*face-palm*

A while ago I had a student miss a class and she didn't email me or come talk to me about missing it. So I was really surprised when she submitted a data form for the class she didn't attend. I took a closer look and it was a xeroxed copy of her lab partner's data form. She just scribbled out his name and wrote in hers.

At first I wasn't sure how to deal with her because I had never had that happen before. So when she was done with the lab I took her outside and showed her the data form and told her "This is plagiarism and I can't accept this data form. I don't want to have to report you to the Aggie Honor Code Office."

For those of you that aren't Aggies, we at Texas A&M have an honor code that all students must abide by:

"An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do."

The Honor Code Office (or Academic Integrity Office) handles cases of cheating and plagiarism, and students can be expelled for plagiarism depending on the severity.

Her response to my statement was "Oh my gosh, I didn't think about it that way! I'm so sorry, thank you for letting me know."

In my head I'm thinking "How else would you think about it? You took your partner's data form, xeroxed it, and tried to pass it off as your own. That's the scenario definition of plagiarism."

Anyhow, I give my students the opportunity to complete extra credit by finding scientific articles and writing a one page summary of the article. I reminded her of the opportunity and said that she can make up the points that way.

She came by my office 5 minutes to the deadline and handed me a stack of papers, along with her Fandango ticket to see African Cats, and then left. A few minutes after she left I looked through the papers to find:

- a scientific article on coral reefs (NOT a summary, just the article)
- a scientific article on harmful algal blooms (again, NOT a summary, just the article)
- an incomplete google docs printout of what looks to be a summary on beached oiled seabird surveys (nothing related to the aforementioned articles).

Confused, I emailed her asking if she misunderstood the assignment or if there was a mix up. She emailed back about a half hour later saying "Oh my goodness, I gave you the wrong stuff! I already left town for the weekend, can I email them to you?"

I said yes she can email it. If it's a simple mix up I have no problem giving her the opportunity to rectify the situation.

This morning I wake up to no email from her. So I emailed her this morning saying "I need your summaries (SUMMARIES, not the articles, but please include a works cited of the articles you summarized) via email by 5 pm today. In fairness to those students that turned theirs in on time, after 5 pm, your submission will be considered void and won't count as extra credit."

In my head I'm thinking, "If someone wants to go from a C to a B or a B to an A that badly, if they know they did something wrong and asked for an opportunity to correct their mistake, they would do so ASAP."

It's now 11 pm and I haven't even heard a "Sorry, I couldn't get to my email, here's my stuff." Obviously, she doesn't care enough. And I don't care enough to hear excuses.

The other girl from yesterday finally submitted her extra credit summaries, which she did as a text file and formatted it so that half of the summary was red and italicized and overall formatted weirdly. One was okay, the other was only half a page and didn't include a works cited.

I'm sorry, but for a summary, if I don't have some way of knowing what you summarized, how do I know whether or not what you wrote was plagiarized? Or completely bullshitted and made up?

Something similar came from the lab partner of the would-be plagiarizer. He submitted one, but didn't give a works cited. Fortunately there was still time until the deadline and I told him he needed to give me his works cited. He then submitted another summary, only this one was half a page because he put his works cited on the same page as the summary and took up about a quarter of the page with his heading.

Some students are not going to be happy with their grades. And quite honestly I don't care because they will be in the minority.

One of the Few Times I Feel Bad About Being a Hardass

So today is the deadline for extra credit in my class. I say in the syllabus and I said at the beginning of the semester that for extra credit, each student can read and summarize up to 5 scientific articles for 2 points each. If they do all 5, they move up an entire grade.

Now remember, I said this at the beginning of the semester. I also sent out a reminder after the last lab of the semester 3 weeks ago. I sent a reminder last week. And this week.

So imagine my surprise when I get an email that says this:

"Is there any possible way I could turn in the extra credit Monday? I have had an extremely busy week with three finals. I've completed one extra credit article but I'm pretty sure that is not enough to move to an 80."


I do feel kind of bad because the deadline being today isn't necessary in the sense that I need these in so I can have your grades done just in the knick of time for being submitted. I chose today because ideally everything would already be done and it gave my students between 2-3 weeks to know that hey, if they want a better grade, they have some time to do the extra credit. 


I also feel bad because there's really no reason for anyone in my class to get a C.


BUT. I need to stick to my guns here. It's not fair to the (few) students who turned in their summaries on time. On top of that, I'm giving them extra credit if they saw African Cats during opening week so as to maximize the amount of funds that go to saving the savannah. If I comply to every complainer in my classes, nothing would ever get done.


So, in conclusion, student, we all have busy weeks. But you had time to know what grade you had and whether or not you'd need to do the extra credit. Planning your time wisely is an essential lesson in college and I hope you've learned it well. Clearly, my class has not been a priority for you, and as you are a non-science major I can somewhat understand. Circumstances being what they are (i.e. you not doing well in my class and waiting until the last minute to do anything about it, and then asking me to extend a deadline that you've known about all semester), you're stuck with a C. 


Too bad. So sad. Better luck next time.










I mean, really? Teaching this class has shown me that quite a few people with little common sense and/or sense of independent thinking do actually get into college. Which is frightening. I really feel that the standards for getting into college should be stricter. And so should the primary education standards. Education should be more valued, and not religiously skewed. Teaching young people to think for themselves in primary school should be required. So should the value of planning and getting shit done.