Email?
My academic advisor is not that attentive to her email during the “off time” of the normal academic year. I’ve already sent her two emails, and I have yet to hear back from her. Even if I was able to contact her, what would I say? I did not know that they handle issues like this.
If you’re not supposed to work together why did you work on the same assignment at the same time in the same space with the same tutor using similar materials? You could have sat in separate areas and used different tutors which probably would have led you to different resources and possibly different conclusions. Why didn’t you?
This was the only tutor available (that I knew of) who was knowledgeable of this subject. This tutor was apart of a student organization, but he is not typically who I seek help from. The engineering tutor lab was completely booked the week before finals, so no one was available to provide assistance. This was the only time I had available since I have other obligations on campus from my other organizations.
Was the tutor in the tutoring lab or someplace else? Is he an official tutor or just another engineering student? When you say you worked in the presence of your classmate, do you mean you sat in the same room or you sat at the same table? Did you discuss the problem with each other? Or did both of you listen to the explanation of the other student at the same time? How did you end up using similar resources? The answers to these questions may influence how your professor decides to handle the situation.
To clear this up, at my institution, the non-academic sanctions are not influenced by the instructor. They only have input on the affect it has on your grade for that particular course. Everything else is at the discretion of the student conduct officers. My instructor did attest to my continual effort in the course through all difficulty that I faced.
My instructor knew we worked hard in that class and the fact that this occurred with an assignment that had no required weight on the final grade enabled him to discipline with a sense of leniency. Even though he has the option to not assign a grade until after the entire case has ended, he did assign me a grade even prior to me being notified of the incident. I had a good rapport with my professor, and he knew I was a diligent student who utilized all campus resources to gain the competency on the material. Though my professor understood my side, the student relations committee may not be as lenient with the situation.
My concern is that the tone of your posts seem to imply that these were two incidents that happened to you-- you don’t seem to take any responsibility for your own part in two incidents of plagiarism. Your posts read as though you’re an innocent victim.
This is not about your professor’s “viewpoint.” It’s not about whether an assignment is optional or not. It’s certainly about not having “any opportunity at all.” It’s not about “embarrassment and self-acknowledgment of the actions that occurred.”
It’s about cheating. It’s about a conscious choice to try to gain an unfair advantage, in violation of the rules of your school. It’s not a passive thing that happened, it was a combination of choices and actions on your part.
I’m not trying to be unkind. But until you start to take responsibility for your own actions, I can’t imagine that any person in a position to help you would take your side in this and choose to offer you yet another opportunity at your school.
To bjkmom, I’m sorry you feel that way, but that’s your personal view on the situation.
^any update on your situation?