By: Kayleigh Bracht

“My little brother locked me in the closet last night. My parents didn’t realize until they got home from work the next day because I fell asleep,” one freshman engineering student explained to his professor.

Making up an excuse used to be as simple as telling your teacher that your dog ate your homework, but now professors at The University of Akron explain how students will come up with all sorts of excuses just to skip class or not do an assignment. Some of these excuses are believable, while others are not so much.

While some professors think that the extreme excuses students make are for great amusement, others think the students just are not as sharp as they used to be. The nonbelievers obviously did not hear about the students who survived their car literally blowing up while driving from their home to class.

How about a student’s family being so religious that they made him stop doing his homework to help them prepare for the coming of the end of the world? These are true stories, or so professors are led to believe by their students.

Some excuses are actually believable, such as having a backpack stolen with every device your paper was on. However, one English professor admitted that he just couldn’t argue with a student who had spent the night in jail on an outstanding warrant, especially when he showed up the next day with a signed slip from his counselor.

Sometimes students take the route of too much honesty, such as giving too much self-disclosure for personal problems like telling their teacher that they have hemorrhoids. This brings a question of whether a professor would rather hear the bare truth or a clever tale for an excuse.

“I make my students work to make up a good excuse,” said one professor in the School of Communication, who wanted to remain anonymous.

Many professors now try to head students off before they even try to make excuses by taking a stand and announcing they are tired of all the excuses and that they will no longer be tolerated. They often require from the student some kind of written notice to back up their excuse. However, no matter what, there will always be those students who strive to throw their teacher off with an out-there excuse for why they did not make it to class or why they failed to finish an assignment and turn in it on time.