Topic: Bang Your Head on Your Desk - the thread of teaching despair!

[Langue_doc]

Had a student contact me via several emails over the weekend (that I didn't read until this morning) and by a phone call just now, to ask if I would reach out to another professor and ask him to "bump up my grade because I asked him to change it from a D to a C and he was unwilling to do so," and if the request came from a faculty member and not a student, the prof might be willing to help him out. I told him no way, under no circumstances would I do that, and it was completely inappropriate to ask me to do so.  What planet is this kid living on?

I would forward this email to the chair/dean/Stu's advisor and/or the appropriate person in your institution.

[EdnaMode]

Had a student contact me via several emails over the weekend (that I didn't read until this morning) and by a phone call just now, to ask if I would reach out to another professor and ask him to "bump up my grade because I asked him to change it from a D to a C and he was unwilling to do so," and if the request came from a faculty member and not a student, the prof might be willing to help him out. I told him no way, under no circumstances would I do that, and it was completely inappropriate to ask me to do so.  What planet is this kid living on?

I would forward this email to the chair/dean/Stu's advisor and/or the appropriate person in your institution.

Stu's advisor and our Associate Dean of Academics are both in the loop in case this gets completely out of hand. I found out that Stu asked his advisor to intercede also, and his advisor said he'd received an email from Stu's mother and he gave her the FERPA schpiel and she hasn't gotten back to him yet.

[OneMoreYear]

<unrelated venting>
Ugh. We've allowed a student to do whatever the frack they want for the past year. I wasted time and energy in the Fall trying to hold the line and was not supported; then I had to spend more time and energy giving the student what they wanted anyway. I have no evidence that I'll be supported if I try to hold the line now.  So, why am I being asked to do so by departmental administration under the pretense that anyone will actually support me in holding the line? Everyone else has already caved!
We all know how this is going to end. Why are we pretending otherwise?

[Langue_doc]

Had a student contact me via several emails over the weekend (that I didn't read until this morning) and by a phone call just now, to ask if I would reach out to another professor and ask him to "bump up my grade because I asked him to change it from a D to a C and he was unwilling to do so," and if the request came from a faculty member and not a student, the prof might be willing to help him out. I told him no way, under no circumstances would I do that, and it was completely inappropriate to ask me to do so.  What planet is this kid living on?

I would forward this email to the chair/dean/Stu's advisor and/or the appropriate person in your institution.

Stu's advisor and our Associate Dean of Academics are both in the loop in case this gets completely out of hand. I found out that Stu asked his advisor to intercede also, and his advisor said he'd received an email from Stu's mother and he gave her the FERPA schpiel and she hasn't gotten back to him yet.

Hope Stu and mom don't show up at your office.

[FishProf]

I had to have a chat with the Chair today.

A student complained that I was "picking on her" because I wouldn't accept her work.

Assignments have a required name format and a required file format (pdf).  They have had this requirement all semester.  This student has failed to either format the file correctly, or name it correctly, or both, on every single assignments (16 total) this semester.  So she has racked up an impressive 1 1/2 letter grade penalty for late submissions.  Every time, she does it wrong, gets a zero, throws a fit, then does it right.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Chair was concerned my class would prevent student from graduating. (It won't, she'll still pass, barely, I think)

After meeting with Chair....Chair gets notification that student isn't graduating because.....she never submitted her graduation paperwork.

[EdnaMode]

Hope Stu and mom don't show up at your office.

I'll be away for a lot of the summer after this week, but if they do happen to be here at the same time I am, my dept chair, who is here all summer and just down the hall, is retired military, and my office neighbor has some kind of fancy belt in some kind of judo/aikido/karate/whatever. Not that I'm advocating violence. Seriously though, I'm pretty good at wielding the polite but firm, "You need to go now," or "You need to stop talking and leave," sort of response. I'm thinking the same tone of voice I use on students when they're being unruly would work on parents as well. And if not, I'll call campus security.

[AmLitHist]

I always have in my syllabus a line saying that it's my policy to not discuss any student's academic issues with third parties outside the College or the student's high school (if they're dual-enrolled).  That is, FERPA says I can't discuss with third parties without the student's permission, but I go further and say that I won't, period. Over the years I've had a couple of parents try to push it, but I've referred them to my chair, who's pointed back to my policy, and given them the "if s/he's a college student, s/he's old enough to handle these situations on her/his own" lecture, on top of it. It's saved me a lot of needless headaches over the years.

[Stockmann]

Had a student contact me via several emails over the weekend (that I didn't read until this morning) and by a phone call just now, to ask if I would reach out to another professor and ask him to "bump up my grade because I asked him to change it from a D to a C and he was unwilling to do so," and if the request came from a faculty member and not a student, the prof might be willing to help him out. I told him no way, under no circumstances would I do that, and it was completely inappropriate to ask me to do so.  What planet is this kid living on?

I've had students asking about their grades and so with another professor - in fairness to them, they weren't grade-grubbing, at least not explicitly, and we were both teaching the same class (different lab rotations).

[EdnaMode]

Had a student contact me via several emails over the weekend (that I didn't read until this morning) and by a phone call just now, to ask if I would reach out to another professor and ask him to "bump up my grade because I asked him to change it from a D to a C and he was unwilling to do so," and if the request came from a faculty member and not a student, the prof might be willing to help him out. I told him no way, under no circumstances would I do that, and it was completely inappropriate to ask me to do so.  What planet is this kid living on?

I've had students asking about their grades and so with another professor - in fairness to them, they weren't grade-grubbing, at least not explicitly, and we were both teaching the same class (different lab rotations).

This was a prof in another department, in a subject that I don't teach, so it was very much inappropriate. And even if it were in the same department and a different section of a course I teach, I would consider it out of line. I might help the student with how to approach a discussion with their professor so they came across well, but would never presume to question a colleague's grading, or at least not in front of, or with, a student, and would be rather put out if a colleague approached me to change the grade of a student in one of my courses.

[EdnaMode]

I always have in my syllabus a line saying that it's my policy to not discuss any student's academic issues with third parties outside the College or the student's high school (if they're dual-enrolled).  That is, FERPA says I can't discuss with third parties without the student's permission, but I go further and say that I won't, period. Over the years I've had a couple of parents try to push it, but I've referred them to my chair, who's pointed back to my policy, and given them the "if s/he's a college student, s/he's old enough to handle these situations on her/his own" lecture, on top of it. It's saved me a lot of needless headaches over the years.

I'll have to investigate whether I can get away with this... my chair would support it, but some of the people higher up the food chain are very focused on keeping students happy, going above and beyond to ensure success, etc., and have specifically said that includes working with parents. I do avoid parents if at all possible, and once I mention FERPA they usually go away, or else if they press it, more than half the time their students choose not to give permission.

[the_geneticist]

I had to have a chat with the Chair today.

A student complained that I was "picking on her" because I wouldn't accept her work.

Assignments have a required name format and a required file format (pdf).  They have had this requirement all semester.  This student has failed to either format the file correctly, or name it correctly, or both, on every single assignments (16 total) this semester.  So she has racked up an impressive 1 1/2 letter grade penalty for late submissions.  Every time, she does it wrong, gets a zero, throws a fit, then does it right.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Chair was concerned my class would prevent student from graduating. (It won't, she'll still pass, barely, I think)

After meeting with Chair....Chair gets notification that student isn't graduating because.....she never submitted her graduation paperwork.

Wow.  Now that is delicious irony!

[kaysixteen]

I assume that means that your school is ok with your doing this?   IOW, if mom shows up with a signed FERPA waiver and wants to chat about son, and you tell her your policy is you just do not ever do this, waivers-notwithstanding, and then mom trots over to some deanlet, what would he say?   Indeed, private schools can and some do insist that all students, as a condition of attendance, sign a FERPA waiver, in order to allow profs and deans to communicate with parents, high school-like-- often these students are kids who are likely being judged by their parents to perhaps not really be mature enough to start college (my cousin, a kid like this, went to such a school for his first two years, and it was good that such a waiver had been signed).

[history_grrrl]

I am struck by how many posts highlight that admin folks consider us the reason students are unhappy, not getting the grades they want, etc. In other words, we and our policies, course requirements, etc., are the problem.

I'm almost looking forward to my last academic misconduct meeting, coming up soon, because Stu has already bitched to me that it shouldn't matter that he made up all his footnotes because he'll never look at those essays again, and neither will I, and he's switched his major anyway now, and, and, and . . . Hopefully he'll repeat this in front of my chair and our integrity officer.

Even my chair, who is generally good on these issues, worries that our department will "look bad" to the dean's office if too many cheaters get 0s on assignments. But what else are we supposed to do?

[spork]

Supervised one graduating senior for a 3-credit thesis this semester. Thesis was scaffolded around submitting drafts of different parts of the thesis throughout the semester. Student ignored my repeated comments about clarity, supporting claims with evidence, and using scholarly sources. Now student is complaining about getting a B- on the thesis.

I will be emailing her a pdf of all of my annotations and comments about her work.

[FishProf]

I assume that means that your school is ok with your doing this?   IOW, if mom shows up with a signed FERPA waiver and wants to chat about son, and you tell her your policy is you just do not ever do this, waivers-notwithstanding, and then mom trots over to some deanlet, what would he say?   

My Dean would (has, in fact) say "FERPA waivers ALLOW the professor to speak to you, they do not REQUIRE it.  Your son is an adult so he can deal with this".

Only one of the reasons I love my Dean.