a_smith wrote:
"I, Dr ___________ give _________________ permission to not be enrolled in _______________________ She can withdraw from the class after the deadline because I told her she could do this when we discussed it in my office.
Sincerely,
_______________________________
That's some pretty 'janky' English to fraudulently impersonate a professor.
From the Dean's perspective, I can't imagine there is much merit to letting her continue her studies. The hard and best thing anyone can do for her at this point is to give her a fair hearing that likely results in expulsion. There really isn't another way for her to learn from these mistakes and change her attitude. It would be one thing if she cheated and was remorseful, but she clearly isn't in her heart, and that's what she really needs to learn, more-so than any knowledge college courses can teach. I just don't see how any coddling and forgiveness at this point is going to shake her delusions, and if you can't help her wise up, then there is no point in teaching the rest of the material.
a_smith wrote:
"I, Dr ___________ give _________________ permission to not be enrolled in _______________________ She can withdraw from the class after the deadline because I told her she could do this when we discussed it in my office.
Sincerely,
_______________________________
To quote Eugene O'Neill from "A Long Day's Journey into Night," "The Mad Scene. Enter Ophelia."
Of course, none of this would have happened if she had a sassy gay friend.
In all seriousness, this student is mentally ill. Expulsion is called for here, but she needs help, and she's delusional/sociopathic enough to avoid getting it.
Stage I begins in benign resentment. You’re determined, this time, not to let those 80 term papers and final exams destroy you. It won’t be like the last grading marathon at semester’s end. You will stay in charge. You have 800 pages to grade, 400 on American Drama and 400 on Literary Theory. You take out your purple grading pen.
“Power serves as an overhanging subconscious,” says the first sentence. You experience your first twinges of pain. But it’s mild, still mild. You can still giggle at the assertion that “we adopt our social roles in order to panda to society.” You picture your social role—your teacher persona—as a black-and-white herbivore performing in a zoo for a crowd of unruly students. Then a character in a play you read this semester, you learn, suffers from “post-dramatic stress disorder.” He’s also in a “post-depressive state.” You’re still pre-, but barely.
Thanks G Keenan. After spending 7 hours grading papers today that Stages on grading is hilarious.
sighyoung wrote:In all seriousness, this student is mentally ill. Expulsion is called for here, but she needs help, and she's delusional/sociopathic enough to avoid getting it.
You hit the nail on the head sigh, she really needs good medical care, but she is so unaware of her issues that she is going to go through a world of suffering.
I suspect she won't be officially expelled, but rather the powers that be will just make sure that she does not come back in the fall.
a_smith wrote:
You hit the nail on the head sigh, she really needs good medical care, but she is so unaware of her issues that she is going to go through a world of suffering.
Not aware of doesn't care? The first is a patient somewhere, the other is a criminal needing to be incarcerated somewhere - unless an investment bank hires them first.
Stage I begins in benign resentment. You’re determined, this time, not to let those 80 term papers and final exams destroy you. It won’t be like the last grading marathon at semester’s end. You will stay in charge. You have 800 pages to grade, 400 on American Drama and 400 on Literary Theory. You take out your purple grading pen.
“Power serves as an overhanging subconscious,” says the first sentence. You experience your first twinges of pain. But it’s mild, still mild. You can still giggle at the assertion that “we adopt our social roles in order to panda to society.” You picture your social role—your teacher persona—as a black-and-white herbivore performing in a zoo for a crowd of unruly students. Then a character in a play you read this semester, you learn, suffers from “post-dramatic stress disorder.” He’s also in a “post-depressive state.” You’re still pre-, but barely.
I read this yesterday as well; I <3 McSweeney's.
Stage II
Stage II presents with mild but steady localized pain, mostly along the GI tract, and an inability to concentrate. Despair is still contained, but it’s eyeing the lymphatic system’s freedom train. Women are “co-modified.” Men are “discluded.” Role models are “immolated.” Passages are “taken out of context due to objective reality.” “Often times” is everywhere.
Bad things are happening to language.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is “African,” while Shakespeare’s Othello is “African American,” and Shylock is “a Hebrew.”
a_smith wrote:
You hit the nail on the head sigh, she really needs good medical care, but she is so unaware of her issues that she is going to go through a world of suffering.
Not aware of doesn't care? The first is a patient somewhere, the other is a criminal needing to be incarcerated somewhere - unless an investment bank hires them first.
I don't know if she doesn't care. She willfully believes she doesn't have a problem, despite run-ins like this. I'm sure several individuals have pointed out to her that something's not right. Instead, she projects her problems onto others. She's expended a lot of energy and ingenuity avoiding getting help. My sister-in-law's like this. My university's former debate coach, who was fired for sexual harassment, is like this--he's now posting on his blog that the dean is somehow responsible for the mess the coach created. A paranoid composition instructor I once refused to rehire was like this. Genuinely bright people with problems who spend much of their time refusing to believe they have a problem, and trying to hold others responsible.
Now the coach's academic career is in ruins. The paranoid instructor, with a Ph.D. from an Ivy League institution, lost her tenure-track position and was an academic gypsy traveling from job to job because of her problems. She was urged to seek help, and simply moved on by playing resume roulette, finding the right combination that didn't mention her problems so she would go away. And that student is ruining her life, too, and just moving from office to office until she burns every bridge the university could provide her.
On a bright note, a few weeks back, I met with an adult student who delayed going to college for a few years, and just transferred from community college a semester or two ago. He's a smart, hard-working student, has a 3.8 average, but is struggling to work and pay his way through school. I really urged him to apply for the Honors program, to speak with folks about various scholarships and fellowships, and to try to resolve a major problem--he's being charged as a non-resident, even though he's clearly lived in here for a couple of years.
Well, first, he just got admitted to the Honors program, which is great because it'll provide him with a number of educational opportunities. I'm hopeful that his financial issues will be resolved, too, and that he can go to school as a full-time student with far better financial aid.
