A university class that was taught in a lecture hall was taking a final. And all of the students handed in their test except for this one guy. When he finally finished his test he brought it up to the professor, but his professor told him he had taken too long on the exam and that he couldnt turn his test in. The student was really mad at first and argued with the professor to try and get him to accept his test. But the professor still wouldnt let him turn in the test, saying that it wasnt fair to other students who had finished their tests within the time limit. So the student asked the professor, Do you even know my name? and the professor replied, No. So the student stuffed his test in the middle of the stack of the other students exams and left. He passed the class.
My informant told this story in his Musicianship class that is full of students who were high school seniors. I was unable to ask him his personal thoughts on the legend. However I believe that it reflects how impersonal the experience at a large university can be. Professors often have class sizes that have over 200 students enrolled, especially in lower division general education or introductory level courses. For most students their professors in these large classes will not know them personally and wont be able to match their face with their name. The tone of this story also seems to be a bit negative. It basically says that in a large impersonal environment, like college can be, you can get away with a lot more because no one knows who you are anyway.