TITLE: Making Exceptions AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: June 14, 2018 8:39 AM DESC: ----- BODY: When I became head of my department, one of the things that became a near-daily part of my life was enforcing administrative rules and fielding requests for exceptions to those rules. I like writing code a lot more, but these decisions involve a surprising amount of judgment, which can make them occasionally interesting. A couple of weeks ago, Matt Reed wrote about the challenge of making exceptions to administrative rules. He opens by pointing to someone else's tweet asserting that exceptions to rules will largely flow to a certain group of students: those who grow up believing they have a right to question the rules. Reed acknowledges that this is true but goes on to argue that, even so, exceptions are an essential part of a fair system. I agree with him that there is a lot going here. One of the few administrative tasks about which I had well-formed ideas before I started as head was applying rules. I'm in the group of students that many people would think of as privileged enough to be comfortable asking for exceptions. But I was also raised as a rule follower and, as a result, almost never asked for exceptions. I went through school following the rules as they were given to me and finding ways to move forward when the rules slowed me down. Occasionally I would learn that a friend had asked for an exception on a lark and ended up with an easier path. At first, I usually felt foolish for not asking myself; later, I would feel bad about myself for being a patsy, or cynical toward the system. So, when I became an administrator, I wanted to be careful to apply the rules fairly, as they were intended, and not make exceptions just because someone asked for an out. It's tempting to help out a student when he or she asks for a break, but what about those students who didn't ask -- because they didn't know they could, or because they were afraid, or because they assumed the request would be denied? Things get hard sometimes when a faculty member presses for an exception to help a student they like or want to help. The faculty member will often say, "Well, the student wouldn't ask for this, so let's help them out anyway." But my thoughts stay with the students who won't ask and don't have an advocate. What about them? If we start getting a lot of requests from faculty and students for an exception to a specific rule, I figure it's time for us to consider changing the rule. However, as Reed argues, with any non-trivial rule, there really are exceptions to the spirit of the rule that we need to take into account. In his words, we need to exercise a little "epistemological humility". Even wise and experienced faculty members can't envision all possible circumstances that may arise when they write a rule. It's even harder to anticipate how a policy will interact with the myriad other policies enacted in the department or by other departments on campus. When those unexpected circumstances or interactions arise, we have to make exceptions if we really want to be fair. This means exercising judgment. In my time as head, I have worked hard to walk the fine line between enforcing the rule as intended and making exceptions when exceptional circumstances arise. The challenge comes in dealing with groups of people at either end of a spectrum: I learned early on that I was not omniscient and that the only way to be fair to students and faculty is to make exceptions. But I prefer to exercise judgment carefully. In order to do that, I ask for well-considered justifications. To be honest, the justifications on most of the student requests I receive boil down to "because I want you to" or "because it would help me". If we enforce a prerequisite, it will push back a student's graduation date. (Sadly, failing a course has consequences...) If we enforce a distribution requirement, the student will have to take a course they don't like, or take a course from a professor they don't like. In most of these cases, I sympathize with the student's plight, but that doesn't mean I can grant an exception. I try to probe for more details to see if there are grounds for further consideration, but most often I simply have to be the bearer of bad news. (I've been talking about student requests a lot here, but my years as department head have taught me that faculty are not all that different. Some never ask for exceptions to rules that apply to them, while others ask freely. A surprising number of the requests also boil down to "because I want you to".) With some effort, it is possible to walk the fine line. As Reed says:
The folks of whom exceptions are being asked need to be able to explain why they said "yes" to student A and "no" to student B. Ideally, they should know not only the rules, but the reasons behind the rules. That's a tall order, but in many cases, it can be done.
My general practice works something like this: Require that each request for an exception come with an actual justification that explains the exceptional circumstance. If the given justification is weak but I think there may be something worth considering, I work with the student (or faculty member) to elicit the deeper rationale behind the request. If the ultimate justification is solid, then I consider making an exception, sometimes in consultation with the faculty. Absent a solid justification, I enforce the rule. In those cases, I try to help the requestors understand why and, if possible, try to help them find other ways to handle the challenge facing them. In my dozen or so years as head, I've surely made a few mis-steps, granting a request or two that should have been denied and denying a request or two that probably should have been approved. But I've worked hard to make good decisions, to recognize those cases in which I needed to update my thinking, and to recommend that we change rules when they no longer serve the purpose we intended. As with so many other tasks that we teachers and department heads perform, a little epistemological humility comes in awfully handy. Mistakes and struggles remind us to stay humble. -----