In answer to 'fly

It was a fair question.

I have deadlines all throughout the term. First deadline is a project proposal, where they outline what they are doing and how. This is due in the first three weeks of the class. I also tell students if they have ANY problems to come talk to me. I've had two come to me this semester and in both cases I suggested how they could either modify their project, or collect a different sort of data - and they came back to tell me, "It's working now."

I also require a midsemester progress report. It's not worth a whole lot - though it is worth as much as a lab - and I note that this year, several people (including the person referenced in the post) did not hand one in.

I tend to be of the "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't shove its head under the surface and scream, "DRINK, DAMN YOU!" I figure the progress reports are a "hey, you know, you should be getting somewhere on this by now.

I also handed out a list of what I expected in the final paper about a month ago, with the note of "I hope you're finishing up your projects now.

So no, I don't feel like I leave 'em hanging. They have a schedule. And I also tend to feel like by the time you're 20, you either have learned time management or you have not. I'm willing to work with someone who genuinely has an issue (I had a case one semester of a student who was going through a messy divorce and her soon to be ex sabotaged her project...and yes, she showed me a copy of the police report citing all the damage he had done, not just to her project). But when someone comes to me in the last week of classes, right before the thing is due, right when I am:

a. writing final exams
b. trying to get my independent-studies students wrapped up
c. trying to help my grad student get her summer research underway
d. trying to write an abstract for summer meetings myself
e. doing all the crap paper work (they are now making us document ALL of our "public service" - volunteer work - probably so some administrator can take credit for a "civic involvement initiative" and win an award)

they have to expect that I will be less than open to "OH HAI. My project failed. You help me fix it NAOW."

That said, I did give up part of my afternoon yesterday to help her recover and get some data. Did I hear a "thank you"?

Of course not.

So, I think I've provided them with enough opportunities to know "Hey, I need to be working on this." But I'm really getting sick of people asking me to hold their hands. Just this morning, I had someone in one of my classes who essentially missed EVERY lab, wanted to make them up. In a weak moment, I told him he could make up two or three - but I needed to know which ones he chose.

He e-mailed me this morning asking me what labs he should choose to make up.

I told him he had to decide. I'm sorry, but I'm getting really cranky about this. I have to take care of myself - I am not married, I do not have a housemate, so I have to feed myself and do the marketing and do the laundry and pay my bills and clean my house and mow my lawn and go to work and do all the stuff expected of me at work and then some. And I have my "civic involvement" work. And then I get people expecting me to even THINK for them. DAMMIT, NO. I'm tired. I'm really really really really really tired. I have had zero time to myself for several weeks thanks to all the crap I have to do. I do not need other people's crap to do as well.