No? No problem, I can ask someone else

Here's a series of events played out over four hours:

Student: Sir, my friend and I need your class to graduate this spring.

Me: It's already 10 over capacity. There's no way they'll let you in and I don't have the power to sign you in. There are two other sections with many empty seats. You can get into one of those.

Student: But sir, we want to take it from you.

Me: Appreciated, but I have no power.

They go to the registration desk where they are told the class is full. They come find me and take me to the registration desk where both of us say, "Class is full and we have no power to put you in the class."

They then go to my boss, the department chair. He tells them, "No, you can sign up for one of the two other sections."

They come back to me to ask me sign a paper saying I would let them in the class. Knowing I'd never get rid of them I write: "These students need this class to graduate. If there are no alternatives I don't mind if they are added to my class." They didn't seem to get my "no alternatives" clause.

They then took the paper to the Dean of the College (my boss' boss) who also turns them down. Shortly later I get an e-mail from my boss that politely states: "Steve, I will not let ANYONE be added to your class." I wrote back that I appreciate the blanket "NO" and that I can use that for the rest who were asking.

The "I'm going to shop around until I find someone to say 'yes'" attitude ties my stomach in knots. I need to get better at saying, "No way, no how." The "sorry, I have no power" is not working well for me.

***

Later in the day a student I loved having in class last year told me he'd try to get into this class. I told him the story above and he said, "I will still try. My father has wasta (connections)." So this will be interesting.