When it comes to my students, I’ve always prided myself on being fair. Through my 15 years as a professor, to me, “being fair” meant clearly outlining the rules—and then following those rules in the same way for every student. Indeed, most of my course syllabi are over 15 pages long, and I require students to complete a “syllabus quiz” at the beginning of each quarter so I can make sure that everyone understands what the rules are. And my rules have always been pretty traditional/standard, saying things like: “Acceptable reasons for missing a quiz/exam (or submitting an assignment late) include illness, family emergency, or a death of a friend or loved one (but do not include vacations, employment obligations, having a heavy workload from other courses, or forgetting about the quiz/exam/assignment)—and you will need to provide me documentation—no exceptions!”
Then came COVID-19. On March 10, 2020, faculty and students received an email from our chancellor announcing that all Spring quarter courses (which were scheduled to start in less than three weeks) would be taught remotely, and all students who lived on campus were strongly encouraged to move back home with their parents. In the days that followed, faculty received a flurry of emails with guidance about the Spring quarter, including messages from administrators urging us to be as accommodating as possible to students who may be facing challenges as a result of COVID-19. We also received a message from the Campus Health Center telling us that we should not require a doctor’s note from students who miss class or assignments due to illness.
Wait, what? No doctor’s note? Be as accommodating as possible? But how can we verify that the student is telling the truth? How can we make sure things are fair? In the midst of coping with toilet paper shortages, switching to remote learning, and hiding from a deadly virus, I had to grapple with the following questions: What does it mean to be “fair” during a global pandemic? What is fair when your life—and your students’ lives—have been turned upside-down? What is fair when some of your students are coping with housing insecurity, food insecurity, unsafe or unhealthy living situations, or a lack of access to stable internet and/or a reliable computer? What is fair when you are able to work remotely in the comfort of your safe home while many of your students (and/or students’ family members) are essential workers who risk their lives by going to work outside the home—or who have lost their job and are now struggling to pay their bills?
For my Spring (and now Fall) syllabus, I made several revisions: First, I deleted any mention of “acceptable reasons” and “not acceptable reasons” for missing assessments or assignments. At this point, I am willing to consider all reasons as acceptable. Second, I changed my documentation policy. On the syllabus, I wrote, “If you notify me in advance that you will need to miss a quiz or exam or need an extension on an assignment, then documentation will not be required; I will simply take you at your word. However, if you do not notify me in advance, then I will require documentation (e.g., doctor’s note).” But in practice, I never asked anyone for documentation. I took everyone at their word. Indeed, even when students contacted me weeks later explaining why they missed an assessment or assignment, I still excused them from the assessment or allowed them to make up the work (without asking for documentation). Third, although I did leave my “late assignment policy” (of taking off 10% per day for paper-related assignments) on my syllabus, I did not enforce this policy. Instead, if a student did not submit a paper when it was due, I emailed the student asking if everything was okay with them and if there was anything I could do to help them complete the assignment. In other words, I treated them like a human first (and a student second).
After reading more about the social and economic inequality that COVID-19 has exacerbated, I realized that nothing is fair about this situation. Indeed, this situation does not call for rigidly clinging to rules that were written pre-COVID-19 by a person of considerable privilege—instead, this situation calls for compassionate flexibility. I’m not suggesting that we get rid of deadlines altogether and allow for anarchy—but I am suggesting that being more flexible and relaxing the rules considerably to accommodate the additional challenges that all of us are facing is perhaps the most fair thing we can do.
Joanne Zinger, PhD, is an associate teaching professor in the department of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She completed her PhD in social/personality psychology at the University of California, Riverside in 2005 and her postdoctoral studies at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California in 2007. Since arriving at UCI in 2007, she has won several awards for her teaching, including Professor of the Month (2009), Professor of the Quarter in the School of Social Ecology (2010), Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research in the School of Social Ecology (2012), UCI Lecturer of the Year (2012), Outstanding Professor in the School of Social Ecology (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014), Professor of the Year in the School of Social Ecology (2012, 2017, and 2018), the UCI Black Leadership Advancement Coalition Bridge Builder Award (2017), and the Social Ecology Dean’s Honoree for the Celebration of Teaching (2019). In addition to her teaching activities, Zinger is the director of the post-baccalaureate program in psychological science at UCI.
