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[tee_bee]

About 12 years ago I finally had to put my foot down when students were bringing in Dr's notes from the student health center. They weren't (physically) sick: the sheets indicated that they had been seen for pregnancy tests. These were couples, and both were absent. Nice to see the fellas being so supportive. When I went to the "no absences allowed, excused or otherwise" policy, this nonsense stopped. (They do cumulative exams instead, and missed lectures are just not worth counting.)

Raises some questions though: (1) is a preggo test an emergency? She'll be just as pregnant at 11:30 as at 9;45, my lecture time. (2) What sort of student would even admit cutting class for a pregnancy test? We're tied in knots over "student privacy," and rightly so, mostly, but then they pull this? Sheesh.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Raises some questions though: (1) is a preggo test an emergency? She'll be just as pregnant at 11:30 as at 9;45, my lecture time.

I would imagine an 18-year-old woman who thinks she might be pregnant just might want to find out ASAP.

[temporaryname]

Raises some questions though: (1) is a preggo test an emergency? She'll be just as pregnant at 11:30 as at 9;45, my lecture time.

I would imagine an 18-year-old woman who thinks she might be pregnant just might want to find out ASAP.

Hours make a difference for emergency contraception. If they're getting a pregnancy test, though, it's a bit too late for that--two hours won't change things.

[new_bus_prof]

About 12 years ago I finally had to put my foot down when students were bringing in Dr's notes from the student health center. They weren't (physically) sick: the sheets indicated that they had been seen for pregnancy tests. These were couples, and both were absent. Nice to see the fellas being so supportive. When I went to the "no absences allowed, excused or otherwise" policy, this nonsense stopped. (They do cumulative exams instead, and missed lectures are just not worth counting.)

Raises some questions though: (1) is a preggo test an emergency? She'll be just as pregnant at 11:30 as at 9;45, my lecture time. (2) What sort of student would even admit cutting class for a pregnancy test? We're tied in knots over "student privacy," and rightly so, mostly, but then they pull this? Sheesh.

If I had to monitor between excused or unexcused, this would be excused in my book... This is because my personal experience with the pregnancy test time followed from 5 days of not keeping anything down including water...

Thank goodness I don't track between excused or unexcused.

[kaysixteen]

She does not need to skip your class to get her preggo test.  That is the definition of emergency.  Actions have consequences, and if she has to choose between immediate knowledge of her potential pregnancy and sitting through test wondering what if before she can find out, too bad.  Saying preggo test qualifies as emergency is like saying a guy who calls a girl a 'ho' has 'sexually assaulted her'.  He may well be a cad and a boor, but it cheapens real victims of sexual assault to say the 'ho' in question has been sexually assaulted.

[rebelgirl]

*sigh*  Plagiarizing = subset of lying, so . . .

200 level lit class chock full of high-school-in-college students.  Much pressure from many quarters to offer extra credit options.  Prof. Rebelgirl comes up with some that require some thought and posts on ancillary course website.  One option:  local county libraries will be reading Novel X, which we just finished, in spring--draft a set of discussion questions for their book clubs.  If you submit Qs likely to promote thinking, they'll be included in Prof. Rebelgirl's study guide, and you'll be credited.  (Yes, course syllabus defines, and outlines penalties for, plagiarism: 0 on assignment in question and getting reported to the VP of Students for discipline.)

So one li'l scumweasel posts a set of study Qs taken straight from SparkNotes.  Same order, minor paraphrasing.  Of course any novel begs certain Qs.  But, sheesh.

Turned in the SparkNotes page and her work to the appropriate VP (and the high school in the college counselors, who will no doubt squeal that the assignment didn't *say* they had to make up their own). 

Is it LarryC who regularly inveighs against extra credit?  Never again re: EC assignments, says Prof. Rebelgirl, for so many reasons, all made clear to me this quarter of first trying them. . . .

[tee_bee]

Raises some questions though: (1) is a preggo test an emergency? She'll be just as pregnant at 11:30 as at 9;45, my lecture time.

I would imagine an 18-year-old woman who thinks she might be pregnant just might want to find out ASAP.

True that. This class met at 9:45 in the morning. The student health center opened at 8. Having been the male partner of a 28 year old who was concerned about pregnancy, I get it. However (1) one can buy preg tests that are as accurate as those used in the student clinic (my wife told me that her OB/GYN told her to just buy the quality OTC ones, not to come in for preg testing when we were trying to conceive) and (2) if the urgency was so great, I would imagine that being there at 8 might work.

Hours make a difference for emergency contraception. If they're getting a pregnancy test, though, it's a bit too late for that--two hours won't change things.

Indeed, and, help me out here. but the elapsed time from the deed to a positive pregnancy test is several days, is it not?

My problem isn't that they had the test. The problem is that the couples overtly used it as a reason to miss class. Not only is it TMI (if the Dr. said they were "indisposed," I'd probably be OK), it's sort of tacky, and is an attempt to play on my sympathy, a commodity that is in shorter supply every year.