This student doesn't currently have a master's degree in any subject, and can't possibly complete one until next semester, at least not at this university. Nevertheless, this student plans to "walk," or in other words, participate in this semester's hooding ceremony anyway, before having completed the degree.
I told the student that I'd be glad to hood this student next year, after the degree is completed, but not before. This mattered to the student apparently not at all. I then made it clear that I don't approve. It wouldn't be a major inconvenience to the student or the student's family, since they live within a day's drive from here, although I think integrity should come before that, anyway.
Naturally, some Kool-Aid-drunk
I feel like I need a bath. Even I am surprised that my university will allow this. Often, when I'm arguing a grade with a student, I point out that integrity matters, a LOT.
We let students walk in spring if they will finish in summer. ThT typically means they need to complete just one course or maybe tidy up the thesis. I don't know who makes the decision - student or advisor- if there is a disagreement about this. If the student's program plan extends into the next fall or spring semester, the student cannot walk early.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that 'fraud' is too strong, but 'farce' and 'hoax' don't quite fit either. 'Sham' ranges from pejorative to neutral but is more generous regarding intent, so I think I'll go with 'sham'.
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed plenty of sham at these events. The one I'm involved in is for several programs combined, each with unique requirements to attain the degree, and likely a slightly lower bar to "walk". For example, the programs that have both an oral defense and a written thesis might allow a student to walk having completed only the defense, on the basis that the paper must have been nearly final for the thesis committee to have let the defense take place. But committees may cave to entreaties of "but my family already has plane tickets and hotel reservations and then we're going to the beach after the ceremony and . . .", so defenses often transpire, the papers for which are still quite shoddy. So for these programs, the majority of the students who "walk" are not graduating per se, nor will they get an actual diploma for some time to come, because once they walk, a major incentive is lost to finish the paper in any kind of timely manner. This makes the event a celebration of the liklihood that sometime later, an actual sheepskin will materialize.
At the ceremony, I sit crammed amidst my colleagues more tightly than in economy class of a low-budget airline, and I allow my mind to wander. While the keynote speaker is enlightening us, I am alert for such inanities as "I cut class all the time and now I'm a CEO", or "now the real learning begins in the real world", or addressing the whole gathering as if they are all already on the job doing what only our smallest program trains them for, etc. Since every speaker begins with a metastory about how they were initially flummoxed while preparing the speech, that one counts as the "free space" at the center of my mental BINGO card.
As individual students cross the stage, I sometimes think of their backstories. Such as: "If you were as forward-thinking about drafting your thesis as your family was in planning their travel and celebration of your faux-finish, you'd have your diploma by now." And: "If your committee hadn't made you run those four practice talks with them, you would have been the first to fail a defense in over a decade." And: "If your committee hadn't agreed to change your half-done project to 'reasons why projects like mine can't be done', your project wouldn't be done." But also: "You were a hot mess when you started, and as you took on more of the responsibility for your project, you took both it and yourself to heights I could have not have predicted. It's a shame your family couldn't make it, but I'll be happy to snap some pictures of you in your hood and gown, holding your diploma. Some colleagues and I are going to a pub after these proceedings, and we'd love for you to join us."
The cermony implies that the "graduates" are in the same place in their lives, about to begin a new journey. But they've been traveling since well before they got here, from many different points of origin -- that their lives overlapped with mine here and now is one of likely very few things they actually have in common. I am grateful for the ones whose real progress I witnessed, for they help me to remember that they all grew in their own way.
That took a surprise turn for the sniffle-inducing. Thanks, Ben.
DeleteOur graduation happens before final grades are submitted, so the ceremony is entirely speculative, up to and including academic honors.
ReplyDeleteThis is, of course, because universities cannot abide the liability and clean-up costs of having seniors hang around after their coursework is finished without anything better to do but reminisce ...
One institution I worked at required graduating senior grades to be turned in before graduation, but it was a small school.
Both my undergrad and my grad schools had extended gaps between the time that exams finished and the time of graduation, so real diplomas were handed out on the spot (and transcripts were available).
DeleteBut there are, indeed, problems with this approach. I believe everybody in my undergrad class survived the week or so between the time they earned their degrees and the time they received them, but when I was a grad TA, one of my former students died during the intervening week. The cause was autoerotic asphyxiation, almost certainly accidental, but he was no less dead for the "accidental" part. I don't think his family sued, but one can easily imagine some families doing so (and I can think of at least one case of non-fatal but serious injury sustained while doing something really stupid while drunk during the same period at the same school that did result in a lawsuit). The end of college is a stressful time for many students, and people deal with stress in varying ways, some of them wiser than others. Sending the seniors home as soon as possible may not keep them from doing unwise things, but it decreases the chance they'll do those things on campus.
This is oblivious entitlement at a new low. I think you should staple this student to the ratfink.
ReplyDeleteGood idea! It has me so mad, I could do it with a steady hand.
DeleteThe master's program I graduated from last year requires students to pass a comprehensive exam rather than write a thesis. Several students in my cohort failed one or more parts of the exam but still walked and were hooded during the department ceremony. I was surprised because we were told at the beginning of our program that we could not participate in the ceremony if we did not pass the exam, but clearly that policy was not enforced. I couldn't do it; I would have felt like a fraud, but the students who did walk justified their participation in the ceremony by saying that it wouldn't be fair if they couldn't celebrate with their friends.
ReplyDeleteI was so happy to have finished my program that this didn't bother me so much at the time, but now that I'm teaching at the university I graduated from I have come to hate the "it isn't fair to me" excuse because my students use it to justify all sorts of bad behavior. Walking in a ceremony when you really haven't graduated, I have found, is just the tip of the iceberg.
"it wouldn't be fair if they couldn't celebrate with their friends."
DeleteI think administration is mostly unswayed by assertions of 'unfairness' in these pleas, but they keep the class together because to not do so would result in fewer students taking part in the festivities, and those who do take part would manifest low group unity. Long term, that translates to decreased affection of alumni for their alma mater, hence decreased annual giving. Keep the customer satisfied.
I did not go to the first graduation I was eligible for, because I was not totally finished and did not think myself worthy. The idea of fraudulently passing myself off as someone who was done was completely unappealing, and I thought that if I participated and even one person congratulated me, I would lose my lunch on their shoes. I didn't go after I was finished because I wouldn't have been there to support anybody specific but myself; I hadn't really bonded with that year's candidates, which was probably my fault.
Does walking create a contractual obligation to award passing grades and a degree as long as the remaining work is eventually completed, even if it is not very good? Or if the graduation ceremony is held before the final grades are announced, does that imply that there will be no failing grades or if there are, they don't matter because the students graduated regardless? I would love to see what would happen if a student argued that!
ReplyDeleteThis is precisely what I am afraid is going to happen next. This student's thesis was never better than mediocre: the chances are good that it will now go from mediocre to shitty.
DeleteOur handbook clearly states that participating in the ceremony has no bearing on their degree status. Failing grades recorded after the ceremony result in the student having to retake the course or "walking away" from the degree.
DeleteIf the work is completed, but not well, it may earn a passing grade, but not a good grade. If the student needed a good grade to reach the minimum GPA to qualify for the degree, again, it's retake a course (or more) to get the GPA, or no degree.
In other words, the faculty and registrar don't even consider whether a student went to the ceremony in any of the academic calculations.
I'm writing a capstone paper for a second master's this summer. There is a May graduation and a December graduation. August graduates were invited to May. I wouldn't go. It's weird. I'll go in December if they let me, but wth? As my professor put it when I asked her if she thought I was being cynical "No, not at all. It IS weird. So what if you get hit by a bus in July, what good does it do anyone that you 'walked'?" and then she made finger quotes around "walked" and said it in a funny voice.
ReplyDeleteI think the option may have been available in some cases in my undergrad days, but I don't know anybody who took it, and I don't think I would have. Non-graduating classmates certainly participated in informal, and maybe even formal, gatherings to mark the end of the 4-year journey we'd begun together, and I would have happily returned to celebrate with my freshman-year roommate, who took another year or two (and who chose to celebrate with family instead; fair enough, since tickets were limited), but marching around but not getting a diploma (especially since we actually got diplomas; see comment above) would have been weird.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've never heard of grad students "walking" unless they've actually finished all the requirements for a degree. Even if there might be some justification for "walking" with your original class as an undergrad, by the time you're eligible to have finished a grad degree, it's time to put away childish things and only celebrate achievements that have actually been achieved. Mind you, I know a good many people who didn't bother to go to their Ph.D. graduation ceremonies, often because they were halfway across the country or the world by the time the date rolled around. I did, but I was relatively nearby (and after 15 years, I was darn well going to put on the funny clothes and march around). And no one bothered to go to a ceremony to pick up the M.A.s we earned by passing generals, even though we could have. I don't even have a diploma for that degree, nor do I want one, since it was considered a waystation along the Ph.D. journey at my institution. It's on my transcript, and I list it on my c.v. mostly because it might look weird to some people to have a Ph.D. but not an M.A., but that's about it. (If I'd earned the degree in a freestanding program, I'd no doubt feel differently about it -- but only if/when I'd actually finished the thing!)
At my school, all of this became clearer when I learned that commencement was actually run by Student Life, and they were the ones who determined which students were eligible to walk in the ceremony. The Registrar controls the diplomas; Student Life controls the commencement.
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of students who need to take one more summer class after the May commencement, and as long as they have registered for the class and filed for August graduation, they are generally allowed to walk. I think the key here is "filed for graduation," because it shows intent to graduate and at least a modicum of understanding that you actually have to put forth the effort to graduate.
This is a good point. I'd forgotten that at my joint, commencement is in the domain of The Office of Student Appeasement and Retention.
DeleteAt my school, we used to have the "summer graduate" walk in spring but now, all who walk have to be vetted as having met graduation requirements at the time of commencement. Summer grads now walk in Fall commencement (if they want to).
ReplyDelete