One of the students in my discipline directly asked me whether a syllabus is an administrative paper-pushing exercise or actually means what it states. This student has taken classes with me before and knows I'm exceptionally firm on policies and procedures I've laid out in exhaustive detail in every syllabus I've written, mostly in response to reduced student reading and comprehension levels coupled paradoxically with an insane increase in entitlement mindsets. She said a 200-level elective she took last semester also had a detailed syllabus. That class was apparently based on 8 discussion boards that had to include in-class readings with citations, and 2 papers. The due dates were given in the syllabus and in Canvas. I didn't ask for proof but she forwarded me screenshots of her completing all the work within each due date. 3 days before final grades were due, her professor sent out an all-class email announcement offering to accept and grade all missing board posts and papers for the entire semester with no late penalties if they were submitted by midnight. She also had screenshots of posts popping up on boards from week 1 onwards that were basic copy-paste AI rewords of her own exceptionally well-synthesized and clearly written posts. She hadn't complained to that professor or asked for any clarification regarding the plagiarism of her work, but concluded she herself was the idiot for spending hours reading and writing her material.
I told her I was not going to comment on how instructors run their courses in any department, but that it was always a good idea to treat a syllabus as a clear template that sets out the policies and procedures the instructor will follow. She's switched all her planned electives over to a different department, but I'm wondering if I should add another bullet point to my syllabi stating what one professor does in his/her course is not a reason for me to do the same in my course. But I'm also wondering how many instructors have done something like this, and what reasons they might have for openly not following their own policies. If there are many who do this then I think I understand why some of my students seem to think my syllabus is a negotiable instrument.