It is the end of January, and I am beginning to hear around me the muffled groans of faculty colleagues as the Fall 2013 “extensions” roll in.

I don’t know whether they are called “extensions” everywhere, but we all know what we’re talking about, right? This is when a student is granted permission to complete some of their course requirements during the weeks or months after the course is over. At my institution, the student contracts with the instructor and the registrar, agreeing on what work remains, and what grade will result if the work is not done. But even if we all know what “extensions” are, that does not mean that everyone agrees on how to administer them, or that every school has the same perspective on them. How is the practice of granting extensions assessed in the “ecosystem” of your institution? What is your own thinking on extensions…?