Just as some background, my university has a system whereby the only way that a student can be added to a full class is to be given a Permission Code by the class instructor. We all have a set of permission codes for each class we teach, and each code is unique and can be used only once. We can also check to see if codes we have given to students have been used or not.
Anyway, here's the misery.
From: Department Chair
To: Defunct Adjunct
Dear Defunct,
Sorry to bother you with this, but would you mind giving me your sense of this situation?
Thanks,
Department Chair.
FW: Dropped from class in mid-semester
From: Superannuated Snowflake
To: Department Chair
Hello Department Chair,
First, let me make clear that I am not complaining! I take responsibility for my actions in this case!
But I am confused about Prof. D. Adjunct's actions. I was "dropped" from his class this week.
I was not doing well in the class, but thought that I could complete the final two short papers, the research paper, and the final exam and possibly receive a low passing grade. My adviser told me that I only needed a D in this class, because it is not part of my major.
This opportunity was taken away from me. I repeat, this is not "sour grapes"! I just wanted to know why this happened. Why did Prof. Adjunct drop me from the class?
Thanks,
Superannuated Snowflake.
To: Department Chair
From: Defunct Adjunct
Dear Chair,
Superannuated Snowflake was never "dropped" from my class.
In fact, I only discovered myself that he was not on the class roster a few days ago, when I downloaded my class list to create a grading spreadsheet. I was surprised that SS was not listed, because he has been attending class all semester, and I have never taken any action to drop him from the class.
I have, however, managed to work out what happened.
At the beginning of the semester, SS was enrolled in my Thursday class. At the end of Week 1, he came to me and asked to switch to my Mon/Wed class, because he had a new schedule at work and needed to work on Thursdays. Despite the fact that the Mon/Wed class was full, I agreed to let him switch. I sent him an email confirming my approval, and included a Permission Code that would allow him to enroll in the Mon/Wed class.
[copy of email sent to SS confirming approval to switch classes]
I then left the matter in the student's hands, assuming that he would drop the Thursday class and use the permission code to add the Mon/Wed class to his schedule. Adding classes is not something that I can do for a student; it is the student's responsibility.
When I discovered that SS was not on my class list, I went to my university account to check the Permission Codes, and sure enough the number that I sent to SS has never been used. Below is a screenshot from my account confirming this fact. So, despite asking me for permission to switch classes, the student apparently failed to undertake the necessary steps to actually get his own name on the roster.
I would like to be very clear about a few things here:
- I never took any steps at all to unenroll or "drop" SS from the class.
- As far as I am aware, in fact, a professor cannot simply drop a student from a class this late in the semester.
- As far as I am concerned, SS is still in the class, and I am expecting a Research Paper from him by midnight next Friday, and also expect to see him in class for the final exam in three weeks.
- With a good performance on the paper and on the exam, SS can pass the class.
- It has always been my understanding that a student's first step, in dealing with enrollment issues,should be to contact the Registrar's Office to see if there has been a problem. This is the place where such issues are dealt with. I am curious about whether SS ever bothered to go to the Registrar's Office, or undertook any other steps, before accusing me of dropping him from the class.
- I am even more perplexed as to why he never even approached me about this issue, to ask whether it might be an oversight or administrative problem, before making a complaint to my Department Chair.
Sincerely,
Defunct Adjunct.
From: Department Chair
To: Defunct Adjunct
Thanks very much for the detailed explanation. It's just what I need. I'll contact the student with your explanation, and we'll see where it goes from there.
Wow. Do you feel the need to explain yourself in this much detail, or does your chair expect you to provide that much information when a student complains for something stupid? Our chair generally assumes the student is at fault, until they prove otherwise. Perhaps we are luckier than I thought...
ReplyDeleteYou certainly are.
Delete"We'll see where it goes from there" !?!?
ReplyDeleteThe only place this issue should go is back into the students hands so he can get himself out of the mess he himself created. If your chair thinks there's any other possible outcome, he's a giant d-bag.
Ricardus:
ReplyDeleteNo, my chair doesn't expect that much information. In cases like this (which are, thankfully, quite rare), I actually like to cover my ass by documenting my side of the story. I've also found, in the past, that providing a fair amount of detail the first time around makes it far less likely that the student will come back and complain again. Dealing with something once is easier than dealing with it multiple times.
Surly Temple:
My chair is actually a great guy, and he totally has my back in situations like this. What he meant by "We'll see where it goes from there" is that we'll see if the student tries to pull any more bullshit now that he has my explanation. There's no way the chair is going to make my life difficult over this; as far as he's concerned, I'm completely in the right.
Glad to hear you have a supportive chair. I agree with you as well on the thorough documentation of student issues. Every so often I get a urgent, ominous, and distinctly accusing e-mail from the director of my online campus, along the lines of "this student's Very Serious Issue must be addressed immediately: what do you have to say for yourself?" So I do exactly what you did; I send thorough documentation showing that the student fucked up and is now using hyperbole and deceit to try to get what he wants. Every single time this happens, the college supports me 100%, which is great. And the reason I'm irritated is that after more than ten years of working for the same bosses, they STILL assume that I'm at fault every time a student complains, even though in more than a decade, I have NEVER had a student complaint about me or my class turn out to be even remotely legitimate. Just once, I would love it if their initial tone suggested just a tiny bit of trust in my competence and professionalism. Alas, I've resigned myself to working in a Dilbert cartoon, the only consolation being that the job is online, so I can hit the "off" button on my pointy-headed bosses whenever I want.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY! I have this same reaction. After so many student complaints turn out to be stupid, irrelevant, inaccurate, illegitimate, etc., at what point does the Administration give the faculty the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming we are at fault every single fucking time?
DeleteI agree that there are some administrators who seem, by default, to take the students' word every time.
DeleteAs I've already suggested here, I don't have this problem within my department. My chair is a great guy, he trusts me, and he treats me as well as he possibly can.
Where I have had trouble on my campus is with the advisers in the Education Department. Some of these people seem as flakey as the students they advise, and on a few occasions I've received rather stern and peremptory emails from Education Department advisers about how I need to fix some problem or other that some self-important student has raised with them.
Instead of writing something along the lines of, "Hey, Student Snowflake came to me and seems to have a problem in your class. Would you mind giving me your impression of the situation?", they instead take a tone something like, "Student Snowflake said that you are being unfair. Please explain yourself." It annoys the hell out of me.
Every time this happens, it turns out that Student Snowflake is telling only part of the story and, of course, is leaving out the most important bits. In a couple of cases, my email replies to the advisers have been a little testy.
Ahh - that makes sense, but it just seems like so a lot of time spent playing detective for a student who did this to himself. Although if you consider, "I filled in my chair and he immediately believed me and never hassled me about it again" to be a minor "crisis," I think you've got a pretty good gig going!
ReplyDeleteWell, while the email took a little while to compose, the detective work to figure out what happened only took a few minutes. Working out the issue with the Permission Code is really a very quick process, simply a matter of logging into my campus account and navigating to the right page.
DeleteIn terms of my department and colleagues and general levels of angst, I really do have a pretty good gig. I'm also, however, the low man on the totem pole of adjunct life, and budget cuts mean I'm looking at possibly not getting classes in the Fall. Fingers crossed.
Your chair sounds like a good egg. I hope you get to keep the job (and the chair).
ReplyDeleteI hate that I have to also put this much detail in ANY communication with my Dean. They very much have the "guilty until proven innocent" method of management. I find it exhausting to have to keep up this level of documentation on each student.
ReplyDelete