The Fora: A Higher Education Community

None that I could see.   What will you do here?

The boneheaded decision to cancel the valedictorian's speech is the root of this particular issue, a numbskull adminiscritter's foolish desire to appease potentially offended-by-the-as-yet undelivered speech.

The potential that it sounds fake is because when people go into too much detail about something, it's often that they're lying and trying too hard to make up an excuse. "I wasn't out late with Emily, honey — it's just that I remembered we didn't have any milk so I stopped at the grocery — um, but I didn't bring back any milk because, um, it turned out they had run out of milk so I asked at the front desk if they had any more back in storage, and, um, so they had to get the manager and it took a long time, and, um..." It's a kind of running on that people do when they're stuck for an excuse. So if you give a dozen details about why you have to go, not only is it dull for the listener, but it's the kind of overuse of detail that's often associated with trying too hard to make an excuse. It comes across as weirdly inappropriate to the situation, as well as trying the listener's patience.

Quote from: apl68 on April 26, 2024, 12:38:41 PMNow USC has cancelled its main graduation ceremony entirely:

This is the kind of stuff that hardcore Republicans love to hate and talk about endlessly.

Took a detour to a birding hotspot and was rewarded by a sight of more than 200 birds, either nesting or gathering nest materials--snowy egrets, great egrets, glossy ibises, white ibises, yellow-crowned night herons, black-crowned night herons, a couple of little herons, and great blue herons, but mostly egrets and ibises.

Quote from: apl68 on April 26, 2024, 12:38:41 PM]

Were I a graduating senior (or parent of one), I'd be very unhappy with the activists who brought this about.

If I were a parent who had traveled for commencement, I might consider occupying the presidents office (or the SVP of alumni relations and development) in protest of a stupid response to student engagement with the improtant issues of the day.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 26, 2024, 08:15:33 AMToday, just some T1ing.

Did just a bit.

I'd like to bang colleague's head.

Student submits final essay with 98% similarity. Student emails "I matched with myself. I asked my English professor if I could turn in the same paper I wrote for you to him too. He said it was ok." Stu forwards email exchange confirming. The English prof said something like "welp, it looks like you got lucky that the essay you'd write for him works for my prompt. Go ahead. [Ratguy] won't mind."

In what world is this ok?

On at least one occasion I have had a student email me several years after they graduated to changed a grade of a course several years before that to raise their GPA so they can get into some graduate program. (It turned out they had emailed several professors in my department with the same request.) The response was easy, in that it is not possible to change a grade of a student once they graduate.

I emailed their academic advisor to give them a heads-up about Stu's unethical request.

We'll see what happens next if anything.