Dear Mr. Adjunct, PhD,I honestly feel as though you are hoping I fail this class...
Thanks,
Plagiarizing Pat
PS - Call me because I have a new excuse
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Dear Pat,
I am not hoping that you fail this class. Of the 12 assignments for the class, you have submitted 6 of them and they are each complete works of plagiarism. This is what we spoke about on the day you phoned me. I, being both naive and nice, gave you the benefit of the doubt yet again and let you re-submit your "real work" since you "accidentally" sent me your sources for the assignments (which magically were placed in a Word document and formatted as if they were essays for the class -- along with your name and the assignment identifier!). You have hopelessly failed the class -- either because you have plagiarized every submitted assignment or because you have not submitted a Tea Party thing for the Intro to Hamster-Fur Weaving course. I already gave you allowances for the extenuating circumstances of your house burning down during the first week of class -- even though it was never mentioned in the local newspapers. You said you were moving further away from town to live with family, so I relaxed the attendance policy for you. But now you're living in a homeless shelter and don't have computer access? Yet you submit your "assignments" on-time every week? I'm not buying this or
your next tea partying excuse. Either turn in *some* assignment by last week or fail the class.
Thanks,
Dr Adjunct
PS - Expect an owl from the Committee Randomly Against the Plagiarsphere. While they want to continue making money off of you (err, keep you enrolled), they might eventually get tired of dealing with you.
How is this student still enrolled in the class? And why would he be allowed to continue after plagiarizing more than once? I'm confused...
ReplyDeleteNot every school is as vigilant about plagiarism. I know some of the schools for which I've adjuncted at in the past (*cough*for-profit*cough*) make it nearly impossible to drop (let alone expel!) the student for repeat plagiarism.
ReplyDeleteThe student should have been out of the class long ago. But if that is impossible, the student should be given a zero (not an F; that's half credit) for each plagiarized essay, not allowed to resubmit.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell whether this is the adjunct's personal pedagogical error or an institutional one. If Dr. Adjunct was capable of failing the student for plagiarism, or giving all those zeroes, then the problem is Dr. Adjunct. If the college forbids such action, then it's institutional failure. Because no student should ever be allowed to re-submit SIX plagiarized essays. And no student should have the attendance policy relaxed for them when they're obviously lying about a bunch of shit.
If Dr. Adjunct is doing this of his own accord, he is terribly misguided and needs to seriously rethink his actions. If the institution is mandating this sort of thing, then it's a shit place to work and Dr. Adjunct is selling his soul, and as an adjunct the price is probably pretty cheap. If you're going to sell your soul, you should get a lot more for it than adjunct pay.
We don't all have a lot of options. And we don't know what those options are, for other people. This comment says that no matter want, somehow it's Dr. Adjunct's fault. I rather think that he/she is the least powerful person in this triangle (student-instructor-admin)' and thus the only one to whom no blame attaches. And advice that amounts to "you have a moral obligation to quit your job" disregards other obligations Dr. Adjunct may have, such as feeding their family or not starving on the street themselves.
DeleteYeah, I know the bit about options. I don't know if blame attaches to Dr. Adjunct or not. It could be his first semester, I don't know.
DeleteBut I don't hold blameless teachers that effect or indulge such scenarios under any circumstances. It makes life very difficult for other teachers rightfully unwilling to allow unlimited make-ups for plagiarized submissions, and changes in absence policy as a result of unproven claims.
If Dr. Adjunct is under direct orders from his superiors, then I understand that he must conform until the end of his contract. After that, Dr. Adjunct is consciously part of the problem and he needs to find a new job. Adjunct pay is shit. Do something else. Who can "feed their family" on adjunct pay, with no insurance or benefits? It's far better to go and manage a Chik-fil-a.
The key thing for me is, professors who make themselves part of the problem are culpable. They're participating in damaging the education of all students, because they are part of the dumbing down of the college experience.
And if Dr. Adjunct has the freedom to grade his students any way he likes, and impose consequences for plagiarism, and doesn't, do you still think he's not culpable?
Look, I have colleagues who do this. It's not my job to tell them off. That's my chair's job. But I have an opinion about what they are doing. My opinion is that they suck.
"Adjunct pay is shit. Do something else. Who can "feed their family" on adjunct pay, with no insurance or benefits? It's far better to go and manage a Chik-fil-a. "
DeleteGlib "advice" from a tenured prof with nothing to lose. Who, btw, apparently thinks they hand out restaurant manager positions like candy. Whatta snob.
Quit and make room for someone else.
Or is that "advice" as offensive?
Some of you people really fail to see how much a part of the problem you really are.
You know, I don't give advice I'm not willing to take myself. I'm tenured now but at my previous job, 20 years ago,I actually didn't get tenure in part because I didn't give out candy grades. You know what? C'est la vie. I had plans set to go to go to Chicago and temp for a living until my current job came up at the last minute (like, May). I took the job and told myself if I didn't like it or they dicked me around, I would leave in two years. They didn't, and I stayed.
DeleteI routinely go out on a limb to fight against the use of adjuncts (we use them sparingly), and to stand up for untenured colleagues. I have taken on online courses primarily for one reason: I don't ever want the university to have an excuse to farm out classes to far-flung adjuncts.
And I actually know a teacher who just quit to go and manage a Chik-fil-a, because he was sick of dealing with bullshit.
The big problem in academia is the fact that schools are abandoning standards in preference for the "consumer model". Anyone that participates in that is part of the problem. If you're in a position of power, fight. Don't let it happen. If you're not, quietly refuse to do what they tell you to do, until you are fired, or quit.
There really isn't another alternative as far as I can see.
And I'm not even fifty yet. It's not nearly time for me to make room for someone else, and I won't make room for someone else, ever, unless I have near assurance that I will be replaced with a full-time line, and not a slew of adjuncts. I'll die at my post if I have to to prevent that.
Stella is right to the extent that those of us in economically non-viable, academically (standards-relevant) powerless positions need to quit. But on the other side, quitting isn't easy, especially short term. I'm quitting, but it is a two to three year process. I'm about half way through. I'm almost to the point, after more than a year, where I can tell the worst of my adjunct gigs to double my pay or fuck off. In the fall that will happen, although the wording will be less confrontational. So in the mean time, I can get bolder with standards. But a year ago I could not have done much. Perhaps I could have done a bit more, but things are kept opaque - perhaps intentionally - so that we are both powerless and responsible. It is hard to know what to do when selling your soul feeds the kids - except to know that you need to actively look for a way to quit sometime in the not-too-distant future.
DeleteYeah, Stella, I think that was mean. Faulting people for occupying the lowest end of the totem pole to survive -- a low end they worked just as hard for as those of us who (completely randomly) lucked into the high end -- is not cool.
DeleteI am not faulting people for occupying the lowest end of the totem pole. I am faulting people for their actions. And I think the idea that people need to adjunct "to survive" is a fallacy.
DeleteActually, the low end of the totem pole was the position of highest status.
DeleteAnother thing to think about, Stella, is how, when on a hiring committee, you would look at a Ph.D. who had worked outside the academy for some years vs. one who had adjuncted for the same period. I realize that neither would probably be the most attractive candidate (that distinction probably goes to the relatively recent Ph.D., or the TT professor trying to move up, or just switch location or kind of institution). However, if you really want adjuncts to vote with their feet, you need to think hard about whether you reward "loyalty" to the academy/the profession come hiring time. My strong suspicion is that most hiring departments do; except in departments where there's a clear professional application of the discipline, which are probably more receptive to people going back and forth, there's a definite feeling that when one leaves the academy, one leaves for good. That is probably as much an incentive to remain an adjunct as the pay (which, let's face it, is not really a viable way for a single person to keep body and soul together, let alone feed a family).
DeleteI reward loyalty to my specific university, not loyalty to the "academy". I wouldn't have any problem at all hiring someone who's been out of academia for a few years, though I would expect them in that time to have remained professionally active, as in publishing a couple of articles or so. If they can't manage that while they're doing other things, they can't manage a job in academia anyway.
DeleteIndependent scholar with some years of teaching experience who's been out of teaching for ten years? No problem for me. No problem at all. I don't think many on any hiring committee I'd be on would have a problem with it.
The problem comes if they abandon their interest in their discipline. You don't have to do that, even if you don't have a teaching job. But of course most people do. If that same person sent in an application, and all publishing and professional activity had ceased when they were no longer employed by a university, that would be problem.
The program I teach in is either too afraid of repercussions (lawsuits) or too kindhearted (but they have kids- vomit) to do anything about plagiarism.
ReplyDeleteI work at a public university, and I wonder whether there might be a way of prosecuting plagiarists for defrauding the state government. That's what they're doing, after all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the university, or the chair, or just some bone head in a bad suit makes it difficult to do something about the student who plagiarizes more than once in the same course in the same term. My uni does have the twice and your suspended policy, but if it's the same course they will not support the second occurrence. "Maybe the student didn't understand yet." Yup, I was told that.
ReplyDeleteThe last major assignment of the term and Make-it-up-as-you-go-Mary turned in a classic attempt. Some work was cited, but other sections were found through the check every line method. Multiple sources were used word for word.
Look, it's the end of the year for me. As in, just give the damn final, mark it fast, and enjoy unemployment until September. So, why would I want the hassle over this?
I did not write the student up for cheating. I gave a D, with the original sources listed on the assignment. If the form is filled out, the student has the right to add whatever they think to the complaint. You remember, the "he didn't teach this, he hates me, he looks at my boobs" bullshit.
The D means that won't happen. If the student disagrees with the mark then she must take an active role and grieve the grade. Of course, that would mean showing the work in question to someone else.
That means I can head out for summer in one more week with $20 in my pocket and no emails from the chair. As for the student? Well, dear, the overall mark you are about to receive will put you on academic warning and you will need to spend good money to take the class again with someone else. Oh, and have a good summer.