RB: This was to be a comparatively long narrative about a 30-40P student, a CUNY Macaulay Honors College student, who fails MEDP 299.47 for being serially disruptive for most of the semester despite repeated warnings from the instructor.

But it was decided to keep it short: An oxymoron ever there was one, that is, an honors student serially disruptive of class and openly contemptuous of students and the instructor.

RB starts the semester off by saying in Room 470N that she wouldn’t be able to do the Commute assignment because the L-Train, her main transportation for coming into Manhattan, was too crowded in the morning. So many passengers are jammed into the car, that she is so squished by straphangars, that it would be impossible for her to write in her steno, she says in class, causing this instructor to be suspicious about her being a legitimate Macaulay Honors Student.

Was she nuts? Purely Puerile? The Commute assignment requires students to take descriptive notes of their roundtrips to campus. Information from conversations overheard to what the student journalists observe should be recorded in a steno  usually beginning the second month of the semester. Students must become virtual recording operations. Their final efforts are to be given to the instructor in narrative form to be published. A few students embrace the assignment as if they’re telling the greatest story ever told.

I play along, trying to be soothingly inspirational, acknowledging the onerous tasks of  her onerous dilemma of dealing with the squished bodies of a Manhattan commute, concealing reproach and suppressing admonition forming in my brain, that she should take the F and do better on the other assignments or don’t take the F and just drop the class. It was sooooo early in the semester that the instructor decided to be patient with the student who claimed to be worried about being squished on the L.

We crossed paths in byways of the Hunter North and Hunter North buildings in subsequent weeks and engaged in simple talk, and I subsequently avoided her or pretended not to see here because she was always lamenting that she wasn’t appreciated at the PR firm where she worked. Her colleagues and supervisors thought she was snooty. However, it soon became clear in the course of class discussion that she WAS recording her commute observations in her steno. And, I eventually thought  that the issue of the L-Train squish was over and that she was only eccentric.

And as the semester progressed more and the vapors of Pushback of the other MEDP 299.47 miscreants thickened, RB’s irritating tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard increased. So, let’s cut to the chase. She was told repeatedly to stop typing while I was talking. She was then warned repeatedly to stop typing while I was talking to the class. She was subsequently told twice that she could flunk the class for being disruptive. She eventually snarled at a student who saw me staring at her one day as she typed and tried to advise her to stop.

So, she flunked.

She complained to a Macaulay administrator that I had flunked and had refused to accept any of her assignments. The administrator complained to a Hunter administrator who contacted me for a clarification because there seemed to be issues of Academic Freedom at stake. Short version: RB, once she was flunked,  had been told in class and in writing that she should continue to do the assignments in the event she wanted to appeal the F. But she was told the instructor wouldn’t accept the assignments, that, if she appealed, a grade appeals committee might want to see what she had done. So, she should do them and hold them for judgement day, it was suggested to her, but don’t give them to me.

After a discussion with the administrator, I told her that she could turn in the assignments which wouldn’t be graded, thus allowing indulgence in a formality, that being if she did appeal, she could say that she continued to participate as much as possible in class and did assignments even though the instructor refused to grade them, that she was following class guidelines even though she had failed the course.

Without going in too much more here and now, she was given a F, which was converted to a W, which is on her transcript.

And so it goes.

If institutions of higher learning desire academic honesty, they must be institutions of obvious integrity, places where students, faculty, and administrators seek truth and wisdom and technical expertise in an environment marked by trust, honesty, respect, fairness, responsibility, and courage. — Peg Hogan, Former President, The Center for Academic Integrity

After several years of warfare with the D:F/M grading system (without a doubt, the most brazenly corrupt academic system in Hunter if not the University). After several years of tussling with 30-40P students (inspired by one of the most stupidly corrupt academic systems in the College if not the University). After years of angst, years of turmoil. Years and years of Sturm und Drang. All Over!

The angst, that is.

Hooah!

No, this doesn’t mean a jihad to be unleashed on students. It means no more anguishing.

Brazenly corrupt? Stupidly corrupt? Too many Colleagues With Influence believe that they can scurry about doing the scurrilous because they don’t live in a fishbowl. Yet, this is an age when everyone is trapped in a fishbowl as all manner of privacy is being scoped.  Little Brothers, like piranha, are challenging the Great White Shark Big Brother for the throne – and all manner of clandestineness is being shoved into a fishbowl.  The Internet erodes cloaking shields, yet, my Colleagues strut as they corrupt and believe they shimmy with impunity.

Anyway, classes ended yesterday. hallelujah. This was posted by the instructor on the 299.47 class wiki:

The semester has ended for Feature Writing, MEDP 299.47, section 1. Talent wise, this was one of the best classes considering the potential. Academic wise – that is, what took place in the course of the semester in terms of assignments – this was one of the most disappointing and that caught this instructor off guard.

However, there were some pleasant surprises regarding student achievements. Surprise was one of the surprising and pleasing elements of this semester.

Best to all, especially the students serious about their educational experience in this class.

More later.

In my class, he also was functionally indolent.

I plan to use this anecdote and others for my tome about The Four Barnacles of the Apocalypse.

TSIQ didn’t turn in homework assignments and, on occasion and in front of the other students, asked for special consideration, such as an unreasonable extensions on homework due on the day that he was begging for relief, even though I had already said more than once that there would be no spot extensions. I don’t give extensions to students who show up to class without a scheduled assignment. I also don’t grant extensions to students who email me a request for an extension the day before an assignment is due. I announce this several times in the early part of a semester.

Eventually, TSIQ sought to disrupt class – that’s part of the pattern for many 30-40P students. If their con doesn’t work, they may resort to mocking the instructor, and if that fails to get them what they want, then they resort to disruption. And the most desperate resort to acting out behavior such as cursing, shouting and acting menacingly.

So I made him an example of him for the benefit of other students in the class about what happens to students who disrupt class. I admonished him right there in Room 470 Hunter North (the J-lab) – tactfully, of course – and sent an email later to the class, describing his behavior but not mentioning his name, and explaining the College’s code for disruptive students.

Coming up first, below, is my detailed email to TSIQ explaining why I failed him and that’s followed by his detailed rejoinder. I’ve given him partial anonymity here (for the time being).

On Dec 15, 2007 6:15 PM, Gregg Morris wrote:
LJ,

Students were told to bring all their graded material to the student-professor meetings for me to do a final review of their work this semester. It’s not unusual for students with a lot of Fs on their assignments (in addition to the Fs on my grade card for assignments not done) to show up for the meetings (as you did) only with their steno books.

Sometimes, students don’t even show up with the stenos.

You have more than a sufficient number of Fs for a failing grade in this class. That is, F’s on graded assignments and F’s for assignments you didn’t do. Your grade is F for this class. If you want to appeal, go to the 10th floor of Hunter East, the Senate Office, and request the grade appeal form, which will explain the guidelines for the grade appeal. The process starts in the spring semester when classes resume.

The F/M grade appeals committee will want to review all your assignments based on what has been described in the syllabus and course guidelines, thus, it will also want a copy of the syllabus and the written course guidelines. If you can’t provide them, I will. If you don’t like the committee’s final decision, you can appeal to the Senate. But first you have to appeal to the department if that’s what you want to do. Send me your snail mail address, and I will return your steno after I check it for its veracity. You should expect to receive it sometime after the holidays but before mid-January.

So, we don’t have to meet Monday.

Best,

Gregg Morris
Assistant Professor

Date: Sun 16 Dec 09:39:54 EST 2007
From: ljamesgame@gmail.com Add To Address Book
Subject: Re: MEDP 292
To: gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu

Prof. Morris:

A grade of F is fair to you? I worked my behind off in your class trying to make events and keep dates with people I was interviewing all while tending to my personal life of a family & three jobs and fulltime classes. And so one may say, that has nothing to do with the class right. Wrong, especially, if concessions can be made to the professor who is late everyday but once. Sir, we don’t know why you’re late, and it wouldn’t be the first time a professor explained why he/she was late. Sir, I think this should be factored in before committing to failing anyone.

In the context of 50minutes, Sir, there is not enough time to get enough help by one professor running around explaining his illegible handwriting and then telling you what you have to do to become a better news writer. I stopped pleading with you in the middle of the class, because you did not understand me, but you were hugely more attentive to others. I won’t get into biases through the impersonal format of an email. I do journalism and PR, most likely more than anyone in your class. Yet, I have never followed any so called guidelines (because many don’t care or follow it), so now I have to conform to not only the traditional way, but your own editorial licensed view. Sir, I would ask for help while you were going around the class about what I needed to correct and you didn’t have enough time to really sit down with me. It was noticeable and clear as you’re speaking walking away from me. To be honest, you needed at bare minimum of 10 minutes with everyone to meet needs. With my workload, I didn’t have enough time to meet you in your office.

Honestly, Prof. Morris, I don’t want to insult you as you did sending an email out to an undisclosed group of people claiming that a grown husband and father and leader in his own community is some how “whining” or in some ‘special needs category’, but I will say why are you allowed to be so rigid and unbending. We got into a whole discussion, when I told you I needed the day off because my wife was going into induced labor and then when she went into labor another day, and I couldn’t in class, you tried not to hear me. Sir, why so inflexible?

It’s possible Prof. Morris that you may often be thinking in the context of journalism that it is imperative that you operate as a structuralist to rules, aggressive in combat, and maintain tough principles as if you are being watched by journalist gods or simply other journalists. Maybe, that should be done in an interview with President Bush or whatever. But, we’re just students trying to get a decent grade comparable to the work we did. This is a commuter school; we can understand why you’re late, why not recognize our shortcomings.

True, I missed two assignments, but you allowed at least one student, I believe more but I go off of facts, an opportunity to turn in late ASSIGNMENTS. That is irrefutable, Sir. Everything I handed in had TF, but I only received one final grade of F, so contrary to what you scribbled on your index cards, I didn’t have F’s on my papers.

But, you gave me an F on that paper for what? Here’s the problem, and mind you, that I like principles too, if you’re going to ask us to have steno books and take a certain amount of specific data, and schedule meetings with people shouldn’t this work be added into the grade. It is frustrating for students to get an F, after they did everything right except produce a good paper. And, yes, my papers are terrible. I don’t know how to write that style. Reading my work and then scribbling on it and speaking to me for two minutes is not going to make me a better news writer. Ever since the first paper, I was writing inside of a box to please what you liked, poorly, at that. But, I’ve been doing my own news journalist work outside of this traditional way of doing stuff, and have been doing more than okay. Trust and believe it. I don’t write under Lawrence James.

But, Prof. Morris do you think it’s fair, to give me an F on a paper, in which I had to meet the schedule of an interviewee, and walk with him while writing? But, let’s say my papers were that bad to you. Fine. Isn’t it possible for an excellent paper to be artificially manufactured since you do not check the steno books except that one time? Please, Sir, do not think it didn’t happen. And please, it wasn’t possible for you to detect it well after the semester, even if you look at stenos months after.

In summary, and I apologize for the long email why is there a double standard, between your time and the students’ time. You can come in late and hand back papers late, but we can’t hand in late papers or come in late. Where’s our concessions? Then there is a double standard between the students, in which some can hand in late ASSIGNMENT papers and some cannot even get a third draft in. What was up with that logic? I’m not even talking about that single F paper. I brought to you a C- paper and you would look at it again. Then you complain to me about ‘homework in the class’, but wasn’t everybody printing their work and tightening it. There’s a printer on, Sir, in the class. Lastly, some students, even if you hated their written article, at least you should have been grading their work towards getting the finished article, I mean, that would be fair. If you would have checked my steno often, you would have seen that I stayed within your confines of work; because that was the one thing I was clear on. As an example that you and I know, I had three sources yet, but, because you didn’t see it in the paper you marked me down or factored it in reviewing my paper, yet, subsequently you saw it in my STENO. Shouldn’t that alone, alter your judgment of grading papers? We don’t have to difficult on purpose, Sir.

No, sir, respectfully, I will not accept an F. My work in your class, although not near A caliber, it was most definitely not in F either. I understand a bad grade, but factor in everything before committing to failing any hardworking student. That’s principled. Sticking to your guns is sticking to your guns. It’s not always principled.

Best,

Lawrence J.
917-XXX-XXXX

PS.: I didn’t consciously leave my papers at home. Nonetheless. you also said students could write an optional article 2 weeks in advance and you said i can reschedule with you this Monday. Who is perfect here? Only I must pay the consequences? Respect.

I’ve yet to read this whole lament. The deceits and mischaracterizations were discouraging. That is, the lament lacked the kind of wit that would have carried me through his argument. And he never appealed, missing a good opportunity to try for a grade that he didn’t deserve because at the time of this email exchange, D:F/M’s grade appeals procedure was flaming incorrigible.

This was one of the most talented classes I’ve had in a few years. However, two students who could have achieved at least a B flunked because they seemed to believe they could bluff their way through the course and get a C  without completing the assignments (that’s my impression), and one was very late-late several times and in one conversation conveyed that she was hoping to bluff – again, my impression – her way to a passing grade that she could get without doing the homework.

The other attended class regularly but … refused to turn in assignments or refused to turn in assignments on time.

Because of the internecine war with my department about my classes and how I want to teach, final grades is always serious manner. The usual attrition rate – F’s, D’s, W’s and WU’s – is one-third.

I’m expecting that the two INCs eventually become passing grades.

 

A — 2
B+ — 3
B — 3
B- — 1
INC — 2
W — 1
WU — 1
F — 2