The Daily OrangeNo excuses: Sneaky students strive to sidestep professors, deadlines
By Alex Shebar
Posted: 9/7/05, 11:06 PM EST Section: Pulp
As the school workload increases and students are still not recovered from the summer daze, excuses begin to form when assignments fail to get done.
While the clichés students use, ranging from, "My computer broke down," to, "The illegal dog I'm keeping on South Campus ate my homework," are already becoming daily occurrences, many times teachers will simply not extend a deadline, no matter what students say. It is then up to the student to be a little more creative to get away with their procrastination.
"I once lied and told a teacher that I was Jewish to get out of a big project, and that I couldn't do any work over the holiday weekend," said Alexandra Mirjah, a junior magazine major.
College students are notorious for laziness when it comes to work, as they will wait until the last minute to get things done. Oftentimes it is this exact strategy that will explode and cause disaster. In this digital age, the wonders of technology can often cause the largest problems. Personal computers break down, printers jam with paper and files are randomly sacrificed and lost forever - students are left to reap the consequences and deal with it in the upcoming class. It is because of these incidents that students beg with professors for an extension, and are often flat-out rejected. Students should write a paper days before it's due, so if something breaks the student is at fault, said Professor Bill Coplin, director of the public affairs department at Syracuse University.
Yet for students the problem is often not technical, but a lack of work ethic. Students living on a college campus will immediately drop schoolwork if something bigger and better comes along. Trouble then arises when the student never returns to complete the task, and by the time the due dates roll around, the work is still left in its abandoned and unfinished state.
"Everything that surrounds us is distracting, and there's so much to do that is more fun than sitting down and doing your homework," said Claudia Gilmore, a freshman photojournalism major. "People just don't want to work, especially now after the summer holidays."
While the clichés students use, ranging from, "My computer broke down," to, "The illegal dog I'm keeping on South Campus ate my homework," are already becoming daily occurrences, many times teachers will simply not extend a deadline, no matter what students say. It is then up to the student to be a little more creative to get away with their procrastination.
"I once lied and told a teacher that I was Jewish to get out of a big project, and that I couldn't do any work over the holiday weekend," said Alexandra Mirjah, a junior magazine major.
College students are notorious for laziness when it comes to work, as they will wait until the last minute to get things done. Oftentimes it is this exact strategy that will explode and cause disaster. In this digital age, the wonders of technology can often cause the largest problems. Personal computers break down, printers jam with paper and files are randomly sacrificed and lost forever - students are left to reap the consequences and deal with it in the upcoming class. It is because of these incidents that students beg with professors for an extension, and are often flat-out rejected. Students should write a paper days before it's due, so if something breaks the student is at fault, said Professor Bill Coplin, director of the public affairs department at Syracuse University.
Yet for students the problem is often not technical, but a lack of work ethic. Students living on a college campus will immediately drop schoolwork if something bigger and better comes along. Trouble then arises when the student never returns to complete the task, and by the time the due dates roll around, the work is still left in its abandoned and unfinished state.
"Everything that surrounds us is distracting, and there's so much to do that is more fun than sitting down and doing your homework," said Claudia Gilmore, a freshman photojournalism major. "People just don't want to work, especially now after the summer holidays."
