Dear Morsels:
With a view to lowering your MSI (“Morsel Stress Index”), I am forwarding you this simple list of end-of-term cautions and precautions. Please review this letter carefully and talk with me if you have any questions about these tips (or anything else):
1. Get credit for your work
Though instructors may ask you to submit your final papers in their departmental mailboxes, or even under the doors to their offices, if that work gets lost and you don’t take the appropriate precautions, you may ultimately earn an “F” for your efforts. So be sure to submit course work in person, either to the instructor or to a person explicitly designated by the instructor, such as a teaching fellow or an administrative assistant. According to the Blue Book: “Students who submit course work in a manner other than in person, directly to an appropriate individual (e.g., place it under a door or in a box in a hallway) do so at their own risk. Students who must use postal services to submit a course assignment, because they will be unavoidably absent from campus at the time an assignment is due, should ascertain in advance from the instructor the correct mailing address and use receipted mail services to establish the date of mailing.”
If you must mail work to instructors, therefore, please (1) keep copies of whatever you mail; (2) if possible, use mail services that furnish a receipt, such as certified mail, Federal Express, and the like; and (3) confirm your instructor’s full and exact mailing address before leaving campus. You can always email your professor a backup, too. If you do email an assignment, ask your instructor to acknowledge its receipt. You’ve worked too hard to let your work get lost in cyberspace!
2. Talk with your instructors
I cannot postpone a final exam on the grounds that it conflicts with your travel arrangements. Some students have been known to ask instructors for permission to take final exams early to accommodate their travel plans. Such permission must come from the instructor, and only the instructor. Deans have no role in granting permission for taking early exams; it is your instructor’s prerogative to allow you (or not allow you) to take a final exam early. (You can find the rest of the rules governing early exams here.)
That said, instructors may still ask you to get a Dean’s Excuse, or an informal “dean’s note” (even though there is no such thing) so that you can take a final exam early. Since there is no role for a Dean’s Excuse in this situation, your knowledge of the Blue Book will be helpful if you find yourself having a conversation with an instructor about taking a final exam early. I am, of course, available to answer your questions (and those of your instructors, too).
3. Call my office if you are seriously, desperately ill
If you’re too incapacitated by illness to take an exam, call the office. The key word is incapacitated (meaning that you need to be conveyed immediately to the Yale Health Center or the ER). Students with head colds who feel less than 100% healthy are expected to tough it out. If you become seriously ill in the middle of a final exam, and absolutely cannot continue your work, you should notify the proctor of your situation before leaving the test site. You should then proceed directly to Yale Health and seek medical treatment. Once there, call me at 203-432-0397 and notify me of your situation.
4. Note that instructors cannot extend your work beyond reading period
While instructors may, on their own authority, grant extensions during the term, they may not grant extensions that go beyond April 30. That’s the last day of Reading Period, and the date by which ALL course work, including term papers, must be submitted. All legal extensions that go beyond that date must be authorized by me, and are called Temporary Incompletes (TIs). TIs are authorized or denied on the same basis as Dean’s Excuses. If you step outside the protection of the academic regulations by accepting a technically illegal extension from an instructor, however, and if you then become ill and cannot complete that work, I am unlikely to be in a position to help you, even if the instructor erroneously told you that you could submit the work after the Reading Period. In most cases, that will mean that you will get an “F” on the late work. See me right away if you have questions about extensions.
5. Problems? Call me
If you find yourself in any kind of trouble relative to the submission of work or the taking of exams, call me right away (203-432-0397). Doing so is evidence of your attentiveness to basic proprieties and is sometimes a crucial factor in determining an equitable remedy.
Good luck, Morsels!
Best,
Dean Silverman