The Venting Thread

[AmLitHist]

Vent: I am spending more time documenting the student's plagiarism than the student spent doing the copy/paste plagiarism for this assignment.

This is always the way of it, which is why I hate plagiarized work with a passion.  (What can I say?  I'm lazy, at heart.) And all the time is usually a sunk cost:  yes, it creates/adds to an institutional record for the student, but in nearly every case I've ever had, the student drops the class pretty quickly after the event.

[waterboy]

For us, once a plagiarism case is filed, the student is not allowed to drop the class.

[the_geneticist]

For us, once a plagiarism case is filed, the student is not allowed to drop the class.

That's the official policy here too.  But, in reality, a student who is quick enough can fill out the Drop form before the Honor Board folks contact the Registrar to block the action.  I've had to contact the Registrar to get a student re-added back into the class.  Stu was VERY upset when they found out.

[dismalist]

AmLit, Aqua and Genes: I had a job with much academic authority for many years. The university, of course had rules about dealing with suspected plagiarism. Over the ca. one dozen years or more that I had this job about half a dozen faculty asked me once each what to do, as they suspected plagiarism. I suggested they take off points from each exam commensurate with what they thought the extent of the plagiarism was, and e-mail the student what had been done and what the recourse was -- to go the bureaucratic route. This policy was wildly successful: No accused ever went before the whatever ordered by official policy!

I can't recommend this course of action to you in good conscience, for I don't know what bad things could happen.  I'm sure I was less risk averse than most faculty. But in these cases, the gambling was fun for me. :-)

[Langue_doc]

Where do I begin?

Dragged myself to the ER to see why I haven't been able to stand, sit, or lie down for any length of time since Sunday. This is the most dysfunctional ER in the city, so despite my concerns I decided that I needed an Xray/diagnosis.

A patient who had tested positive for Covid was seated with us in the small reception area, and was also escorted with three of us to the examination area. There was no distancing whatsoever, and this person continued sitting very near the other patients for at least a couple of hours with her mask below her nose. That was the first red flag. Then, after much waiting, I was addressed by the physician who was not only unprofessional in demeanor and language, but also dressed as though she had just got out of bed. After being Xrayed by a very professional technician, I came back to the waiting area, where after another long wait, a nurse remembered that she was supposed to have given me the pain pill almost an hour ago. Finally the physician got the Xray report and she very contemptuously told me that it was due to my age. My request for a CD of the x-ray was dismissed. I do have the Xray report, but often there are inconsistencies between the report and what is visible on the x-ray. It was three hours of agony and frustration. This is supposed to be the first world--physicians in the third world are often much more professional than the one I had today. NYC did away with dress codes and professionalism in an attempt to be inclusive. Gaargh!

I should be relieved that I don't have hip problems, but still, this was a hospital, and physicians, especially those from other countries should be given some instruction on how to talk to patients.

[arcturus]

For us, once a plagiarism case is filed, the student is not allowed to drop the class.

That's the official policy here too.  But, in reality, a student who is quick enough can fill out the Drop form before the Honor Board folks contact the Registrar to block the action.  I've had to contact the Registrar to get a student re-added back into the class.  Stu was VERY upset when they found out.

We have a wide range of options in terms of the consequences for academic misconduct in our classes. If we decide the student should earn an F for misconduct, it does not matter if they drop before/after the misconduct has been reported. The F will be on their transcript forever (will be included in their GPA even if they take the class again, for example). If they are given a lesser penalty, then they can withdraw as normal if they choose. I had an instance where the penalty applied corresponded to a very very minor deduction in points. I was surprised when the student dropped the course, because it was really not going to impact their grade in the class. However, I learned latter that this was a second infraction, at which point the school takes more significant action (expel, require a leave of absence, etc). Apparently he thought that dropping the class would make the misconduct report go away. The funny part is that the only reason I know that he was in this more serious circumstance is that he wrote me shortly before his school-level misconduct hearing (where they would decide about the serious consequences) to see if I would speak on his behalf. I declined, of course.

[AmLitHist]

Sending good thoughts, Langue_Doc.  I hope you're feeling better.

I get it about the ER, too:  here in BFE/East Jeebus, I wouldn't take my worst enemy's cat to our hospital.  I had my car wreck a half-mile away from it last fall, and while the cops kept offering to take me, I refused, and went to my own GP a couple of days later. (This ER nearly killed ALHS a number of years ago, giving him a 50 mg dose of a med to lower his BP--the correct dose should have been 5 mg. Nope. If anything serious ever happens to one of us, I'll demand an airlift to Big City ER before these jokers touch us.)

[poiuy]

Where do I begin?

Dragged myself to the ER to see why I haven't been able to stand, sit, or lie down for any length of time since Sunday. This is the most dysfunctional ER in the city, so despite my concerns I decided that I needed an Xray/diagnosis.

Do you have an urgent care center near you?  You would likely get swifter and better treatment there.  You may want a second opinion anyways if you are not feeling better.

[Langue_doc]

Thanks, ALH and poiuy. The issue in this area is parking, coupled with urgent care centers that are staffed by the most unprofessional individuals. I just scheduled an appointment with my orthopedist who can prescribe an MRI  and will also see if my PCP can persuade the ER to send him photos of the Xrays. A couple of years ago, I drove all the way across town on a Sunday morning to go to an ER that had good reviews. I could park on the street, and because the body part was my mouth, could walk the few blocks to the ER. The urgent care centers I go to are all in Manhattan. The only reason for going to this particular one despite its reputation and my experience there, was because I didn't think I could take the subway or do the long drive to my back doctor. On Sunday and Monday I was convinced that I'd never be able to walk again, so getting the Xray that showed no fracture was quite a relief. There's another one that I could have driven to, but that too has a bad reputation--I remember one of my ESL students telling me years ago about how she spent over an hour in the ER waiting for the doctor to see her child, and then left because both she and the child were getting sicker and stressed out just waiting to be seen.

ALH, that reminds me of the time I let an allergist sweet-talk me into getting allergy shots. The nurse who administered the first dose gave me 5 mg instead of .05 mg (not sure of the mg, but do remember the missing decimal). Fortunatley I had just left the facility so they tracked me down and gave me an antidote which led to my sleeping for 12 hours and more every night the next couple of months. They proceeded to blame me for not waiting the suggested half an hour--I think I left after about 20 minutes.

Even the pharmacies here are deplorable. I have to go to the current one which requires me to find parking because the branch that had a parking lot closed. There was a long line of people and just one pharmacist when I went to pick up the medications. I think they found another employee who very clearly didn't want to pick up the slack, so he (the most work-ethic challenged individual I've encountered) literally dragged his feet before entering the pharmacy area, and then proceeded to take several sips of water from his water bottle and only after that very reluctantly opened the register.

[clean]

hat's the official policy here too.  But, in reality, a student who is quick enough can fill out the Drop form before the Honor Board folks contact the Registrar to block the action.  I've had to contact the Registrar to get a student re-added back into the class.  Stu was VERY upset when they found out.

I had a student cheat and drop.  They were found guilty. The drop was undone and the F instated. 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Sending good thoughts, Langue_Doc.  I hope you're feeling better.

I get it about the ER, too:  here in BFE/East Jeebus, I wouldn't take my worst enemy's cat to our hospital.  I had my car wreck a half-mile away from it last fall, and while the cops kept offering to take me, I refused, and went to my own GP a couple of days later. (This ER nearly killed ALHS a number of years ago, giving him a 50 mg dose of a med to lower his BP--the correct dose should have been 5 mg. Nope. If anything serious ever happens to one of us, I'll demand an airlift to Big City ER before these jokers touch us.)

Piggybacking on this. Sorry to hear about everyone's issues with health care. Awhile ago we had to wait 13 hours at our local ER which sucked so hard. People were complaining loudly and for good reason! I wish health care in this country were a priority to the dumbasses in charge and not just a way to make money for them.

[apl68]

Some years ago our local emergency room and hospital service were terrible.  It was pretty much guaranteed that unless you were clearly in immanent danger of death you would be waiting for hours before anybody saw you.  Over the past decade or so that has changed dramatically.  It's much, much better than it used to be.  The biggest single factor has been the presence of a dedicated hospital CEO who has made service a priority.  He has also over the years brought a number of medical specialists to our region that we didn't previously have.  Most medical specialists think that rural areas are beneath them, but our CEO has a way of convincing them otherwise.

Our local pharmacies are pretty good too.  The only times I've ever had really unreasonable waits were during the COVID lockdowns, when everything was interrupted by lockdown protocols.

[Langue_doc]

I went to the doctor's, ER reports in hand. Doctor wanted to know what possessed me to go that ER, but no harm done, let's send you for an MRI. Quite helpfully, he printed out my last MRI report so that I could call them right away to schedule the MRI. Surprise, surprise, the recording says "Welcome to Major Medical Conglomerate (MMC)" instead of the name of the facility on the report. After punching the required numbers, I wait for more than 10 minutes for a live person. I give up, get home, and this time am on hold for 20 minutes, but no live person at the other end. Look up the information for another MRI facility that I was not happy with, and this one too has been taken over by MMC. The website for MMC shows MRI locations in all five boroughs, which is probably the result of major takeovers. Tomorrow I'll have to go through my medical records to see if I can track down yet another provider. The MMC wants patients to schedule online, despite the recording asking you to press a certain number to schedule or change appointments or even to let them know if you are running late for an appointment. Things have certainly changed since the pandemic!

[Parasaurolophus]

My sister-in-law is a real monster, and I loathe her. So much. I only hope one day she ends up in the same position she's putting her mother (and, by extension, us).

Not that it will ever happen. And not that, if it did, we would do to her what she's doing, because that would be monstrous, and we are not that bad.

[RatGuy]

I don't fly enough to have internalize just how terrible air travel is ... until today. Mrs. Rat trying to fly from midwest city to southeast city, with a layover in Atlanta. She's been in the midwest city since, I dunno, 8am central. Between an "IT glitch" that meant that no one checking a bag could board the initial flight, to being bumped from midday flight, to evening flight being delayed by a whole slew of things, it now looks like she will have to pray that she'll take the final flight out of Atlanta (11pm eastern). She's gonna have a migraine tomorrow for sure.