Question of the Day Winner

A student asks Rudbeckia Hirta:

"Can you give me permission to fail algebra for a fourth time?"

I really have a hard time keeping a straight face when I get ones like that, but I usually manage to tell them that only a Vice President, on the advice of an appeals committee, can do that. One colleague, however, would preface that with a "Well, bless your heart, sweetie. I'd love to help you out but they just won't let me near the computer since that time when ... well, you might have read about it in the newspaper. You'll have to go to the Office of Academic Inquisitions like everyone else."

That combination of enthusiastic naivete is, sadly, not uncommon. But at least I have the excuse that I am at a CC, with its share of enthusiastically naive students, not at an alleged Flagship University of the State.