The politics of an extension

For Kiri Hagerman '08, the winter of her freshman year brought with it the usual end-of-semester exam stress and some unexpected health problems. She suffered from two bouts of pneumonia spaced three weeks apart, spending several days in McCosh Health Center.

But, as she tried to get over her pneumonia, Hagerman didn't have to worry about her imminent academic due dates: Her residential college dean gave her a three-week extension on her end-of-term papers, followed by another one when she fell ill a second time.

"They were very reasonable about it," Hagerman said.

Granting a request for an extension in a case like Hagerman's is fairly clearcut, administrators said. The University allows students who have secured the permission of their residential college dean — or, for seniors, Associate Dean of the College Richard Williams — to postpone papers past Dean's Date in cases of "illness or another equally compelling reason," the Undergraduate Announcement explains.

But in other instances, especially when procrastination may be involved, the matter of whether or not to grant a student's extension request can become messier.

"There's always a minority of students for whom the issues of time management continue [throughout] their years at the University," Mathey College dean Steven Lestition said.

He estimated that as Dean's Date approaches each semester, an average of about 15 Mathey freshmen and sophomores request extensions on their final assignments.

This year — the first in which juniors had to go through their residential college deans for extensions — 20 juniors asked Lestition for extensions, most of them for junior papers.

Beginning next year, seniors also will have to go through their residential college deans for extensions.

Lestition said about half of all these requests are quickly granted for reasons including illness, personal emergencies such as funerals or travel connected to study abroad programs.

But moral questions may arise in the other, less obvious cases.

Lestition explained that when a student requests an extension, he talks to the professor to get a better idea of the student's situation and whether the request should be granted.

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When professors are opposed to extensions, he added, it tends to be in a situation where all students in the class have known about the assignment so far in advance that granting an extension to only one person would be unfair.

Nevertheless, professors stressed that ultimate control over extension requests does not rest with them.

"Professors don't have much leeway on extensions," German department chair Michael Jennings said. "That's all [the domain of] directors and deans of studies. If a student needs an extension, I'll support it, but it better be a good reason."

Many students who request extensions for reasons other than illness or emergencies do so because of assignments that have built up to an unmanageable extent.

Maria Picone '08 got two extensions this past Dean's Date, when five of her classes required term papers.

Aaron Buchman '08 asked for an extension when his research on a term paper stalled, and he was unable to reach his professor during winter break.

Though the Forbes College deans were "reasonable" in granting his request, he added that the situation leading to his extension request was far from pleasant. "Overwhelmingly," he said, "it was a terrible experience, one I never want to repeat."

Some students seek multiple extensions simultaneously or repeated extensions for the same project. Sometimes these additional requests are denied, while other times they are approved but accompanied by suggestions of counseling from McCosh Health Center.

One senior, who was granted anonymity because he thinks he may seek more extensions in his final semester at Princeton and did not want to jeopardize his requests, jokingly said he has received "a gajillion" extensions.

"I don't think it's an unfair treatment, but there's a bit of guilt," he said of his requests' usually favorable reception. "It [makes me feel] kind of uneasy having gotten extensions," especially when speaking with friends who have been denied them, he said.

Lestition acknowledged that such cases — when one student's request is granted and another's is denied — raise questions of what is just.

"How much of an accommodation should be made?" he asked. "How much is fair?"

With the start of a new semester, such dilemmas may not be so urgent at present. But Lestition said it is never too early to ensure that extension requests don't become necessary once exam period rolls around.

"It serves Princeton students well not to have lots of stuff hanging over them," he said.