My brush with royalty

[Mark Stellmack]

The first class that I taught at the U was a section of Sensation and Perception.  It turned out to be a busy semester, being the first time I taught the course and all.

Midway through the semester, a student contacted me saying that she had missed an exam and some other work because she had been chosen to be "Queen of the Snows" of the Winter Carnival.  As the Queen, she had to make a bunch of public relations appearances around the state, which interfered with her schoolwork.  (I tried not to dwell too long on the question of whether being Queen of the Snows actually made her a royal flake.)  I was somewhat annoyed that she was contacting me well after the exam and assignments in question because the make-up activities would require extra work on my part and I already had a lot going on.  Furthermore, the carefully worded make-up policy in my syllabus stated that students must notify me as soon as possible if they missed coursework, and the Queen clearly knew long before that she would be missing these activities.  I decided to dig in and deny her request to make up the work.

After several days of emails, involving the Queen pleading for make-up work and me stubbornly denying her request, I received a phone call from a guy.  He identified himself as the "King of the Snows" and he said that he was arguing the Queen's case.  It was then that I realized that the Royal Family of the Snows was not to be trifled with.  I finally caved in and allowed the Queen to make up the missed work.  Afterwards, a colleague noted that I was lucky they didn't send the Knights of the Snows after me.