My dog ate my homework

Brian Hare, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology

The truth is Duke students in my experience have really been amazing and responsible.  However, there was ONE exception. I had one student who never came to any classes and they were doing very badly. When I asked them why they never came to class they told me because I told them they did not have to. Of course, what I had said in the first class was attendance was not mandatory and if they wanted to try to get an A without coming to class they could try but it was much more likely they would fail... and that all the people who do well in my class are the ones who don’t miss a class. :)

Connel Fullenkamp, Professor of the Practice of Economics

My worst excuse ever was that a student was in jail. He and a friend had driven to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and somehow ended up having words with a police officer. Naturally, the officer had little tolerance for a pair of inebriated college students, so they wound up in jail in New Orleans the Saturday night before Mardi Gras, and didn’t get bailed out until sometime on Monday.  He missed class on Tuesday, when a paper was due. I didn’t accept the paper, and made a point of telling students in later semesters that being in jail was no excuse for turning in assignments late. They’d always laugh and thought I was joking. 

Elizabeth Vigdor, Associate Professor of the Practice of Public Policy

The lamest [excuse] I got was from someone who wanted to postpone taking the midterm because he was running for a DSG position and needed more time to work on his campaign. I don’t think that’s necessarily a “bad” excuse—just very nervy. I declined and suggested that he learn to balance his extracurriculars with his course work like all his classmates had managed to do.