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[helpful]

I was reading somewhere that there are people who just have bad luck. For some reason they get into problems and seem to blame their life on this propensity for having trouble.

I am dealing with one student like that right now.

In the term he claimed that he was sending me assignments but I never go them.  When I suggested he print them out to class, he said he tried but his printer never worked.

Two weeks ago he said he would come talk to me last week. He never showed up. The end of last week he emailed me (at least his emails are getting through!) and said he had to go out of town on an urgent family matter but would now like to meet me this week. Then Monday he said some family member had to go into the hospital and so he couldn't come until Wednesday. But even though certain family member is in the hospital he would come in definitely on Wednesday. He called on Wednesday and said he had to go into work, so couldn't come until today but that I should call his home phone number and leave a message what time would be good today. I phoned him yesterday and told him a certain time. He called back later and asked if I had got the phone call about going into work. I said, yes I had and I had responded. Funny, he said, there was nothing on my answering machine.

Can you detect a pattern?

So he said, I will definitely definitely definitely be there at the certain time you specify. Now I am here waiting. It is already 15 minutes past the certain time and he hasn't shown up!

The funny thing is he claims he has a couple of questions to ask me because I told him he would just need to put his paper in my mailbox at any time. Why couldn't he ask me these questions on the phone or email?

(All details changed to protect the guilty).

Can you believe this? The student isn't doing too well in the course, so you would think he would make an extra effort at getting his papers in?

Or is there some condition called "born under a black cloud"? (Wasn't there a Lil' Abner character -- that is dating me -- who was born under a black cloud? Or was it from Bazooka comics?)

[fiona]

There probably is some kind of name for this, ranging from accident prone to flaky to attention deficit.

My suggestion, though, is that you stop going along with this student, since it sounds very draining for you.

I suggest writing all this up as an e-mail to the student, copy to your dept. head or somebody, and wash your hands of it. I say copy to your dept. head so you'll CYA in case the student complains later.

You might also suggest that the student see a counselor, since it sounds like the student either has lots of problems or lots of excuses.

Sigh. It made me tired and sad to read this, maybe because it's a tired and sad end of semester generally.

The Fiona

[matand]

Not that he doesn't possibly just had bud luck, but I wouldn't help but wonder "where's the proof"?

My experience, albeit short, has shown that students with legitimate excuses will either provide proof without having to be asked or are completely willing to once asked.

I totally agree that all of these scheduled meetings, and subsequent excuses, should be documented. 

Some people work harder at getting out of work than they do actually doing it. 

And on a side note, you are definitely a better person than me.  Instead of assuming the student has bad luck, I would have automatically assumed the student was trying to pull one over on me.

[larryc]

"Sorry you are having so much bad luck! I guess you are going to drop the course and take it again next year? Because at this point there is no way to pass. I know it is not your fault, but there you have it."

[expatinuk]

This student has you pegged as a person who will listen to bullsh*t.

Smile and say... 'Sorry about your bad luck. But you have indeed failed this class.'

The fact that you've actually listened to all that bull is soon going to get around campus and you'll have every 'hard luck' story possible thrown at you.

[matand]

I'm horrified at my terrible spelling/grammar in the last post on this thread.  Must have been in a hurry and didn't even use 'spell check'!

I actually have one of those bad luck students in my course this semester.  Hu has missed at least 7 classes, a quiz, and an in-class activity all due to car problems.  Definitely possible, but I simply cannot excuse that much work for a car problem. 

I've used the analogy before, and here it goes again.  If this were a job, there's no way the car issue would be accepted for repeatedly not showing up.

Real world check....

[infopri]

Or is there some condition called "born under a black cloud"? (Wasn't there a Lil' Abner character -- that is dating me -- who was born under a black cloud? Or was it from Bazooka comics?)

Sounds like Pig Pen, from Peanuts:  Wherever he went, he was surrounded by a cloud of dust and dirt.

I think you've given this student every chance.  I'd take larryc's route, at this point.  And keep all the documentation you have.

[dr_crankypants]

Sheesh...  

I'd suggest that you stop making appointments with him.  Tell him that he can meet with you during your regularly scheduled office hours or he can e-mail his question.  He can't expect you to keep going out of your way to meet with him when he never shows.

I'd also just remind him that your regular paper policy applies to him, and that it is in his interest to turn it in ASAP.  Then stop listening to the excuses!  

[fishbrains]

You are being played. On your next phone message, sing that song from Hee Haw:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me! (WOoooooOOOO!)
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery! (WOoooOOOO!)
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. (WOoooOOOO!)
Gloom, despair, and agony on me!

[histgradstudent]

bad luck is something that happens to people every once in while. When something sounds like a legitimate excuse, there is nothing wrong with giving a student a break. Come on though, he can't print his papers because nothing emails gets there and his printer isn't working? The student seems to think a broken printer is akin to being born paralyzed or something, nothing you can do about it...The school presumably has a library with printers and computers and all sorts of other gizmos. You would think he could work this one out...

I know what you mean though, my natural inclination is to be the nice guy and tell the student, "no problem, these things happen." The only consolation is that most of these students spend so much time gaming the system they never actually get around to doing anything and fail anyway.

[adhoc]

Suppose you give him the ultimate benefit of the doubt: Assume that it is true that he turned everything in to you and that everything somehow disappeared.  Assume as well, that his printer hasn't worked all semester and it has not occurred to him to call mom and dad and ask them to spring for a new printer.  A true spate of horrible luck, indeed.

OK, given all that, you must also assume, because he has implied as much, that the files are on his computer.  That would be the same computer from which he has had no trouble emailing excuses to you.  Solution?  Attach the files to one of those emails.  Give him time to go home and email them, say an hour or two, not time to create them.

Reality: He can't, of course, because he doesn't have -- and never had -- the files.  Problem solved.

But, just in case I'm wrong about all of this, and he actually does send all of the assignments to you as email attachments in the time allowed, he wins.  To be fair, grade it all as if it was turned in on time.  In that case, the only explanation is that he really did have bad luck and probably does deserve a break.

[concordancia]

It does work. As a matter of fact, I gave a student 48 hours to "recover" two essays. Final result: one that in no way addressed the assignment and was extremely poorly written and one that consisted of one word. I assume there will now be a round about how that wasn't the file hu meant to attach. The poorly written essay was the one time I took some perverse joy in correcting nearly every word on the page...

The plus side of this strategy is that it leaves you room to be open to that student next semester who genuinely has a problem without bending the rules.

[marcus_welby]

I remember watching a senior professor, who has now passed away, deal with these types of situations.  If a student would say his printer wasn't working he would tell the student to go back to his residence room and bring the essay on a diskette.  This man was also able to sniff out copied essays and encouraged the various tutorial leaders in the large first year course to leaf through each others marked essays to identify cases of "collusion".   He was quite successful in this endeavour.

The expression "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" could be applicable here.

 

[adhoc]

[...] one that consisted of one word. I assume there will now be a round about how that wasn't the file hu meant to attach.

Well, maybe it wasn't.  Maybe he meant to send you a different word.

[profreader]

I had a student like this -- constantly late, at the mercy of non-working printers, evaporating e-mail, and so on and so on.

It was clear to me that this student was feeling powerless (for whatever reason) in his academic life (and probably in his life in general.)  I was his advisor, and I finally did say something to the effect of: when you shrug your shoulders and claim to be a victim of circumstance for months on end, that really says that you've resorted to trying to control things through passivity.  You're channeling your aggression in subtle ways that are disrupting your life.  You don't want to meet with someone, so you end up being hours late.  There's always an excuse, there's always a "reason", there's always something you can blame.

If you really wanted to accomplish something, you would *find a way.*

Everyone has those days when something unexpected happens -- but when it's a continual pattern, to me that means that you are creating it yourself.

To his credit, the student had an "aha" moment -- he took it as valuable career-related advice, and made some changes in his behavior.  (This was a student who was in therapy three times a week, so I can't imagine I was the first person to ever bring this up to him -- but sometimes you have to hear it in a different way, I suppose.)