Welcome to the Trumbull College Dean’s online office!

Office hours: 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Mondays through Fridays
(closed for lunch from noon to 1:00 pm)

Who’s who

The Dean of the college serves as the primary adviser to its students, providing guidance on academic and personal matters, and serving as a referral to other resources throughout the university. As a resident of the college who participates in its extracurricular life, the Dean plays an important role in helping students plan their course of study within the broader context of their Yale career, and life after graduation. The Dean provides additional support by writing letters of recommendation, overseeing housing, supervising the work of the freshman counselors, and, in certain circumstances, postponing deadlines for student work.

Assisting the Dean is the Dean’s Office Senior Administrative Assistant, who handles much of the day-to-day business in the office, including registering students, accepting requests for changes to course schedules, clarifying academic regulations and procedures, and maintaining placement files. Like the Dean, the Senior AA is widely knowledgeable about the many resources at Yale and regularly directs students to them.

The Freshman Counselors, all of them Trumbull seniors, play a special role in the college. Together with the Dean, they counsel and advise first-year students, living with them on the Old Campus and providing them with academic and personal counseling during the freshman year. In addition to bringing an important peer perspective to their roles, the Freshman Counselors receive special training in helping students adapt to college life.

The Dean

Dean Jasmina Besirevic-Regan (jasmina.besirevic@yale.edu) is the Dean of Trumbull College and a faculty member in the Departments of Sociology, Global Affairs, Ethnicity, Race and Migration, and Ethics, Politics and Economics. She graduated from Augsburg College summa cum laude, a small liberal arts college in Minneapolis, MN, earning the Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. In 2004, she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale having also earned the Master’s degrees here. Her dissertation on ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka focuses on the emergence of a Bosnian Muslim refugee community. Her teaching and research interests include genocide and ethnic conflict, identity, and nationalism. Her current work focuses on the Bosnian Muslim identity and disintegration of former Yugoslavia. She has presented papers on the sociology of genocide at a number of professional meetings and has been invited to speak at international conferences both at Yale and abroad. She is currently teaching an undergraduate seminar titled Genocide and Ethnic Conflict, as well as the Yale Summer Session course titled History and Culture of Southeastern Europe in Dubrovnik, Croatia together with Prof. Ivo Banac of the Department of History (http://www.yale.edu/summer/abroad/croatia/index.html).

Dean Jasmina Besirevic lives in the college with her husband, Matt Regan, who is an Instructional Technologist in the Academic Media and Technology Department at Yale, and their two daughters, Selma and Lejla (pronounced as Leyla).

Dean’s Assistant

Jan Foery (jan.foery@yale.edu) is the Dean’s Senior Administrative Assistant. She lives in Whitneyville with her husband Raymond, who teaches at Quinnipiac University, and their beloved felines, Cheddar and Brie. She has two children and two grandchildren who can be seen from time to time hanging out at Trumbull. When she is not at Trumbull, Jan enjoys working on her house, traveling, movies, cooking, and most especially taking long walks. As a matter of fact, she commutes from Hamden to New Haven every day (weather permitting) on foot.

Freshman Counselors

The Freshman Counselor Program was established in 1938 and has been ever since an intrinsic and essential component of Yale’s advising system for freshmen. The program has evolved in many ways over the years, but the general purpose of the program has remained the same: to help ease the transition of incoming freshmen to the academic, social, and cultural life of Yale College. Find out more about the Freshman Counselor Program here.

Trumbull is lucky to have a team of seven great freshman counselors. Together they make Bingham an especially wonderful place for all Trumbull freshmen.

2011-12 Trumbull Freshman Counselor Team

Chelsea Allen is a Political Science major, nascent world traveler, aspiring music mogul, and burrito connoisseur. Born a Georgia peach, raised in the Big Apple, and finally transplanted to the Golden State, Chelsea has loved making a home for herself in the Elm City (even during the winter). Her involvements at Yale have ranged from singing amazing music with Shades a cappella to working for inter-religious understanding with the Chaplain’s Office to serving a smack down on the IM volleyball court. She has also had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Jordan for a summer and China for a semester. This summer, she will be staying in Beijing to conduct research on China’s growing music industry and interning at a record label and recording studio there. As much as she loves seeing the rest of the world, Chelsea is eager to get back to The Have’ to meet all of the fantastic freshman who are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime! LET’S GET READY TO TRUM-BULLLLLLLL

Hailing from Toronto, ON, Carl Chauvin fills the all-important role of Resident Canadian within the college. Though fulfilling requests to say “oot and aboot” and explaining the nuanced proper usage of “eh” take up a large portion of his time, Carl is also a member of the varsity lightweight crew team and a leader for the Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT) program. A Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology major, Carl hopes to attend medical school following graduation. In the interim, however, he is incredibly excited to be a freshman counselor next year, and can’t wait to meet all of the incoming Trumfrosh!

Marian Homans-Turnbull grew up in New Haven and the nearby town of Guilford. A proud townie, she loves introducing Yalies to her city–from East Rock picnics to farmers’ market trips to sledding excursions in the winter. She’s especially fond of the kind of exploring that involves food. She’s fond of food-oriented activities on campus as well, and she can usually be found in the magnificent Trumbull dining hall, in the buttery, or in her suite with cookies and hot chocolate. An English major, Marian enjoys medieval literature, postcolonial literature, and all sorts of things in between. Outside of class, she’s involved in the Liberal Party of the Yale Political Union and various forms of campus activism, and she interns for Yale’s Instructional Technology Group. She can’t wait to welcome the class of 2015 to Trumbull and another wonderful year!

Conrad Lee grew up in the cozy little town of Hockessin, Delaware. He attended St. Andrew’s School, and was a Residential Leader his senior year before coming to Yale. His lovely sister was a Freshman Counselor when he was a freshman, and since then he has hoped to carry on the family tradition. He enjoys sports and the outdoors, and plays for the Yale Club Soccer team, which beat Harvard last fall. He was also a member of the Trumbull Coed Soccer “Dream Team” that won the IM Championship this spring. In his free time he reads, plays squash, and strums on his ukulele.

José Darío Martínez, who goes by Darío, is a Comparative Literature major from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He focuses on Iranian and Latin American languages and literature, as well as literary theory and humor. Pre-med for his two first years at Yale, he is a member of the Yale Varsity Men’s Fencing Team and is also involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Program, Iranian Students at Yale and Orientation for International Students. Darío is interested in conducting research abroad after his senior year in preparation for graduate school.

Liz Peters hails from the not-so-distant town of North Haven, CT. At Yale, Liz is an English major and also especially loves studying music and foreign languages. Liz devotes most of her extracurricular time to music: she is a member of several on-campus choirs and sings jazz and swing with the a cappella group Proof of the Pudding. This year she will also sing with the all-senior a cappella group Whim ‘n Rhythm. Other passions include building with Habitat for Humanity, eating New Haven pizza, speaking Italian, and making snow creations in the beautiful Trumbull Courtyard (those long New Haven winters really are good for something!). Liz is so excited to welcome the newest class of Trumbullians to the most wonderful residential college at Yale. Moorah!

Amy Rosenblum hails from Lower Merion Pennsylvania, just outside of the historic city of Philadelphia. As a theater studies major, Amy spends much of her time at Yale curled up underground in the many beautiful theaters at Yale or exploring the dark corners of off campus houses with the Control Group. You’ll be able to hear her singing at all hours of the day up and down the entryways of Bingham or in the shower as she is a proud alumni of Shades, Yale’s premiere co-ed a cappella group. Her favorite times at Yale almost always involve good food, good friends, and dance parties with the best college at Yale. She loves the outdoors, getting to know people and getting down and dirty in the woods and is a leader of Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trips. However, she’s ecstatic to have turned in her hiking boots this fall for a froco jacket and can’t wait to get to know the Trumbull class of 2015!

Resources

Freshman Advisers

Trumbull College freshmen are all assigned to a faculty advisor for their first year; in subsequent years they may choose to remain with the same advisor or pursue others who may be more closely suited to their field of study. The faculty advisers for the 2011-2012 year are listed below.

Kathryn Bell
Center for International Experience
kathryn.bell@yale.edu

Graeme Berlyn
Forestry and Environmental Studies
graeme.berlyn@yale.edu

Daniel Botsman
History
daniel.botsman@yale.edu

Andrew Casson
Mathematics
andrew.casson@yale.edu

Emily Coates
Theater Studies/World Performance Project
emily.coates@yale.edu

Laura Cruickshank
University Planning and Renovation
laura.cruickshank@yale.edu

John Faragher
History and American Studies
john.faragher@yale.edu

Aaron Gerow
Film Studies
aaron.gerow@yale.edu

Janet Henrich
Medicine
janet.henrich@yale.edu

Victor Henrich
Applied Physics and Physics
victor.henrich@yale.edu

Leo Hickey
Geology & Geophysics
leo.hickey@yale.edu

Susan Hyde
Political Science
susan.hyde@yale.edu

Ann Kuhlman
International Students and Scholars
ann.kuhlman@yale.edu

Stephen Latham
Political Science
stephen.latham@yale.edu

Pauline LeVen
Classics Department
pauline.leven@yale.edu

Mary Lui
History & American Studies
mary.lui@yale.edu

William Massa
University Library
william.massa@yale.edu

Thomas Masse
Provost’s Office
thomas.masse@yale.edu

Gregory McCarthy
Psychology
Gregory.mccarthy@yale.edu

Patrick McCreless
Music Department
patrick.mccreless@yale.edu

Konstantinos Meghir
Economics
konstantinos.meghir@yale.edu

Michael O’Brien
Medicine
michael.obrien@yale.edu

Ken Panko
Mgr ITG Academic Media & Technology
ken.panko@yale.edu

James Perlotto
Medicine-University Health Services
james.perlotto@yale.edu

Eric Sargis
Physical Anthropology
eric.sargis@yale.edu

Christina Spiesel
Law
christina.spiesel@yale.edu

Sydney Spiesel
Medicine
sydney.spiesel@yale.edu

Tutors

Writing Tutor:

Jan Simpson
Trumbull College Room 26

Science Tutor:
Carly Shanahan GRD ‘13
Chemistry
Trumbull College Room 14

Other Resources

Yale College Writing Center

http://www.yale.edu/writing/
The Yale College Writing Center supports writers and writing teachers through the resources on this website, free tutoring at the Center and in the residential colleges, and through workshops about writing and teaching techniques. The Center’s mission comprises some of the most fundamental aims of a liberal arts education. Writing well is the hallmark of an educated person, and writing is also an indispensable component of advanced research in most disciplines. Writing helps us develop the intellectual practices that distinguish passive from active learners; it helps us take ownership of what we learn, and move from accumulating other people’s knowledge to producing our own. Learning to write helps us develop habits of mind that enrich every aspect of life.

Science and Quantitative Reasoning

http://www.yale.edu/yalecollege/sqr/index.html
This website contains information about academic resources for Science and Quantitative Reasoning education in Yale College.

Center for Language Study

http://www.cls.yale.edu/
A center of coordination and resources for the more than fifty languages taught at Yale, the Center for Language Study (CLS) provides leadership and support for pedagogical innovation, professional development (including workshops and informal seminars offered in collaboration with language programs), and implementation of new methodologies in language instruction and learning. Through the DILS program, the CLS also offers opportunities for independent language study.

Services

Forms

Dean’s Excuse Request Form

Dean’s Excuse

Petition for Six Course Credits

Petition to take 6 Course Credits

Dossier Forms

Dossier File Forms
Recommendation Worksheet
Requesting a letter of recommendation
Confidential Statement Dossier Form

Online Form: Requesting a Letter of Recommendation

Dean’s Letter of Recommendation Request

Dossier Service for Letters of Recommendation

If you wish, your residential college dean’s office will maintain for you a “placement file,” (also called a dossier service) consisting of letters of recommendation that you have solicited from instructors and others. When you want these letters to be sent, your dean’s office will, on your instructions that are stated in the dossier file forms, forward photocopies of your letters to the person or institution that you designate. For information on this procedure and policies please see Dossier File Forms.

When Should I Begin a Placement File in My College Dean’s Office?
While it makes sense to request a letter from an instructor while impressions of you are still fresh in his or her mind, most letters are not sought – and perhaps should not be sought – until the junior year. In general, current letters of support carry more weight than older ones. By and large, you want the testimony on your behalf to reflect the best and latest of your Yale career.

How Many?
This depends on your plans. For many medical schools, a half-dozen is not too many. For certain law and medical schools, however, two or three is the allowed maximum. You may acquire more, but keep this in mind: even if a school allows an unspecified number to be sent, there is a danger in swamping the admissions committee with so many statements that they miss the punch of the two or three especially good letters you may have. If submitted by themselves, those letters are more likely to be read carefully. Do not casually request letters if you do not intend to use them. Faculty members take these requests seriously and spend a considerable amount of time honoring them.

From Whom?
The answer to this question depends on the eventual use of the letter. Your first need is to have evidence of your academic ability expressed by someone in a position to do it persuasively. If you are applying to medical school, letters from instructors able to comment on your ability in the natural sciences are essential. Law schools, while not requiring any specific preparation, are concerned with your ability to think logically and to express yourself clearly in writing and in speaking. Graduate schools look for letters testifying to your ability to do advanced work independently.

You should not always go to the person with a prestigious title for a letter. The eventual readers of these letters look for evidence that the referee knows you, so ask accordingly.

If you are a transfer student or have taken courses elsewhere, a letter from a faculty member outside Yale would be appropriate. You should, however, have at least one letter from a Yale faculty member.

Most law schools either require or recommend a “dean’s certification letter.” The function of this letter is to provide an overview of your Yale record, both academic and extracurricular, and a personal assessment from someone who has come to know you. Law schools ask the dean to certify that you have not been in any academic or disciplinary difficulties and to explain these if they have occurred. Finally, you certainly would be wise to ask for a recommendation from someone who knows you outside Yale whenever such a letter could provide testimony concerning special experiences or talents. A summer employer, a volunteer work supervisor, or a person for whom you have worked in an internship is a possible referee.

How Do I Ask for a Letter?
When you decide on those whom you would like to write on your behalf, ask them in person if possible. You may suggest an interview or at least provide them with an up-to-date résumé and any other information they might need to write a good letter. Let your referees know clearly the uses to which the letter will be put, as, for example, for applications to law schools, medical schools, or business schools, or for applications for employment after graduation. Give them an addressed envelope (either to your college dean’s office or to the Health Professions Advisory Board, 55 Whitney Avenue) along with the recommendation form. Most important, give them time; do not wait until the last minute.

Which Form Should I Use?
Your residential college dean’s office keeps confidential statement forms in stock. When you sign the waiver on this form, you relinquish your right to any future access to that recommendation letter.
Please note: letters for use in connection with application to medical or law school must not be sent to your Dean’s Office. Remember, if you are applying to medical school, you must use the forms provided by the Health Professions Advisory Board. Placement files for pre-medical students are maintained in the office of the Health Professions Advisory Board at Undergraduate Career Services, 55 Whitney Avenue, where the appropriate evaluation forms may be obtained. On the other hand, placement files for pre-law students are usually maintained through Law School Admission Council (LSAC). However, if you are applying to a graduate school you must use the forms supplied by your dean. It is advisable to request recommendations from your referees for graduate school or for employment.

How Do the Letters Get from My College Dean’s Office to Where I Need Them?
Easily! Provide the senior administrative assistant with stamped, addressed envelopes (no return addresses, please – the office return address is used). It is important that all such requests be made in writing.

Timing is crucial. There is always a crunch at the end of the fall term to get letters out. You help everyone, yourself included, if you complete your placement file by December 1. This is even more important if you are completing your degree requirements in December; if that is the case, before you leave New Haven, you should check with your dean’s office to see if your file is complete.

As far as is possible, make all your requests of the administrative assistant at one time. If your directions are clear, most requests can be processed within one or two working days.

What Are the Procedures for Institutions Requesting Totally Assembled Application Packets with Letters of Recommendation Enclosed?
Some institutions request students themselves to assemble all of their application materials, including letters of recommendation, and to mail them together to the institution as an all-inclusive packet in the same covering envelope. Yale cannot cooperate with this arrangement, because it might seem to compromise the strict confidentiality of students’ letters. That is the case even though the letters would be in sealed envelopes, since the arrangement would nonetheless involve actually handing over to students themselves copies of their references. Instead, your college dean’s office must send your letters of recommendation to these institutions in exactly the same way that it sends letters to other institutions. That is, you should give to your dean’s administrative assistant stamped envelopes addressed to the institution; the administrative assistant will place copies of your letters in those envelopes and mail the envelopes directly and separately to the institution. Included with the letters of recommendation are cover letters that explain Yale’s policy of sending the letters separately. You yourself mail your “all-inclusive” application packet to the institution, minus the copies of the letters of recommendation on file in your dean’s office. We suggest that you enclose a note in the packet stating that your college dean’s office is sending your letters separately, and that it is Yale’s policy to send them in that way.

Yale has checked with institutions that request all-inclusive application packets, and they have assured us that our method is acceptable to them. There is a good reason for Yale’s policy. College deans certainly trust their students not to read their letters of recommendation. Nevertheless, if members of the faculty are to remain confident that residential college deans’ offices are totally secure repositories of confidential letters of reference, any arrangement by which anyone other than the college dean or the administrative assistant possessed the letters before they are mailed might possibly compromise trust in a system that is so convenient and advantageous to students, and that has been worked out so successfully over the years between the deans’ offices and the faculty.

There’s No Letter!
Unfortunately, this is an all-too-frequent complaint. You have done everything you can do, and Professor X still hasn’t come through. Politely, but firmly, let him or her know that the letter is vital and that a deadline is approaching.

You should check your placement file periodically during the term to see if any requested letters have not yet arrived. If time is running out and any are still missing, tell the administrative assistant. Give the assistant properly addressed and stamped envelopes and request that when they arrive, the letters be duplicated and mailed promptly. This procedure might get your application completed just under the wire.

What Happens after I Graduate?
Your placement file is kept after your graduation. The procedure for having letters sent is the same as that outlined above. Make sure you include your year of graduation on your request, and include postage. This service is free of charge while you are an enrolled student in Yale College and for the first year thereafter; beyond this point there is a fee of $5.00 for each packet mailed. The fee must accompany your request.

Requesting Strong Letters of Recommendation

1. Approach potential recommenders first as advisers. Get to know them and let them get to know you. Discuss your larger interests and goals. Ask for their advice about potential projects, reading, courses of study, graduate programs. . . . These conversations will be invaluable in themselves, but they will also allow you to judge who is likely to be your most enthusiastic recommenders; these meetings will also allow those who write for you to write more informed and more personally engaged letters.

2. Ask someone who knows you well and who will be able to discuss in specific detail what distinguishes you.

3. Ask well in advance of the deadline. Two to four weeks may be adequate. But it is often helpful to consult with the recommender to see how much lead-time is needed. This is especially true for letters for major fellowships and for letters to be written over the summer.

4. Ask: “Do you feel you know me (or my academic record, my leadership qualities) well enough to write a strong letter of recommendation for the X scholarship?” You’ve now given the professor the opportunity to decline gracefully. If the answer is “no,” don’t push. This inquiry may be done via email-if you already have an established relationship with the potential recommender.

5. Schedule an appointment with your recommenders to discuss the scholarship, its selection criteria, your most recent and commendable activities, and to suggest what each recommender might emphasize. (You may want to let your recommenders know who your other recommenders are, so that they can write letters that complement rather than repeat one another.)

6. Bring to this meeting:
* A current resume or a list of your activities and honors. Be sure to include internships or work/research experience, community service, conference papers/presentations, other creative or leadership experiences.

* A copy of your personal statement, project proposal, and/or course of study proposal, or other descriptive information from the application (information about career plans, foreign travel experience, or non-academic interests is sometimes requested). If you have not yet completed these materials, provide an informal version in the form of a 1-2 page statement.

* Any pertinent reminders about the work you have done for this professor that will help you highlight what makes you a strong candidate; past papers or exams are especially helpful.

* A copy of your transcript (if applying for a nationally competitive fellowship). This can be an unofficial copy and is to give your recommender an overview of your academic program to-date as well as your grades. If your grades are not what you think they should be, be ready to identify any extenuating circumstances (e.g. family or other responsibilities, number or level of courses taken).

* The official description of the criteria the recommender’s letter should address and the deadline by which the letter is due. Supplement this description with your own suggestions as to what you would like your recommender to emphasize.

* Any cover sheets or official recommendation forms that should accompany the letter. Be sure to complete any section that pertains to you: name, address to which the letter should be sent, etc. Each scholarship is different. Make sure you have waived your right to access under the Family Rights and Privacy Act. Selection committees often fail to take non-restricted letters seriously.

* If you are asking for more than one letter (as for graduate school or multiple fellowships), provide the following information on a separate sheet, as well as stamped and addressed envelopes for each fellowship:

• To whom each letter should be addressed (individual or committee, relevant titles, address).

• Whether each letter should be mailed directly to the funding agency (as in the case of the Rhodes, NSF, Mellon) or remitted to the Office of International Education and Fellowship Programs for inclusion in the application packet (Truman, Goldwater, Udall, Marshall).

• The deadline. Be sure to distinguish between a “postmark” and a “received by” due date.

7. Be ready to discuss: why you seek the recommendation; what strengths, qualifications, preparation, achievements, skills or goals make you a strong candidate for this opportunity and help distinguish you from other candidates; what points you would like the recommender to emphasize or address.

8. If a recommender asks you to provide a draft of your own recommendation, you may ethically provide a list of bullet points you would like the letter to address and/or factual narrative of key achievements (avoid adjectives) — along with other supporting information such as listed above. Explain that you are unable to write a draft that provides the kind of judgment and comparative evaluation that only the recommender can provide and that helps make for a strong recommendation.

9. Finally, be sure to write your recommenders a note of thanks and let them know what happens

Adapted from a handout provided by Jane Curlin, Willamette University

Registrar’s Office

http://www.yale.edu/sfas/registrar
The Registrar’s Office maintains data and provides services for students, deans and administration in Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the areas of academic records and student status; registration, enrollment and course information; and tuition and housing.

Transcript Requests

Transcripts are official Yale College documents and are issued only by the Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They may be ordered by mail, on line, by phone (888-290-0690), or in person at the Registrar’s Office, 246 Church Street. Please refer to http://www.yale.edu/sfas/registrar/#transcripts regarding transcript requests. For each transcript order, the charge for the first transcript is $7.00; there is a charge of $3.00 for each additional transcript ordered at the same time. Orders are usually completed within five business days after they are received. Note, however, that mailed requests go through both the U.S. and campus mail and may take a week or more before they are received by the Registrar’s Office. (The Registrar’s Office is closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day when many applications are due. You should therefore allow extra processing time at that time of year.) It is sometimes possible for the Registrar’s Office to accept rush orders. For these orders, there are additional processing and mailing fees. The Registrar provides in each student’s fall registration packet, free of charge, a copy of the student’s academic record to date, but this unofficial document should not be confused with the official transcript required by graduate and professional schools.

Dean’s Excuse

Form: Dean’s Excuse

Although winter is hopefully still a long way off, the weather has already taken its toll on our collective physical health, and many of you have succumbed to the sundry illnesses that are an unfortunate but inevitable part of the cold months. Last week I saw many of you who wished to receive Dean’s Excuses, so I thought now might be a good time to cove some important information pertaining to these peculiar documents.

Let’s refresh our memories by directing your attention to Section H. On paragraph III, you will find that:

There are three kinds of late or postponed work: (1) work late during term time; (2) work incomplete at the end of term; and (3) postponed final examinations. INSTRUCTORS OF COURSES MAY, DURING TERM TIME, GIVE PERMISSION TO MAKE UP LATE OR MISSED WORK, PROVIDED THAT SUCH WORK IS SUBMITTED BEFORE THE END OF TERM.

This may be news not only to you but to many of your instructors. It is important to be aware of their authority to postpone work, since a Dean’s Excuse can be issued ONLY in the following instances:

(1) Incapacitating Illness – this does not mean bad cold, fatigue, lack of sleep, etc. By now, you know what incapacitating really means.
(2) Death of a family member
(3) A comparable emergency – use your judgment
(4) Observance of religious holy days
(5) Participation in varsity intercollegiate events (not practice and not club sports).

This year is going to provide many of you with fantastic opportunities that may, unfortunately, become obstacles for handing in work on time. Participation in dramatic events, singing groups, and non-varsity athletics will in many cases compete for time that might otherwise be used for studying, writing, or attending classes. In addition, every year many students must attend interviews for medical schools, brokerage houses, and the like, and these commitments may also interfere with class work. It is precisely in such circumstances that you should be aware of the authority of your instructor to postpone work; it will be your ONLY means for turning in late work without penalty. I can’t write Dean’s Excuses for reasons that – no matter how compelling they may be – do not fall into the categories I’ve already mentioned.

This is also an opportune moment to point out that certain times in the semester (such as midterms and finals) will often place heavy demands on your schedules. It is essential that you anticipate and coordinate these difficulty periods; problems that arise from not having enough time to complete papers or prepare for exams are specifically excluded from reasons eligible for Dean’s Excuses.

Be especially careful of situations in which your instructor says to you: “it’s fine with me as long as you get a Dean’s Excuse.” You will know under what circumstances you will be able to receive one, so you may have to resolve the issue on the spot. Be VERY careful about assuming you will get a Dean’s Excuse in instances where you overslept for an exam, ran out of time because of rehearsals to finish the problem set, etc., because you will ultimately find yourself between a rock and a hard place. The same thing goes for computer malfunctions – back up your work, and make hard copies for your files. It is important also to know that Dean’s Excuses can only extend deadlines; they cannot cover absences, whatever the reason.

One last but essential remark about postponing work: at the end of term, everything changes; extensions for outstanding work or make-up examinations can be issued ONLY by me. Beware of getting permission from instructors to turn work in after the end of the term. Without WRITTEN permission from me, you will receive a non-passing grade for the course. Period. So be careful.

Take good care of yourselves, and stay well – and warm!