Stokely

My university is very small, so is my department. I've never seen anything like this and no one has ever mentioned anything like this (doesn't mean it hasn't happened). Each August at the beginning of the new school year, the grad students and profs come together for new grad student orientation. They go through the usual do's and don'ts of grad school. They always save the sexual harassment speech for last, but it is the longest part of the program. Of course, most of us are so old, profs and grad students included, that coming on to an undergrad (who are generally quite young) would be just way too weird. Again, doesn't mean it hasn't happened or isn't happening, but if anything ever came to light it would surprise many of us. As for my relationship with my profs, I just couldn't imagine anything ever happening like that. Probably the only inappropriate thing that's ever happened in my department was once we hosted a conference that coincided with a grad student's birthday. He had a soiree at his house after the final day of the conference. The grad coordinator was there along with many other profs. While most of the profs left after about an hour, the grad coordinator remained, drinking Jager and chasing it with beers. He's a really funny guy, an attack dog in his class, but still has a great sense of humor. Anyway, he passed out on the floor at the grad student's house while the party continued to rage until dawn. We partied over him. He's come to our parties since then, but doesn't stay long. Also he's got a new love interest at a nearby college (a prof there) and so he's mellowed out. Still, we tell the story of this guy passed out on dude's floor pretty often and I'm sure the prof would like to forget it.

Thanks Fuzzy. I'll read some Chomsky today in your honor. It amuses me whenever I hear that academia is not "real life" but some other thing, whatever that might be. Is it death? Purgatory? A simulated universe as in those popular games? I worked for 12 years in the "real world" and now that I'm back in academia, I can't tell much difference in the two. You work about the same hours, 70-80 hours a week, and in both worlds, people complain, you can't please every one all of the time, and lazy people are always lurking nearby to undermine you in some way or another, you complain about your bosses (and customers), and you don't ever seem to get anywhere. You just do the same things over and over. I guess the differences lie in personal preferences. When I was out in the "working world" I routinely had to tell lies for a living. That was the nature of a journalist or a public relations associate. But I prefer not to tell lies for a living, so I returned to do something better with my life and my time on this earth. Oh, the pay is much worse in academia, well as a grad student anyway (the tuition waivers rock, though). I guess that would be another difference. In our society today, telling lies pays and pays well. Telling the truth will get have you sweating each month just to pay your bills. Ah, isn't the United States the greatest?! We're like the Mohammad Ali of countries.

Fuzzy, I appreciate your input, but I'm going to do as told. The lecturer sent me an email last last week after we talked in person about this situation. In that conversation and in the email, he said: "If Mr. X ever does decide to return to class, do not initiate a discussion with this student about why you graded his essay the way you did. Just ignore him. If you volunteer any information, he'll likely try to use it against you in some way." The lecturer (who is a PhD candidate) did not address the possibility if the student asks to talk to me. If he does (but I doubt he returns to class at all), then I'll just send him to the lecturer. To fully round out this saga, the lecturer has a poor reputation in the department, especially among grad students. He's kind of a bully (he likes to tell many other TAs that they're "stupid") and does things much differently than other PhD candidates and assistant professors who teach these survey classes. Usually the protocol is if a student has a problem with their grade, take it up with the TA who graded their test/paper. It even says this on standard syllabi for these surveys, yet the lecturer in this case is ignoring this in this specific situation (despite his verbal announcement made in class several weeks ago that stipulated students must talk to their TAs about any problems). I'm sure this will open a can of worms, but when I see the lecturer tomorrow, I'm going to ask him if he'll grade this student's next essay. If I'm unable to explain myself to the student, then I don't want to have to grade anything else he does. It's in the lecturer's hands now, and that's where I prefer to leave it.

Jerry and Rising, I appreciate your comments, along with those provided by gsams. I'm going to do what the lecturer said to do: ignore the student if he ever returns to class. That's his whole problem, not coming to class. Had he attended class with some regularity, he'd have know exactly why I put the comments I did on his essay. For starters, he didn't follow the directions and didn't fully answer the question. He ignored much of the source material he was instructed to use to answer the question, and instead ranted about taxes. It's been nearly three weeks since the lecturer emailed him. He told him his graded was upped, and that if he really believes that I'm unfair and a jerk in class, then he could move to the other discussion class instead of attending mine. The student responded that he'd be back in class, my class, but has yet to return. He's now at 11 total absences for the semester. If he misses one more day he'll receive a two-letter grade penalty on his final grade (and midterms, which come out next week). He's hanging himself at this point. The lecturer and I talked about it briefly yesterday and he is now of the opinion that the student is trying to exploit some kind of loophole in the lecturer/TA system. We reached this decision based on how the student has circumvented protocol by appealing directly to the lecturer for a higher grade, and based on several of the things he said in his first email to the lecturer. These statements insinuate that he deserves special treatment based on his military service and his advanced age (he's 28). He also made a statement that says he knew he'd have problems taking a class in the College of Liberal Arts because it's filled with liberals. He went on to explain that liberals won't give "real conservative Americans a fair shake..." and that the only reason he's in the class because it's a requirement. He also said he doesn't think the attendance policy should apply to him, but the lecturer ignored all of this in his email responses to the student. I really don't like the way the lecturer has handled this, but I don't want to argue with him about it. I told him back in December that when you assign freshmen essays, you need to teach them how to write it first, which we didn't have much time to do so. Otherwise, they're going to screw it up and then get pissed at us for their shortcomings. Back then, the lecturer said "oh well, then they will fail." But, if a student complains about their C, it can easily be upped to a B, regardless of the quality of work (thus cheapening the other Bs in the class). The lecturer is on his way out and routinely professes to hate undergrads with a passion and wishes they'd "commit mass suicide" or otherwise drop out of college en masse. Lastly, the student's emails imply that it is basically my fault that the student has not attended class because had he done so, he'd have realized exactly what he needed to do to get an A, he would have known about the specific directions for writing it and submitting it, and he would have understood the reading material a little better because we went over it in classes (that he missed).

I appreciate your clarification. What's got me flustered about this situation is how the lecturer has handled it. In ways, his return emails to the student reinforce the student's position that I indeed graded his essay unfairly. Instead of pointing out how the student did poorly, the lecturer merely stated that we upped his grade without any explanation and without addressing the student's main concerns in his original emails. In other words, it suggest that I was indeed in the wrong when I know I wasn't and the lecturer and I agree that I did nothing wrong. But the student doesn't know this. More than likely, I will not speak to the student if he ever decides to come back to class. I'll get over it, but it's just so insulting. I hold three degrees. It seems the student should realize that I know my field. The university would not have awarded me a TAship if this were not the case.

I too play in a heavy metal band. We're called God's Cock. No, seriously, we don't have a name other than "Four People Jamming." God's Cock is a reference to the hilarious Mike Judge movie Extract. So that's another thing I do to relieve stress. Once a week I watch a movie, usually a comedy. Something brainless so I won't have to think.

I see your point, but I am not in grad school to win friends and to be loved. So in your view, are you suggesting that students have a right to be disrespectful toward their TAs? Originally, the student claimed I was being unfair in grading his essay. With the disrespectful nature of his emails (which violated written procedures for challenging a grade), don't I get a say or a chance to explain to the student how and why I graded his essay the way I did? If doing so is "unprofessional," can you explain how this is indeed unprofessional behavior? Are you suggesting that TAs cannot challenge their students? Several other students in the same class were upset with their essay grades, yet these students followed protocol and came to talk to me about it. After they did, they realized why they earned the grade they earned (and many of them said they'd do much better on the next essay). Lastly, and based on your comment, I guess complaining about undergrads is some phenomenon specific to only my university. When the 20 or so TAs in my department get together for Friday night bowling, the main topic of discussion is usually how crummy the general undergraduate population is and how they will do anything (usually except studying) to get that C so they can move on, get their degree, and with that they believe comes the $100,000 a year dream job. Yes, we're generalizing, but doing so with the firm belief that only about 10 to 12% of undergraduates are capable of doing college-level work, are receptive to the information presented in their classes, and will probably get something out of their undergraduate education.

I’ll try to be brief on this, and more info is available upon request. Why do students try to test you? To know the full story, undergrad freshman surveys at my school are tag-teamed by three grad students. The lecturer is a PhD candidate, and the two TAs are either MA students or PhD students. The lecturer handles class twice a week, while the TAs get students in smaller discussion classes once each week. An older student (claims he’s 28) in my class recently sent the lecturer several nasty emails about me. Eventually I got the emails and these skewer me, claiming I’m a big jerk in class, I’m incompetent, and that political affiliation factors into the grading criteria. The student has an attendance problem (and this is something my university takes seriously because of student retention stats and whatnot). Had he attended classes with some consistency, he’d know what he did wrong on his essay, and know that he didn’t follow protocol by approaching me with any problems he has with the class. I don’t particularly like the way the lecturer handled this. He upped the guy’s grade to placate him, and I agree with that to an extent. But doing so kind of reinforced the student’s ridiculous claims, which the lecturer did not even address in his return email to the student. Luckily for me he hasn’t been back to class in three weeks now. But what happens when he does return? Should I talk to him? Should I point out how I graded his pathetic essay? Or should I just ignore him? Three years into it and 90% of my evaluations from previous semesters are amazingly positive. This kind of hurts and I believe the student is trying to place enmity between the lecturer and me…to exploit some kind of weakness in the system. What do you guys think? Why do students test us? I’m beginning to believe that this student’s worldview makes him resistant to any information that conflict with it. His essay was a rant against the government, and get this, the student claims he’s military retired at age 28. C’mon!