Do you ever keep student papers?

[hsh5]

I was discussing something with a senior colleague of mine at my SLAC (English department) when I noticed had a small stack of a student papers (which ended up all from the same student) dated from 2018 (!) on his his desk.

I assumed he was just going through old stuff so I mentioned that I needed to sort through my filing cabinets and purge myself of old student papers, but he said that he had already done that. Apparently, he was just holding on to this particular student's papers. He didn't elaborate but it's clear he didn't save anyone else's work. I happen to know the student well. She hasn't taken a class with him in two years. Somehow, I got the impression that he frequently looked back over her papers.

Now I know I'm being incredibly nosey here. The only reason I am wondering if this is normal or not is because a couple of faculty have noticed that he and this particular student (whose papers were on his desk) are seemingly becoming very close, making some of my female colleagues a bit concerned (for him and the student). The professor is not known to be lecherous but has mentioned difficulties with his wife. The student in question is attractive and smart, as well as vulnerable, clinically depressed and lacking in confidence.

Again, this is probably nothing but I found it odd. Just a gut feeling. But I haven't been in academia long. Certainly won't make a big deal of it but I wanted to hear your thoughts.

This colleague has become a good friend. I'm frankly worried he might cross a line he will regret.

[Ruralguy]

If you are asking whether I save student papers for various reasons: yes. However, I am about to move for the first time in 22 years, so I am dumping just about everything including old copies of papers of mine, students, etc.

If you are really asking whether or not this professor is having an inappropriate relationship with this student, well, I don't know. Maybe. What do you mean by very close? Do they have a professional reason for being together? Does your school ban such relationships? (not that they are usually ethical anyway---but it matters whether he can lose his job over it). I'd guess he just likes talking with her for various reasons. Maybe he'd cross a line, but probably not.
Again, difficult to know for various reasons.

[wellfleet]

As a former SLAC English professor, I implore you to please listen to your concerned colleagues and cooperate with your institution to protect this student.

That said, as a writing teacher, I keep all student papers. Digitally. I always have. That repository is one of my most valuable tools and I learn from it over time.

[Hegemony]

Of course all of us know of unfortunate instances in which professors have had inappropriate designs on students, However, they usually take more personal and egregious forms than merely keeping a student's papers. What would the professor be doing, rereading them and cackling malevolently? It seems odd to keep only one student's papers, but I don't think it rises to the level of a transgression, not without some definite further evidence. Why don't you ask him why he's keeping those papers, and if he remains in contact with the student?

[Parasaurolophus]

I want to keep a few as examples, but never get around to it.

I've never wanted to curate a particular student's collected works, however.

[Ruralguy]

We've had the idea of creating portfolios for students, but it would be odd for one prof to do that on his own.

It's also a little odd that he speaks at work about spouse trouble, but I suppose sometimes that would be unavoidable.

Maybe it's time to have someone of authority just confront him on the matter. My view is that if there is no obvious reason for them to professionally be together, he should back off. Someone really should say that, but it needs to be someone in authority.

[Aster]

I keep any major writing assignments where serious plagiarism has occurred and where a student has been reported to the university for such. I keep those papers longer, because I've had instances where that reprimand in the student's file has been challenged years later by the student.

I also hold longer onto any assessments from students who have a track record of harassing me and the university into giving them preferential treatment.

And then there are a select few writing assignments that I retain for curriculum use as references/rubric calibrators/examples.

Everybody else's stuff? It has an 18 month storage window and then it's thrown away.

[downer]

Since everything gets submitted online for me, it is there in the cloud somewhere.

But is bizarre to hold on to one student's work and also be rather obvious about it.

I took an online training recently which had a section on stalking. It seemed that all sorts of behavior could be an indication of stalking and should reported to the Title IX Officer.

Personally, I would not report it. But I might mention the issue to someone else in the dept, if I felt they had good judgment.

[Puget]

Clearly the real question is not the title question of the thread, but to answer it--

Our LMS archives past courses for three years, so files are saved on there for that long. I don't keep them longer than that.  A few times I've had a former student applying to grad school ask me if I have their paper because they want to use it as their writing sample and didn't save their own copy, and if it was within the last three years I retrieve it for them. I also occasionally ask a student who wrote a particularly good paper if I can share it with future classes as an example (they are generally delighted).

[jerseyjay]

You are really asking two questions. First, about saving student papers. Second, about a potential unprofessional relationship with a student. The two are not the same, although they might overlap.

1. I keep all student papers for a certain amount of time (two  years) and then I purge most of them. I sometimes do keep papers longer than this. I keep copies of the senior thesis indefinitely. I might also keep copies of student term papers I find exemplary, to show to future students (with the first student's permission). More rarely I might keep a copy of a student's paper if I find it useful for my own research, or if I think it is interesting.

When I was a student, once or twice a professor asked permission to keep a copy of a term paper in his or her files. When I was doing research in the archives of a professor who researched a similar topic as I did, there was a folder of old student papers, some going back to the 1940s, on various subjects. He obviously had not keep all his students' papers, but those he thought were useful or interesting. I have at times, in my own research, made use (and cited) of undergraduate research papers that are deposited at one or another archive, although these are very exceptional.

2. It is possible that there is something off with the professor's relationship with the student. Normally, however, when a professor is trying to seduce (or whatever word you want) a student, it does not involve lusting after her old papers. If he gets some kind of pornographic thrill from old papers, I would doubt he would keep the file openly on his desk. I would think it more likely that he is keeping the material in order to write a letter of recommendation or something that requires referring to old papers.  (When I write letters for students, especially those who want to go to grad school, I do ask to see old papers if they have them. It makes the letter more specific to be able to refer to these.)

I would suggest asking the professor why he keeps them. I would be upfront: "I am curious why you are keeping three-year old papers. I only keep them for a year." Or, "Do you keep the old papers of all your students? That must be a lot of cabinet space."

If you this colleague is a good friend, and you seriously think he is about to do something that he should not do, I might suggest you be direct to him about it (although do not make it about the stack of old papers). 

[apl68]

Like jerseyjay, I'm inclined to suspect an innocent explanation behind the odd stash of a certain student's papers.  Absent other signs of an inappropriate relationship, I wouldn't assume one.  If there are other signs, and colleagues feel there's reason to be concerned, then that's another matter.  It might indeed prove necessary to intervene for the student's sake.  We on this thread don't know enough at this point to be sure.

I've seen older profs cleaning out offices who had decades worth of student papers hoarded away.  Some people are real pack rats.

[mamselle]

Friends of a deceased emeritus prof (of 40 years' standing) once had to clean out his office-sized carrell at his former school's library, because they were helping edit his final book and several of the chapter proofs were there.

They found books declared "lost" two decades earlier, a number of his own duplicates (I was given one, I'm working from it currently), old sweaters, a lunch box buried under several stacks of files (jettisoned without opening, the files were a decade old themselves), etc.

His standing was such that he'd repelled all boarders at every turn and effort to visit the carell, and the library had given up.

They were very glad to get the 20 missing books back, and the proofs did turn up, already corrected, so he wasn't deadwood, just...untidy...

M.

[apl68]

Friends of a deceased emeritus prof (of 40 years' standing) once had to clean out his office-sized carrell at his former school's library, because they were helping edit his final book and several of the chapter proofs were there.

They found books declared "lost" two decades earlier, a number of his own duplicates (I was given one, I'm working from it currently), old sweaters, a lunch box buried under several stacks of files (jettisoned without opening, the files were a decade old themselves), etc.

His standing was such that he'd repelled all boarders at every turn and effort to visit the carell, and the library had given up.

They were very glad to get the 20 missing books back, and the proofs did turn up, already corrected, so he wasn't deadwood, just...untidy...

M.

I can sort of top that one.  My old employer had loaned out interlibrary loan books that vanished into a hoard of that sort.  When the prof died, those who cleaned out the carrel found our library's property and contacted us about returning it.  I can't recall whether we accepted it back.

A former State Librarian I knew spoke of giving instructions for cleaning out a former employee's desk.  She was asked whether that would be a good idea.  The State Librarian replied, "She's been dead for fifteen years, I don't think she'll mind at this point."  She had a lot of hoards of one kind or another to clean out after rising through the ranks to the point where she had the authority to do so.  She eased quite a few superannuated staff members into retirement around that time too.

[Ruralguy]

I think it was already stated though that the professor in the scenario that started the thread had more or less cleaned out his hoard, but was then seen intentionally saving this woman's papers. That in itself isn't problematic, but it can certainly been seen as part of a relationship that is becoming inappropriate.  If I had some authority in the matter, I'd probably let Title IX sort it out. If I were friendly with him I might first discuss it and recommend he back off. Otherwise, this seems to be the sort of thing Title IX exists to protect---students from predators, whether it is intentional predation or something that just slowly happened doesn't really matter. Although, under new Title IX regs, you can't open a case if there is no cooperating respondent. So, if she doesn't see a problem, nothing is going to happen. 

[artalot]

I keep and refer to old student papers for two reasons: to write letters of recommendation (as discussed above); for my own faculty reviews. We are asked to include examples of student work, so I keep examples of good papers, but also drafts and final examples of papers that showed a lot of growth.
From experience, the spidey sense regarding inappropriate relationships between faculty and students is often spot on. The spidey sense wouldn't be enough for me to go to Title IX (to be fair, at my uni Title IX would laugh at me and then tell everyone how overly sensitive I was). You say some of your other colleagues are concerned and you are new. Someone more senior should let the chair know so they can keep an eye out and report up the chain as necessary.