Thesis Writers Seek Test Clemency

Loker Professor of English W. James Simpson opened his Arthurian literature lecture last month by reading aloud an e-mail he had received from a senior in his course.

The e-mail contained an epic appeal. In an analogy to one of the stories the class had just read, the senior requested accommodation for one or more of the major course assignments because of how they coincided with the deadline of her thesis.

The assigned story, “Yvain, the Knight of the Lion,” tells of a knight who must vanquish a giant in time to save a damsel that same day.

“The knight has a time management problem,” said Samantha M. Waters ’07, another thesis writer in the class, Literature and Arts A-11, “Arthurian Literature: Epic versus Romance.” “The girl was comparing her ability to write her thesis with this knight. So she was like, ‘I’m worried that I won’t be able to save my damsel in time and write my thesis.’”

The question of exceptions for thesis writers is routine during shopping period and an official policy on some syllabi. And many professors are willing to be flexible about the dates of midterms and papers.

“I don’t think it does any harm to the rest of the students to give those people a bit of a break,” said Professor of Semitic Philology John Huehnergard, who teaches Social Analysis 74, “Visible Language: Writing Systems, Scripts, and Literacy.”

“I think it’d be just hard—a midterm at the same time that you’re trying desperately to finish a senior thesis for the department’s deadline,” he said.

The details of particular arrangements vary from professor to professor. While Huehnergard pushes back the dates of a paper and the course’s midterm, some professors allow their students to skip an assignment and add more weight to others.

Lane Professor of the Classics and of History Christopher P. Jones, who teaches History 1085, “The Roman Empire, Augustus to Constantine,” allows his students to omit the midterm if they write approximately 15 additional pages for the term paper. Their final exam also counts for a larger percentage of their grade.

“It’s just a matter of risk management,” Jones said. “The student has to do the risk management, and the faculty member has to make sure that the risk management is reasonable.”

Seniors whose professors have accommodated them said they could not imagine finishing their theses and completing other major assignments at the same time.

“I was planning on not taking the class unless they had offered an accommodation,” said Laura E. Stafford ’07, referring to Literature and Arts B-49, “Modernisms 1865-1968.”

“I do understand that for a lot of professors they see this as the thesis is...not supposed to impact your other three classes. But I feel like that’s sort of an inflexible way of looking at it,” she said.

But some professors do not offer alternative options to thesis writers. Despite his student’s Arthurian approach, Simpson declined to make special arrangements for her or for other thesis writers in the class.

He defended his decision in an e-mail, writing, “I strenuously resisted making a special exam for thesis writers: this is an exercise in time management, with plenty of chance for forward planning.”

Simpson could not be reached via telephone.

According to Waters, Simpson shared the student’s creative approach with the class because he thought it was amusing, but told the students that “just like the knight in the story, you’re going to have to manage your time effectively.”

Waters, for one, said she would have appreciated accommodations but recognized she was not as affected by Simpson’s decision as others may have been.

“This is not a great situation,” Waters said. “I don’t feel like I’m in a totally screwed situation like I know other people are, but my life would be a lot easier.”

—Staff writer Victoria B. Kabak can be reached at vkabak@fas.harvard.edu.