Yeah, you beat the system...bite me.

The BBQ Pit
1

Currently, I’m pursuing my doctorate. One of the benefits of this (I think) is that I have been given my own class to teach. Not an graduate assistant to a professor, but my very own class. Juniors and seniors. I love it. Favorite part of the whole program, actually.

Never really had a problem with students…until this summer.

Student X, as he/she will be known, had the following impressive stats:

  1. Missed the first six days of class because he/she thought it met the second session of the summer, not the first

  2. Missed seven more days later in the term, six of which were due to a “family emergency.” In total, Student X officially missed half the class periods in the summer session.

  3. He/she claimed in an e-mail (the day before the class ended) that he/she turned in all but two of the class lab exercises late. I counter with “You’ve only turned in ONE of the ten exercises, period.” He/she proceeds to claim he/she slipped them under my office door.

Okay…at this point, I start getting angry. First of all, I had told my students repeatedly (the one’s that show up, at least) to submit assignments to my mailbox…putting them under my door is not appropriate. Secondly, I received no assignments, and have never lost an assignment in the year I have been teaching…let alone NINE assignment from the SAME STUDENT.

I tell him/her as much, as boldly state “You must have slipped them under someone else’s door, because I would have received them had it been my door.” I proceed to express my concern that he/she 1) never informed me that I should look for them slipped under my door (other students follow up when they simply put them in my mailbox) and 2) never inquired as to why I wasn’t handed graded assignments back to him/her, when all the students around him/her are receiving their assignments back. He/she states that I handed back assignments at the very end of class, and he/she always left when I got done lecturing. Wrong…I handed back assignments at the beginning and in the middle of class, as well.

Anywho, I inform the head of our department of this situation (the student isn’t going to pass without those assignments, let alone get a 2.0), and she informs me “This is a student whose name I’m very familiar with. Don’t let him/her scam you into giving him/her a grade they didn’t earn.” I tell the student my hands are tied, and I’m bound by the syllabus…his/her only recourse is to talk to the department head.

So I return from Fourth of July weekend to find myself copied on this message from the department head to the student: “Ultimately, the decision is up to Prof. Lockseer. However, I think most instructors would be willing to let you make up the missed assignments with proper documentation.”

Holy 180’s, Batman! Here, I thought I had the support of my department head, only to find out I’m being pushed into allowing this punk/punkette to make up the “missing assignments!” Yes, I know it was “up to” me, but the phrasing made it rather clear what I was expected to do.

Long story short, I gave the student 48 hours to re-submit the missing assignments. I received them and graded them…and he/she was .22% (yes, less than 1%) above the 2.0 range. He/she almost missed his/her 2.0 mark anyway. Thing is, the assignments were subjective, so he/she may have just as easily failed had I graded it in a different mood.

So…one more student entering the world having learned they can buck the system and manipulate those in power. Who knew I was teaching such valuable life lessons? Bashes head repeatedly against wall

2

Resistance is futile, teacher.

3

Crikey, Lockseer, I sympathise! When I was but a lowly TA, it drove me mad to have my authority undermined by the lecturing prof, and it happened more than once. (And not just to me – there was practically a coup d’etat when an ABD faculty wife treated her TAs as little more than slaves, and frequently changed complaining students’ grades – the students soon learnt she would do this with ease, and her 5 TAs finally rebelled against her, and said if she wished to grade all 300 students’ exams on her own, she was welcome to it.)

One tries to be professional, and the students – or a certain type of student – knows he/she will get away with just about anything, because one isn’t a real professor, just a grad student (where I was for grad school, undergraduates could do no wrong, and grads were at the bottom of the heap.)

I had a student who was daughter to faculty in the same department who was an absolute cow in section, because, as she told everyone, if I tried to do anything, her dad would have me sacked. In fact, when she received a B on an exam, she came down the crowded hallway towards me, waving the paper over her head, asking me why I was such a bitch. Festive! She did actually get her dad to speak to my professor to try to have me sacked; in this case, my professor quietly informed him that he daughter was a manipulative little twit. To his credit, he sadly had to agree.

The one that absolutely infuriated me, though, was a nasty piece of work who would stop at nothing to get at me because of his own laziness. He came late to section, if at all, and hated to turn in assignments. He once offered me unlimited use of his car if I would give him a passing grade on an exam (a fellow TA told me I ought to have said, ‘Cool!’ and then driven the thing back and forth to LA 7 times). He also informed me, on receiving a generous C on an exam, that he had been to an exclusive prep school and have never, ever received such a low grade before. My response? Congratulations! He also threw a fit when he found out that I allowed another student in his section to photocopy my notes – cos I wouldn’t let HIM photocopy my lecture notes…er, that’s cos the other student had a broken arm.

The absolutely infuriating stunt he pulled, came after he overheard another TA and I teasing a couple of students from that TA’s section. They were all good natured kids, and were asking us, did we grade them by tossing the exams down a flight of steps, with the steps marked A, B, etc. Just silly stuff. Bear in mind, my student was not only not involved in this conversation (sitting several rows away but watching intently), but again, the kids involved were giggling and very good students having a laugh.

Cut to a few days later, my professor hauls me into his office and demands an explanation for the racist comments I made about a student! (This was a different prof from the one above). I was absolutely gobsmacked, and told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He said he would NOT tell me who the student was, nor precisely what the student had said, but that this student was extremely distressed that I had been teasing him about his grades, and how much I enjoyed flunking him because of the colour of his skin – I found out later it was this kid who did this, from some of the snarky things he said to me.

At the time, I asked the professor which student said these things about me, but he said I had no right to know (!), and that I was on probation, and if he learnt I was saying any more racist and offensive comments I would be booted from the programme. To say I was gutted is an understatement – I have never, ever been racist nor would ever do something such as that, and to have this professor automatically assume that I was this horrible really hurt me (this was my dissertation director, too, and I thought he knew me better than that.) This kid was well pleased with himself, and I never really got on with my director after that.

Absolutely bonkers.

4

If the assignment is subjective, re-grade it and fail him/her. Before the next class you teach, set forth an attendance policy in the syllabus that would ensure someone missing that many classes fails. Set forth a coursework policy that states unambiguously that assignments are to be turned in to you personally or placed in your mailbox, and that assignments not turned in in this fashion will be graded ZERO and no make-up assignments will be offered, and for every day the assignment is late the grade will be reduced by 10%. Every college course I’ve ever taken included attendance and assignment criteria.

S/he’s learning the lesson that s/he can manipulate the system because you, part of the system, are allowing him/her to manipulate you.

5

The syllabus lays out the following:

  1. You get four absences. Each absence beyond the first four eats into your “Attendance and Participation” grade. At the very onset of the semester, when he/she (okay, screw it, it’s a he) missed the first six classes, saying he hadn’t known the class had even started, I foolishly told him that due to the extenuating circumstances, I would start his attendance record from Day Seven. The attendance policy was then trumped by the department head’s proclamation.

  2. Students get a 10% reduction in their grade for an assignment for each day it is turned in late. This is in the syllabus. Most of the assignments would be worth zero points if turned in at the end of the semester, but again, this was trumped by the department head’s e-mail. I ended up grading each 10-point assignment on an 8-point scale.

  3. Will definitely address how NOT to turn in assignments in future syllabi.

  4. I graded the assignments in green pen, so would look highly suspicious if I graded, then went back and changed the grade. Also, although some were subjective, there was certain vague info I was looking to be included, and I graded him on the same basis as all others.

  5. My biggest regret is that out of the 20 points available for attendance, I told him in an e-mail he would only be receiving 10 points. If I had said zero, he would not have passed. I should have stuck to my guns, but didn’t want to (a) go back on what I said at the beginning of the semester about those days not counting and (b) deal with a “death in the family” issue. But still…13 out of 29 days missed? Definitely cracking down in the fall…

6

what was his major. . .psychology or sociology?

[that rude joke is based on experience]

7

Heh. Neither, actually…but teacher/student confidentiality prevents me from saying more. :rolleyes:

8

You’ll find the longer you teach, the more detailed and complex your syllabus will become, as you seek to close every loophole the students can find! And they still won’t read it, according to colleagues…and in my own experience with music students.

9

Ah, yes. They don’t read it…which is why we have the time-honored tradition of “Syllabus Day,” that first day of class where you go over it with the students and make sure they are clear on it. Of course, students are more likely to also skip this first day of class, and it doesn’t help students who perhaps add the class after the first couple days of the semester.

10

Ya buckled.

11

My partner does the same thing, the Reading of the Syllabus…he’s got it down to an art, humiliating the ones who try to claim they didn’t know, it wasn’t on the syllabus, waaa! Invariably, the ones who pull this stunt are ones who were there; when people add later, he always warns them to go over the syllabus and ask him any questions if there’s ever any doubt.

He gives them a hard copy, and also has a copy on the class website, and he’s had students try to hack into the latter to change stuff…crikey, if you’re going to go through that much trouble, just follow the rules to begin with!

He’s said he’s going to have ‘Read the syllabus’ carved on his headstone…

12

Yup.

The department head said “with proper documentation.”

Did the student provide “proper documentation” for the family emergency?

13

Oh, I agree. But largely due to the pressure of my department chair, who said that most instructors would be willing to allow a student in his situation to make up the missing assignments. I could have still stood by the “Prof. Lockseer has the final word” edict, but as a first-year PhD student, I felt I needed her full support in my decision, and I didn’t feel like I had it.

14

Maybe this is a silly question…

Living in the digital age, can’t you just say, “I’m sure you have them on disc/hard drive/whatever”. Go print them out and have them back to me in the next six hours.

Impossible to get all that work done that quickly, I imagine. Easy to reprint them all in that time, however.

-Joe, probably missing something

15

I didn’t wish to be put in the situation of asking the student to provide me with a copy of an obituary. Besides…I was certain he would come up with something.

I’m not denying I buckled…but my morale was shaken by the sudden about-face of the department chair.

16

The assignments were out of a lab manual. You complete them, tear them out of the book, and hand them in. The night he e-mailed me about his standing in the class, I sent an e-mail out to all the students asking them to bring their lab manuals in the next day, mainly so I could look at his and see if they were even torn out…of course, he didn’t bring his.

Two of the exercises, though, require work with a computer program. I told him Thursday morning to e-mail me, as attachments, his saved files for that. He e-mailed them to me around 4pm. He may have had them completed, or he may have just done them that afternoon…unfortunately, you can’t check the “created” date/time through “Properties.” :frowning:

17

Yeah, this applies to many work situations. For example, when the SDMB first moved to the web from AOL, Ed decided that we’d have one rule: “Don’t be a jerk”. As we’ve grown and had more experience, we’ve had to declare things like don’t use sock puppets (especially not to agree with yourself), don’t misquote people, don’t use hate speech, don’t call people trolls, etc. It’s a royal pain, and most of these rules could be avoided if we could just count on people to USE SOME COMMON SENSE, DAMMIT!

18

Yeah, your department chair buckled too.

Itsa bummer when you find out that your boss has no spine. I lived that for the past three years.

19

Pressure from the dept. chair my ass.

The kid beat the system because YOU let him beat the system!

Jeez, if there ever was a kid who deserved a failing grade, this is it.

20

You should have stuck to your guns and just told the student that it was too late to submit the earlier assignments. Handing things in late is one thing, but not handing them in at all and then claiming that they had, in fact, been handed in is pretty fucking low. We always make a point of telling the students never to slide anything under anyone’s door.

I do think that your department head shafted you, especially after she made it very clear to you that she was well aware of the fact that your student was a slacker and a scammer. She should not have made any statement about what you might or might not do in her email to the student, and if she was going to make such a statement, she should have discussed it further with you. Under those circumstances, she effectively made you the bad guy and absolved herself of any need to stand behind you, and i think that sucks.

As a TA, i’ve had to fail students for plagiarism, for non-attendance, and for failing to submit work, and so far i’ve been lucky enough to have the full support of my professors. Last semester, i failed one student who turned up to fewer than half the sections, and who constantly submitted work late without an excuse. I also gave another student a D, which effectively meant an F, because the student was taking the class pass/fail, and at our university this requires a grade of C or above.

One student went to the Dean to try and get around the issue, and when the Dean asked the professor what the deal was, the professor asked me about it. I made it very clear that i was standing by the grade, and that i had documented all the student’s absences and late work. The prof stood by me 100%, and the dean said, effectively, “OK, if that’s the story, then an F seems appropriate.”

Of course, there are times when i’m happy to defer to the professor’s better judgment, especially where grades are concerned. I had one student who got a B+ for a course, but who wanted an A-. We sat down and went over all the work the student submitted and i explained why i had given a particular grade for each paper. Then i also explained how i had calculated the participation grade for the student. The student kept pressing for the grade to be raised, and i finally said,

“Look, i’ve explained how i arrived at the grade. I think i’ve been fair, and that if i change your grade it will be unfair to other students in the class. I am, however, a TA and not a tenured professor, and i’m fully willing to concede that, despite my best efforts to be fair, you might be right that i’ve been too hard on you. If you still feel that to be the case, you should take the issue to the professor and have him look at your work. I won’t be offended if you do this, and if the professor changes your grade then i will accept that decision completely. But i’m not willing to change it myself.”

She did, in fact take the work to the prof. He hasn’t yet had a chance to look at it. If he bumps her to an A-, i won’t be at all offended. It’s funny because before this happened, when the prof and i were going over the final grades, he said, “The biggest complainers about grades are nearly always the students who get a B+, because they always feel they really derves an A- or an A.”