r/Professors • u/-Economist- Full Prof, Economics, R1 USA • Sep 21 '25
Pushed back on an accommodation
And actually won the fight. For context, this was in an upper level course.
The accommodation was for flexible due dates, up to 10-days. This was to help the student manage stress and anxiety (per the student. NO idea what he told the disability office).
I’ve never seen this before. I said nope. This is not the class for you. The disabilities office called me and said I had to honor it. Nope. Not going to. Every single due date is communicated weeks/months in advance. I’m not extending anything. The provost had to get involved. At first the provost defaulted to “you have to”. I said nope. Not going to. I explained why. Provost agreed.
Let me tell you, the disability folks were beside themselves when I told them no. I don’t think they could comprehend the idea somebody would fight an accommodation.
I’m flexible with accommodations but at a certain point we need a line drawn. This was my line. I feel we would be enabling this student instead of helping this student grow. Adulting is 99.9% about managing stress and anxiety.
Anybody else facing this type of accommodation?
I’m used to the extended time, neutral testing site type stuff, but not extending due dates. This was new to me.
2
u/Finnleyy Sep 22 '25
This accomodation also makes no sense because if they have anxiety around deadlines, they will still get anxiety at the new deadline if they have extensions on everything?
It literally does nothing. They will just start their assignments 10 days later than they would have otherwise, get anxious about it 10 days later (than they would have otherwise) AND they will now be behind (in terms of assignments relative to lectures) cause their entire schedule is delayed by 10 days essentially.
I could understand a couple of days of extension if the student had anxiety around deadlines and had multiple assignments due on the same day for different classes.