Readers Ask. The Adjunct Advisor Answers.

by the Adjunct Advisor

Students Failing to Cite Sources

As part of the course requirements for a Ceramics I class, the students had to complete a brief (approx. 500 words) research paper on a historic ceramic time/culture, such as Ancient Greece, Africa, Italian Renaissance, etc. On the first day of class in January they were given guidelines for writing the paper including deadlines, suggestions for topics, what questions to address, and a request for 3-4 images. Included in the guidelines was this sentence: “You must cite all sources, including Web sites.” I reviewed this criteria verbally and included it in the class handouts.
This paper with the images would be the basis for their last ceramic project, and is 10 percent of their final grade–the difference between an A and a B. Ten point bonuses were offered for students who turned in papers before the deadline.

Well, the deadline passed and of the 17 students who turned in their papers, 10 completed the assignment as requested and 6 did not cite their sources at all.

I am beyond dismayed this very important component of a college paper was overlooked. And I am in a dilemma as how to grade papers. My first impulse was to record a “0” for this oversight. I teach six college classes and a continuing ed. class this semester and to extend the deadline and re-grade the papers puts palpable pressure on me in terms of time.
I also feel that I gave them fair opportunities and information for writing a successful paper. I have been teaching for a few years now, and this is the first time I’ve come across this situation in such striking proportions. I want to be certain I am grading within a reasonable academic standard.

Your advice would mean a lot! Thank you very much.
Kathryn

Kathryn:

Robert Louis Stevenson writes in Kidnapped that one of the characters has “A great memory for forgetting.” It is exactly what small children and undergraduate students have, as well. If you have small children, you will understand my meaning. If you don’t let me explain:
Tell a 7-year-old to get dressed, including socks, tidy up the bed and bring his backpack downstairs, and it’s highly probable the boy will get dressed and bound downstairs barefooted with his backpack slung over his shoulder. The bed and socks victims of the boy’s great memory for forgetting.

The point of an assignment is to teach the students something about the course. That you have undertaken to teach six classes, should not impact the quality of the teaching you do. In this case, you have every right to award a zero to the students who plagiarized their papers with what appears to be wild abandon.

However, and more to the point, almost 40 percent of your students either didn’t understand your directions or simply chose to ignore them. Either way, you need to teach them that what they did neither meets the minimum standards required for the assignment, nor the minimum standards required of college students writing a paper which makes use of outside resources.
Meet with each student individually. Explain the mistake. Show them the directions for the assignment. Ask them to identify two places in their papers where they should have cited a source. If the student is unable to do this, you need to teach the skill. If the student is able to do this, you need to teach the importance of citation.

Then, give all six the opportunity to revise their papers on a short deadline with the understanding that a missed deadline or an uncited source will result is a zero for the assignment.

Good luck!

The Adjunct Advisor

Freedom of Speech

Last week, I e-mailed the students in my class informing them that I would devote part of next class discussion to the war in Iraq, and the second half of the discussion to the class topic. In the middle of our discussion about the war, a student who had already complained about my teaching raised his hand. I thought he was going to say something about the war, but in fact he said he did not want continue the discussion, because it was not one of the topics that appeared in the class syllabus.

He and another student left the class in protest. Later, both wrote letters to the Chair complaining about my discussion of the war in Iraq. The Chair invited me to meet with her and with the Undergraduate Chair. In the meeting, which lasted for more than one hour, both administrators sided with the students who had complained. The Chairs judged that I had behaved irresponsibly, because I had told the students who’d left under protest to feel free to leave if they didn’t like my teaching.

This morning, I received a message from the Chair that she is sending a faculty member to conduct a confidential evaluation. I really need some advice urgently.

Thanks,

Sara

Sara:

Your e-mail leaves several important unanswered questions which have a direct impact on your dilemma. First, I wonder what you teach? You see, there is a natural flow to the discussion of the war in Iraq in, say, a political science course. In a course on biochemistry, the connection between the two subjects becomes less clear.

Second, though I presume that you do teach part-time, you don’t mention whether or not this is the type of appointment you have. Frankly, unless you have tenure or a contract, the type of temporary appointment you have doesn’t have a huge impact on my ability to respond.

The United States Constitution guarantees each citizen the right to the freedom of speech. There are limits, of course. One does not, for example, have the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. Freedom of speech is one of the most basic of our rights, yet one of the most legally complex and morally ambiguous.

You asked for my advice, and with it comes my opinion, so here goes. Teaching involves covering course material and evaluating the progress of the students. In the course of teaching literature, I had many opportunities to have discussions with my students about their views on a myriad of topics seemingly unrelated to the study of great books. We argued about divorce while reading Anna Karenina; we dived into race relations while floating on the raft with Huck and Jim; we even discussed poverty in the United States while in the boot-blacking factory with David Copperfield. I often had students so angry with each other (and me) that more than a few got red in the face and raised their voices.
Never once in 10 years of teaching, however, did I use class time to discuss my personal beliefs if those beliefs were wholly unrelated to the course material at hand. On the other hand, if related to the course material, never once did I hesitate to share my personal opinions in the context of student discussions about the assigned reading.

If your opinions about the war in Iraq were related in some way to your course materials (or even the subject matter of the course), then you were justified in using half of the time that day to discuss the war. Sending your students a warning via e-mail was a thoughtful thing to do, as surely the subject could be potentially painful or disturbing to some students with, say, siblings currently in uniform, or relatives in Iraq (or other parts of the Middle East).

If, on the other hand, you’re teaching, say, French and decided that your students simply needed to hear your opinions about the war in Iraq, that was unprofessional. You could have invited your entire class out for coffee, or arranged a get together at a time not set aside for course work, recitation and lecturing. That you didn’t do this could be construed to mean that you knew your students would have little interest in your political opinions. Thus, you decided to simply take advantage of the fact that they would be in your classroom at a certain hour on a certain day. With this knowledge, you took advantage of them. Such behavior is clearly unethical and unprofessional.

As for the Department Chair and the Undergraduate Chair, the two have every right and responsibility to respond to student complaints. This does not include refusing you due process when resolving those student complaints. Unfortunately, if you have a temporary appointment, and do not have a contract or are not represented by a union you may be afforded little due process. The chances are very good you will be reprimanded and, possibly, dismissed.
If you took advantage of your position as an instructor to express your political opinions during scheduled class time, but have an history of good teaching and good evaluations from your students, you should be reprimanded, not dismissed. You should also apologize to your class, as well as the Chair and the Undergraduate Chair, for demonstrating poor judgement. Writer Mark Twain put it best when he said,

“It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.”

Good luck!

The Adjunct Advisor

Do I Have a Terminal Degree?

I am a new adjunct faculty member at a regional university. I hold an MFA in creative writing from a national university. I recently read in the adjunct faculty handbook at the regional university that adjuncts with terminal degrees make more money than those with master’s degrees. I promptly went to the department chair and he told me that I didn’t have an MFA in the sense that a painter or photographer has an MFA. I assured him I did and he called the Dean, who assured him I did. I gave the department assistant my contract to revise and thought all was well.

I recently received an e-mail from another assistant stating that the university attorney said that I do not have a terminal degree in the way that MFAs in photography and painting have a terminal degree. I know that an MFA in creative writing is a terminal degree. How do I get this across to the administration without arguing myself out of a job next quarter?
A.P.

A.P.:
Oodles of institutions have undermined the traditional MFA-as-terminal-degree with Ph.D. programs in creative writing. These Ph.D. programs for creative writers at universities all over the U.S. (and in the UK, as well), have turned the MFA from an honored guest at any institution, into a poor relation departments settle for when someone more academically qualified isn’t available.

You can argue until you’re blue in the face or out of a job, but the attorney has advised his client correctly.

Good luck!

The Adjunct Advisor