A college's academic council refuses to let a student sit a paper on a later date after a death in his family, holding that if one student is allowed a later date then in a few years no student will sit any paper on the day appointed for it. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the council's argument?

The council's case is a prediction that one concession must spread until the appointed day means nothing, and eleven years of the same concession at three comparable colleges, with the appointed day as well kept as ever, is the prediction tested and failed. It also shows how the spread is stopped — the concession is tied to a certificate. The student's attendance is a reason for sympathy, not an answer to the prediction. Where the rule-making power lies tells us who may decide, not what will follow from deciding. And the December examination offers him another remedy while leaving the council's chain of reasoning entirely intact.