Not Holding My Breath

There are assignments I give to students and in an attempt to be flexible, I tell them they can hand it in any time during the last two weeks of class but if they hand it in on the last class session, they should not expect to get it back. One student handed in one of these assignments on the last day of class.

That was fine. He met the requirements and did well on the assignment. Attached to the assignment however, was a post-it note asking that I get the assignment back to him since it included some important memories and he wanted to have a copy. The student further indicated that since he worked on campus, he would gladly come to my office to pick up the assignment.

As an adjunct, I am not on campus over the summer. I also live forty miles away from campus so I do not just want to drive up to campus. I sent this student an e-mail, using the campus e-mail address, letting him know that I would gladly make a special trip to campus but I needed to know his schedule since I am not there during the summer. I never heard back from this student.

I actually dug up another e-mail address I have for this student. I thought maybe he was not checking the campus e-mail, especially since he graduated at the end of this year. So, I sent an e-mail to the student, at the home e-mail address, again indicating I would make a special trip to campus. I still have not heard back.

I find it frustrating when a student is asking for a favor (in the sense that I told the class what my procedure was) and I am willing to grant it, that the e-mails, that the offer, in effect, is simply ignored. Maybe I will hear from him later in the summer but I am not holding my breath.