This semester Pace lost an overwhelming amount of class time to Hurricane Sandy. Even in the aftermath, many students did not have access to power. As finals approach, the question looms over whether faculty will take these mitigating factors into account when evaluating final course grades.

“The superstorm changed my usual idea of deadlines and due dates,” said English professor Daniel Bender. “I gave one extension, then a second extension, and in some classes, a third extension—but only in the two weeks or so after the disaster. In terms of final grades, missing work caused by the storm follows the well-established policy: document to the Dean’s Office that an emergency made attendance and/or completion impossible.”

Other courses were able to get by without out much disturbance.

“Fortunately, my students and I missed only one day of class when Hurricane Sandy caused Pace University in Pleasantville to close,” said English professor Edna Lief. “Remarkably, student attendance in my classes remained high in the week after the storm and except for allowing students more time to complete assignments, classes continued normally.  So Hurricane Sandy will not affect the way I assess the final course grades of my students this semester.”

For more hands on classes, faculty have taken other approaches to the loss of time.

“The storm only affected my Media Production I class, mainly because we missed a week due to Sandy and a week following because of the snow storm” said communications professor Michael DeRario. “The first thing because we are a production department, my main concern is making sure the students have the foundation to go into the next classes…in order to go into Media Production II, there’s a certain level of information and skills they need, and my main goal for the semester has been not to lower that standard.

“But I’ve been sympathetic to students who might have needed to miss class because of issues related to the storm. Documentation allows me to see that,” continued DeRario. “But what I’ve actually done—because I can’t drop that standard and I can’t allow it to happen—is I’ve met individually with all students who’ve missed classes, outside of class. So I’ve pretty much spent an additional class period with students one on one, just rearranging based on their schedule and my schedule, to make sure they obtain those skills. I can’t move my class onto blackboard. See, a lot of other classes you can include an online portion. I can only go so far. They need to be here for me to show it to them.”

In regard to finals grades, for DeRario it is more a question of making sure students are on track before the evaluation process begins.

“By the time I’m in the position of evaluating them, it will be equal to all other semesters. Right now, it’s stressful for me because I’m trying to get it all in,” said DeRario. “It’s been the most hectic semester, it’s been the most crammed semester, and it’s exhausting. I can see it in the students, but I’m working with them and I think we are able to find a happy medium. I just want to make sure they’re prepared.”