I returned from three weeks in Myrtle Beach with my “one-of-us-is-pushing-90” parents to discover that my sporadically watered plants were pretty droopy. I gave them a good dose of water and all but one bounced back to full vigor. Before throwing out the remaining saggy plant I decided to trim off the obviously dead leaves in an attempt to make it look less pathetic. Because everything I do at home makes me think of work, my trimming process reminded me of the withdrawal process—removing the droopy and un-revivable.
It’s the time in the semester when you can look at your class roster and determine who is and who is not revivable. Although no scissors should be involved, you too can trim off the deadheads by giving them a “W” for the class rather than waiting until the end of the semester and giving them the inevitable “F”.
During the grading clean up process we always run into the following problem: people do not give a student a grade because they either never attended or stopped attending. These professors believe that withdrawal is a student’s responsibility, which it is. No argument there. BUT, and here is where things get ugly, they are not willing to give the student an “F” if they never attended. They just leave the grade blank and refuse to give us a grade even when we repeatedly pester them for one. And we can be professional pesterers, believe me!
It’s important that everyone understand that every registered student needs closure on the semester by receiving a grade. If you don’t believe in withdrawing students then you have to be willing to give them an “F”, even if you have never seen them. If you don’t believe in giving an “F” to a student you have never seen then you have to be willing to withdraw them by November 21. You need to choose one path or the other. There are only two paths.
You probably noticed how skillfully I slipped the withdrawal deadline date of November 21 into the conversation. I’ll be sending out a couple of withdrawal deadline reminders in the next couple of days. I’ve also been sending the students reminders, pointing out that they can now withdraw online without an instructor signature and that the November 21 deadline is the day before Thanksgiving. If you are traveling or if you are, like me, one of those people who get in the holiday mood several days before they actually let you leave work, you might not want to put off submitting a withdrawal until November 21. Who is going to be thinking about work the day before Thanksgiving?
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
11/19/2007 |