THE RATIONALE FOR THE RULE. The Rules Examiner's recommendation against wheedled extra credit has been construed by the dean at Anonymous Community.

But this is the time of year when the kid who has been slacking or failing shows up, filled with sudden enthusiasm, begging for extra credit to make up for the work he either didn't do or did badly earlier.

From an administrator's perspective, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Don't do it!

Precisely. He goes on to make an observation that transcends politics: there is nothing "conservative" or "progressive" about maintaining academic discipline.

I worry, too, about the cumulative effect of students encountering multiple extra-credit bailouts over the years. If students start to expect end-of-semester freebies to bail out three months of slacking, what, exactly, are we teaching them? Sometimes I think "suck it up" is one of the most valuable lessons we can teach. It's certainly an important life skill, and one that comes in handy at entry-level jobs. A kid who hasn't learned to suck it up is in for a rude shock when he gets to his first real job.

That's why we get paid. I've been tempted to respond to a long whine with a long response. I could grant your request, and you graduate and you get an entry-level job, and you get a bad performance review or two, and you're fired in six months and your employer hires no further graduates of our program. Ultimately my pay gets cut. Or I deny your request, and you complain to your [thinking equally dim] friends and they stay away from the program and we look more selective to U.S. News. Ultimately my pay increases.

Even-handedness can sometimes seem cold, and it can require saying 'no' when it would be easier not to. But the costs of ad hoc special favors are just too high to sustain. Fight the temptation!

Indeed. Turf 'em out.