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What's the point of a due date then?
By Megan Quinn — Written on Feb 10, 2023
It’s safe to say that we’ve all procrastinated our school assignments every now and then, even if it meant slamming down on the “submit” button minutes before the due date.
However, can the assignment really be marked as late? One college professor apparently believes so.
A student shared that they received a late penalty on a paper after they submitted it 14 minutes before the due date.
The student took to the subreddit thread, r/mildlyinfuriating to share screenshots of emails exchanged between them and their professor after they noticed something peculiar regarding one of their graded assignments.
The student had submitted the assignment before the scheduled due date, however, points were deducted for “lateness.”
“Hello, Professor… I am writing to you because there was a grading mistake from the assignment that was due on February 1st,” the student wrote in an email.
“It shows that you marked off 10 points as a late penalty however as you can see on Canvas, I properly submitted the document in a timely manner before the due date at 11:46 PM on 1/31/2023.”
The student asked the professor to notify them when they changed their grade.
However, the professor had no intention of doing that.
The professor claimed that the paper was handed in ‘last minute’ which is why the student was given a late penalty.
“I have just now checked and see that the assignment was submitted 14 minutes before the posted due date, however, you must understand that it was handed in on a last-minute basis which is the reason why you received a late penalty,” the professor wrote to the student in response.
“As a result, I will not be removing the late penalty deduction and would advise you to submit your work no less than an hour before the due date moving forward.”
Internet users completely disagreed with the professor’s response since the assignment was submitted before the deadline.
“What is the point of them setting a deadline if they are just going arbitrarily deduct points when you submit it before the deadline ends?” one user commented. “Madness. I hope it’s something you can challenge.”
“10% off because you failed to discover the secret, REAL due date and coyly fell for the DECOY due date. Try harder next time,” another user noted, taunting the professor.
“This is not how things are done....why would you penalize if it's not late? Assignments come with a date and time stamp for submissions almost everywhere,” another user wrote.
Other users suggested that the student take up the matter with student affairs.
“A professor's misbehavior is not worth a criminal record. Talk to the dean, if that does nothing talk to the school board, and if that ain't enough either sue the salaries and tenure out of the professor, school board, and Dean,” one user recommended.
“Time for you to talk to the dean …… somebody about to lose their job,” another user added.
Others noted that the professor should have made deadlines more clear on the class syllabus so students could comply with the rules and avoid suffering late penalties.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.