Wake Up Little Susie

Every year since I started teaching at the university level — that was on September 11, 2001 — I have taught at least one semester of an introduction to advertising class, and half way through the term we do a mock judging of the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

I schedule a "viewing day" during which I show them a short list of Cannes contenders in the film (i.e. television commercial) category. The students form judging teams and their assignment is to choose which of the ads they believe shoud be awarded the honour of the best television commercial in the world. The assignment is worth 10% of their grade for the semester.

In the course outline, which the students are given on the first day of class, there is a detailed description of this assignment, in which the following sentence appears: "You must be present in class on the day of the viewing or you will not get credit for this assignment." I bring this to their attention, as well as the scheduled date of the viewing, during our first class meeting. A week prior to the viewing day I send them a reminder email that goes like this:

You MUST be present on the viewing day in order to get credit for this assignment. You cannot join a judging team afterwards. If you miss the viewing day as a result of extreme circumstances beyond your control, I may be willing to work something out with you. An example of what constitutes an extreme circumstance would be, you're in the hospital. However, "I got stuck in traffic and couldn't get there," is not an acceptable reason for missing the class that day. Get up earlier.

I'm finding it a continual source of amusement, the complaining people in San Jose do about the traffic. I walk to the campus and most days I could crawl across the street while the crosswalk light is red, and still never see a car. But I digress.

It happens every time. The student who sneaks in half way through, and tries to explain to me afterwards why she was late. The student who sends me email, begging me to let him view the ads on his own. The students who cry in my office because they didn't get the email.

Today, I heard a new one. You gotta give the kid credit for honesty, at least:

"I really wanted to be here, and I set my alarm and everything, but for some reason it didn't wake me up."

Breaks my heart.

Next, it's Postmodern Sass's two year blogiversary. In November, Sass has an even more confusing conversation with a student.