Everyone is Crazy at this Time of the Semester

Two students who have missed work recently spoke to me today offering to bring me notes from their psychiatrists. This afternoon I had a voicemail from a caseworker at a psychiatric hospital about a student in my class who is an in-patient at the hospital, has been for several days, and will be for several more days. The student is very upset to be missing class due to this hospitalization, so the caseworker is getting in touch with instructors at the student's direction.

One of my classes meets twice more and has one worksheet left (out of 30-something worksheet grades of which the best 25 count) and then has the final exam. The other class meets once more and has three online homeworks left (the lowest three homeworks are dropped) and then has the final exam.

My new unofficial policy is that if you go crazy during the last week of classes, I will drop an extra homework and count the final exam in place of any other missed work as long as you take the final more than 24 hours before grades are due.

Anyone who starts talking about "incomplete" will be told the truth that I am not coming back to the math department in the fall, that I am going to be in Cambridge, MA for the summer, and that I am going to be working at Off-Campus Research Facility in the fall. Therefore, their chances of "completing" are going to be remarkably small. If they can find me at all.