To receive a Dean’s Extension at Yale, a student must have a reason for the request. Except for an “observance of a religious holy day” or “required participation in an intercollegiate varsity athletic event,” the rest of the reasons for request are essentially different types of emergencies. Although there is an “other” category, depending on the dean, this could be used liberally or hardly at all. A student shouldn’t have to be going through an emergency to get leniency at this school. The policy of giving out Dean’s Extensions should be amended. 

Recently and for the first time at Yale, I emailed my dean for a Dean’s Extension. I was extremely stressed because I had a midterm and a problem set, where the problem set was due less than 24 hours after the midterm. I needed to study for the midterm, so I asked my Dean for a one day extension on my problem set. 

In my email, I told her that I didn’t think I could complete the problem set by my deadline if I were to study for my midterm. I told her I was stressed and had already spent numerous hours on the problem set. I also told her there were some family health issues that I didn’t want to elaborate on further unless necessary. 

To be clear, I only asked for a one day extension. I wasn’t being unreasonable. The next day would have been Spring Break, so the extension wouldn’t have been burdensome or cause any cascading effects — such as me being late on other problem sets. 

My dean rejected my request, saying that stress does not constitute grounds for a Dean’s Extension.

Shocked, I replied to my dean’s email. I basically had to trauma dump everything that was happening to my family even though I really didn’t want to. I needed that one day extension because it was a coding problem set. If I couldn’t complete the program on time, it would be a failing grade near a zero. Mostly complete was not enough. This is just the grade aspect of things — had I not received an extension I would have continued to feel overwhelmed, undoubtedly taking a toll on my mental health. 

In the end, my dean offered me support because of my family’s health issues. I felt angry at her that I had to explain the heavy situation in order to get leniency. What she said in the email also stood out to me. My dean said, “That is a legitimate and understandable difficulty, and one for which I can offer support.” By saying this, it felt like she didn’t believe that me feeling overwhelmed was a legitimate or understandable difficulty — a real slap in the face. 

Although I didn’t appreciate her wording, I realized after submitting the Dean’s Extension form it wasn’t actually her fault, rather the fault of the system. For context, the formal way one goes about asking for a Dean’s Extension is through a form on SIS, but typically one would email one’s dean for a heads up first. 

While each dean is more or less lenient, the stated criteria for a Dean’s Extension would be the death of a family member, a severe physical or mental illness or some other “comparable emergency.” Why is it that one literally has to be in one’s worst condition in order to get an extension? Why must one be forced to the absolute limit to get leniency? If I need a one day extention so that I don’t have to pull an all-nighter or do poorly, why isn’t this enough of an excuse? 

Currently, I’m taking a course at Yale called Bioethics and Law. In this course, we’ve talked about the pitfalls of the American Healthcare System. My professor compared the American Healthcare System to an expensive ambulance parked at the bottom of the cliff. Other countries provide social support so that people don’t fall off the cliff to begin with; America only helps when the damage has been done, and many times this damage is already irreversible. 

The policies at Yale are like the American Healthcare System. Yale doesn’t care and won’t provide its students any leniency unless they have fallen off the cliff. Yale says they care about mental health, but they will only give a student leniency if the case is severe. They are fine letting their students be unreasonably stressed and stay up super late, never considering that this just pushes them closer to the cliff. Once Yale has broken you, only then does the help come. 

This fosters a more toxic environment. The policy must be amended. In addition to giving extensions on the basis of a varsity athletic event, a religious holy day or an emergency, deans should give extensions any time a student asks, on the condition that they explain why they need it and explain why the extension wouldn’t cause any cascading effects. What I mean by this is if a student needs another day on a problem set so that they can get adequate rest, a student should say that. The person should also explain how, if this extension was given, it wouldn’t cause more problems in the future. 

Sometimes, the issue with extensions is that one extension causes more problems than it solves. In some cases, an extension can lead to more stress if a student has other closely looming deadlines. But, if students can rationalize how an extension could help manage stress while not making them fall further behind, there should be no reason for a dean to reject this request. 

For example, varsity athletic events aren’t the only important activities happening on campus. If someone were in a play or in an acapella group and had a show, they might feel overwhelmed by a deadline. They should be able to request a one day or two day extension to relieve some of that stress and spread out their workload to be more manageable. 

Of course, I understand why the administration might be worried about implementing this new amendment. There is potential for overuse or perhaps some students will try to overly work the system. It also might be burdensome to professors who want to grade in a timely manner. To this argument, I say that an extension is just an extension — no work can ever be excused. I also think there can be some limitations to prevent overuse. Maybe extensions requested in this manner cannot be applied to midterms. Additionally, the administration could put a cap on how far these extensions could be requested. I think up to a three-day extension would be a fair policy. Let’s be honest, three days is not all that significant and shouldn’t be that burdensome for a professor. I also believe in the Yale student population. Although there could be some students who misuse this policy, I think most Yalies would only request an extension if they felt they really needed it and had good reason. 

Yale is a very rigorous school, and I’ve learned so much through my professors, discussion sections and coursework. I appreciate that Yale pushes me past my comfort zones. But I do feel that there are moments where Yale is unnecessarily hard. We are all trying to manage our time the best we can, but sometimes that just is not enough. Students shouldn’t need to ruin their mental and physical health to meet an arbitrary deadline. 

Anna Xu is a sophomore in Benjamin Franklin College.  Contact her at anna.xu@yale.edu.