Worse Case Scenario: Your roommate violated your trust and set your alarm clock back one full hour, causing you to miss your final. Suddenly, you jump into panic mode because you don’t know what to do and you’re not sure if your professor is going to buy the whole “my roommate played a mean prank on me” story. Granted, some teachers may be more lenient than others, but some have a rather sensible way to resolve the problem.

The Response: “I would allow the student to take the exam if the following conditions were met: (1) no other student had yet completed the exam, and (2) the student agreed to finish within the time-frame established for the final exam. If other students had completed the exam, I would offer the tardy student an alternative final exam that differed from the original—I keep such an alternative exam handy in instances of emergency.”

– Casey Lafrance, political science instructor

Matt Lee

Worse Case Scenario: It’s a Monday night. You just chugged three energy drinks and are ready for a long night of hardcore studying to prepare for a math final tomorrow. Things go well, and you wake up the next morning feeling prepared. You go to your classroom ready to crunch some numbers, and realize that not a single person is in the classroom. You panic, check your syllabus, and realize that the final isn’t until tomorrow. As you panic, you realize that you studied for the wrong final. You don’t have a math final today. You have your English final.

The Response: “Sure, I’d let the student reschedule as long as this wasn’t standard practice during the semester.”

– Jennifer Maher, assistant English professor

Rachel Davis

Worst Case Scenario: In any normal sense of the situation, a phone going off in the middle of class can be annoying. Finals are a much different time with a much higher stress level. So what if it went off in the middle of your foreign language final? Would your professor handle it the same way?

The Response: “Well, that would be okay. I’d just politely ask him to turn it off. Since I tell my students I’m on call twenty-four hours a day, it’s not unusual for me to take a call during class in order to answer a student’s question. But after a few warnings, I’d probably have someone break his vertebrae.”

– Bill Harrison, foreign language professor

Richard Pulfer

Worst Case Scenario: Your final is a group project. As if that alone isn’t bad enough, your group gives you a horrible evaluation. They say you did next to nothing, but you feel you contributed equally to the project. Your grade really depends on this, but they just don’t give you any respect.

The Response: “I would probably talk with them. Seeing it is a class on persuasion, I would allow them to contract an argument for the situation. Anyone who asked would have that opportunity.”

– Mary Lynn Henningsen, assistant professor of communication, about her persuasion course

Stephanie Szuda

Worst Case Scenario: Balancing work and play is often one of the most confusing adjustments in college. Most students require at least a semester or two to adjust their mindset to the requirements of college classes. In the case of beginning music appreciation classes, students are required to listen to music in the library each semester and are tested on its content. However, at the end of the year, everyone is clamoring for the same thing they had the opportunity to have at the beginning of the semester.

The Response: “Some students wait even longer to study and are shocked to find that all the CDs are already taken, and they have no chance of passing their exam. Some students don’t even realize that the CDs are an essential part of their studies and they never bother to listen. I end up seeing them around here the next semester, checking out the CDs during the first week of classes.”

– Mark Mattson, library specialist

Kristin Herout

Worst Case Scenario: After a long evening of $2 Red Bulls with grain alcohol and an overstayed, after-hours visit to McDonald’s, you wake to realize that you indeed have a final in about seven minutes. On the other hand, maybe you stayed up all night studying, only to wake the next morning with a mild case of the Ebola virus and a final exam in seven minutes.

The Response: “On a couple of times I have had students miss a final exam due to illness. On those occasions, the students were given incompletes, and made up the final exam at a later date.”

– Peggy Batty, foreign language professor

Keith Beebe