Deadlines must be met (if they exist, that is.)

I'm a skeptic of most everything, and this includes the University of Maine. College professors can make or break an experience. Some professors reign students in tight, work them to the bone and get a lot from them. Others let their students go with little instruction and let them find their own paths. Some don't do much for students at all and lecture the yawns out of them.

Today I found a professor who wanted to reign us in, but was more of the "find your own path" sort of guy.

I read through the syllabus before allowing him to explain its stipulations. 

"Late work is not accepted," it states under "Assignments." "You can not pass the course without completing every assignment," it states under "Grading."

OK, I thought, this guy is serious.

Then I flip to the back, where the schedule for the semester is. Each reading is given its own Tuesday or Thursday. "We don't have to do it in this order," the professor explained. "It's pretty flexible."

At a closer examination, he has no deadline for any of the seven, what look to be difficult, assignments and research projects. "I'm not sure what I want you to do yet," he explained. "And projects never finished, they are unending."

So, from what I learned today, late work is not accepted, but don't worry because there are no deadlines and there never will be because research never ends.

This is life at a liberal arts college.