First year postgrad Trish is having trouble with her thesis

Some supervisors like to meet with their students somewhere away from the academic pressures of college, perhaps over a meal or a drink, but in the past, you've found it easier to have yours come to your room. Now that all your graduates are extremely pretty and intelligent girls, maybe that will change, but for today, you're sticking with tradition.

So far you've been impressed by the acumen and competence of the young ladies you're supervising, but when Trish knocks diffidently on your door, you sense that this may be about to change. The twenty-two year old is quite light skinned for a black girl, but today she looks positively pale and seems nervous, in contrast to her colleagues, who have all appeared confident, even though they live under the constant prospect of being stripped and spanked for any reason.

A short discussion reveals the reason for Trish's unease. She's supposed to regularize her research by the end of this term, meeting certain milestones and producing a report that will act as evidence that she can be expected to complete her course successfully. It's required both by the university and by the funding body paying for her place. However, she's having a crisis of confidence and can't see where she's going from here. In all honesty, you're not totally surprised. She's proposed a phenomenally demanding thesis and scaling it back to something more manageable might be the best solution.

"Alright," you say to the girl trembling on the brink of tears sitting opposite you, "this is going to take longer than one supervisor meeting to sort out, so what we'll do is this: are you free on Saturday afternoon?"

"Yes, Professor," she murmurs without pausing to think, barely above a whisper.

"In that case, you can come over to my house with any research you might need and we'll look at it and come up with an action plan together. Perhaps we can find some new threads for you to pull on at the same time."

"Oh, thank-you, Professor," she gushes in relief. "I didn't know what I was going to do otherwise!"

"You ought to have come to me earlier, Trish. These meetings aren't just a formality, you know; they're to help keep you on track, so this sort of thing doesn't happen."

"Yes, Professor." Suddenly, she's very grave once again, aware that there is still the matter of chastisement to address.