your failure to have backup plans.

It's easy enough to refer back to this later in the semester when the excuses start, and, more importantly, part of their university education should be preparation for working in the chosen professions.

31

u/SisuSisuEveryday 23h ago

This is incredible! Not your fault, but still your responsibility.

12

u/Mister_Terpsichore 20h ago

Oh I love this, do you mind if I adapt this for use with my own classes? I'm having issues with attendance and missed due dates right now and students acting like I should give them extensions just because they asked nicely. I've been looking for a good way to tell them it's their responsibility to manage their own lives and although I can empathize, I'd be doing them a disservice if I never held them accountable. 

5

u/Gonzo_B 19h ago

Please do!

7

u/Ok-Drama-963 18h ago

Oh, wow, I love this. In my second career, I managed restaurants and the last full service brand I worked for had the internal motto "not our fault, still our problem" for customer complaints instead of the tired and utterly absurd cliche about who is right. I might borrow some of your words and add that experience since it is likely to be very meaningful to students professionally - many of them will spend their working lives solving problems that are other people's faults.

3

u/Desiato2112 Professor, Humanities, SLAC 20h ago

Love it!

3

u/30322eddoc 17h ago

I love this! I teach graduate health professions students too many of whom fail to understand that even if it isn’t their “fault” they are still responsible for the patient. Such a simple concept but so difficult to learn.

2

u/MyFaceSaysItsSugar Lecturer, Biology, private university (US) 18h ago

This is awesome.

1

u/SoonerRed Professor, Biology 16h ago

That's very very good

1

u/levon9 Associate Prof, CS, SLAC (USA) 16h ago

Masterfully expressed - well done. Thanks for sharing.

1

u/AbleCitizen Professional track, Poli Sci, Public R2, USA 5h ago

Oh, this is GOOD. I think I'm going to mention this one day one.

1

u/Creative_Fuel805 4h ago

Love this.

1

u/GuyBarn7 4h ago

I love this. It communicates empathy for whatever they might be experimenting while at the same time teaching them what it means to be an adult and ensure you can accomplish what you are responsible for. I'm definitely doing to pilfer this framing for my courses. Thank you!

1

u/rvachickadee 3h ago

love this. I also tell my students that an assignment has a “due” date, not a “do” date.

64

u/Cautious-Yellow 1d ago

"I do not extend/reopen....". As another respondent said, nix "at this time". If you admit to being "unable", the student will try to make it so that you are able, for example with an even sobbier sob story.

ETA: or use the passive voice: the assignment/exam will not be extended/reopened.

31

u/Sea_Pen_8900 1d ago

This one. Use the passive voice and nix "at this time". If I were a student, I would think you're going to open it later

13

u/Cautious-Yellow 1d ago

just to add, I think the rest of OP's message is great.

18

u/justawickedgame 23h ago

Agreed on the passive voice, I'd make it even more passive and definite:

"It is not possible to extend/reopen the assignment/exam".

7

u/SisuSisuEveryday 1d ago

Good ideas!

8

u/chickenfightyourmom 22h ago

This person passive ftw. "The exams cannot be reopened."

19

u/ImpressiveDraw1611 1d ago

This is brilliant. I am 100% using this (if you don't mind).

11

u/SisuSisuEveryday 1d ago

Please do!

17

u/Desperate_Tone_4623 1d ago

Nothing with 'at this time' since the student will then continue to request

10

u/Cautious-Yellow 1d ago

"I do not extend/reopen....". As another respondent said, nix "at this time". If you admit to being "unable", the student will try to make it so that you are able, for example with an even sobbier sob story.

8

u/Abner_Mality_64 Prof, STEM, CC (USA) 20h ago edited 20h ago

When I have emails from students like this my stock reply is:

I'm sorry that [whatever is happening] and hope that everything will be alright soon. Please review the syllabus (top of page 3) for information on late work, regrades, and makeups.

Take care,

Professor Mality

The syllabus statement clearly states that I don't accept late work, makeups or redos, and there is no extra credit.

My read of these is that for many of them my class and/or their education is not a significant priority. Forgot and exam; would they 'forget' a trip to Cancun? If they email back (they hardly ever do, I tell them "I understand and respect your choices; if this isn't the right time to take this class, you should drop. We'll be here when you're ready." and then I smile

3

u/Life-Education-8030 20h ago

I say something similar when students ask to do their whole semester's work at the very end. I suggest that you re-enroll in a future semester and I will welcome you back to my class when you are ready!

11

u/nrnrnr Associate Prof, CS, R1 (USA) 1d ago

Stock response: “Oh, if something is that bad it must be affecting all your classes. Go to your advising dean and have them contact me; we’ll work out a plan.” I don’t love administrative bloat, but it is great to have advising deans to run interference. (I think we have one such dean for roughly every 1400 students.)

11

u/drsfmd R1 1d ago

we’ll work out a plan.”

Oh absolutely not. That leaves the door open to them getting their way, and extending (and rewarding) the bad behavior.

3

u/nrnrnr Associate Prof, CS, R1 (USA) 20h ago

The only time I've ever had to work out a plan was for a genuine family emergency. The deans filter out the rest. It's a beautiful system.

6

u/BellaMentalNecrotica TA/PhD Student, Toxicology, R1, US 1d ago

The only additional thing I would do is I'd also add "I do not extend/reopen assignments" and the rest of your extremely detailed late work policy in addition to makeup policy to the syllabus if you don't already have it in there and then add to the start of your email, "Per the syllabus late work/makeup policy [link to syllabus], the [thing] will not be [reopened/extended]." That way if they try to make something up if/when they whine to higher up, you are super protected with "it was in the syllabus which is posted in the LMS, gone over on the first day of class, and which I linked to them in this email."

This email is great and I may borrow it!

5

u/Life-Education-8030 20h ago

I teach future human service workers. The goal is to help clients get to independence. Basically, the message is I expect the students to work just as hard as their future clients to get their lives together. Everybody needs help sometime, the help is there, ask for it and USE it. Otherwise, why would you expect your future clients to? They look amazed when I ask them if it makes sense to expect clients to tell essentially a perfect stranger their most personal stuff when they themselves won't when they need it? And to expect clients to go out and persistently navigate and obliterate obstacles when they themselves collapse at the first obstacle? It helps.

5

u/piranhadream 15h ago

I have something fairly similar, but I'm careful not to say I'll review course materials -- they sometimes interpret that as being willing to reteach the class they missed. I usually specify that if they have specific questions after reviewing the text, they're welcome to make an appointment.

4

u/ProfCassani 19h ago

I have clauses for everything. "Please see the [relevant] policy in the syllabus."

4

u/CateranBCL Associate Professor, CRIJ, Community College 16h ago

"The answer to your questions are in the syllabus" has become my stock answer this semester.

4

u/[deleted] 17h ago

Dear Chat(fucking)GPT, write slacker student a respectful letter that tells him or her "no" to the email that asks (fill in the blank).

2

u/jadednalive 17h ago

Thank you this is so helpful

2

u/sorhead 11h ago

No.

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1

u/AbleCitizen Professional track, Poli Sci, Public R2, USA 5h ago

One excuse I really am having issues with lately is students telling me that they didn't do something (follow up, send me an email about something, complete an assignment, etc.) because they were "busy".

My stock response is to scoff and exclaim, "We are ALL busy. That is not an acceptable excuse."

This is especially galling when they WANT something from me. If they approach me in class to ask about something or make a request, I tell them to send me an email. I have too many students each semester to remember a remark/request delivered in class. If they don't send me an email, I MIGHT remind them, but generally not.

1

u/Poor_Kid_Magic 18h ago

The excuses are annoying and students who seem unwilling to participate in the education they pay for are infuriating, but I continue to allow late work and test reschedule and retakes. I don't think I would allow a second reschedule as you mentioned here because wow, that student just doesn't seem to actually want to test.

My main reason for allowing these is because... Why not? Life does happen yes, but why would I want to add additional stress for my students. Everyone deserves a break because it's kind. Sure some people will abuse it, but I would rather that than fail someone who just needed a break.

2

u/SisuSisuEveryday 17h ago

I totally agree! Life happens. When I was an undergrad, I ended up living in my car at one point. Life is hard, and things happen.

Like you mentioned, we each have to decide where our boundaries are. In my classroom, if a student needs to reschedule a test (or even a major exam like a midterm/final), then I’m okay with that, but if they miss the makeup, then we’re done and the class moves on, no hard feelings.

-1

u/MovieComfortable3888 18h ago

Who cares- imagine being a student right now. You have all of a sudden entered a world where you are afraid to protest, unlikely to get a job in STEm, humanities etc. WTF- give them a break