<p>My S, currently a sophomore @ Tulane, kept complaining that his communications teacher was very unfair in grading him. I finally gave him a paper that my D had written (she is a Communications major & she rec'd an A- from Cornell on her paper). He submitted it as his own. Alas, my S gets a C- on the paper. Obviously, he is not being graded fairly. What can he do? There are only a few days left in this semester. I am so outraged, I want to personally contact Mr. Cowen. Any advice???</p>
<p>There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like the victim of unfair grading. That having been said, I question the wisdom of having him plagiarize. The school would be justified in expelling him if you were to bring it to their attention. You forfeited any position of strength that you might have had. At this point your son should probably finish as strongly as he can and try to avoid taking classes from that particular professor.</p>
<p>While I understand your concern, the bigger concern might be that your s violated the Honor code by submitting someone elses work as his own. Even with permission of the original author (assuming your dau ok’ed it) that is plagirism. Not a good thing to admit to Pres Cowen, IMO.</p>
<p>*** oops, greatfeats already said this. Sorry to be redundant.</p>
<p>I would only add to the above (who are completely correct, having him submit the work of someone else was a really bad idea) that it was not even a valid experiment. In subjective courses, part of the “trick” is listening to what the prof is telling you and tailoring your work to their teachings and expectations. Different professors can have very different opinions and theories as to what is correct. That is just real life, just like two bosses can be very different in their evaluation of the same work by an employee.</p>
<p>What he should have done was to sit down with the prof after the first “bad” grade and learned why it was graded that way and made the appropriate adjustments. As radical as it sounds, the Tulane prof could be right and the Cornell prof wrong, or there may not be a right and wrong in this area, just a correct way to do it according to that prof. However, as tough as it is to get a “bad” grade, it is a learning experience that is valuable. It is important to adapt to the predilections of the person in charge, within reason of course.</p>
<p>sounds like the OP’s son should have visited the professor during office hours a long time ago; like after the first paper he was disappointed with…</p>
<p>to the OP: live and learn; I would not bring this up again considering the honor code was violated…</p>
<p>What did the professor do that led your son to believe he or she was biased & unfair? It doesn’t seem ‘obvious’ to me since the only evidence you shared is the differing grades on the plagiarized paper. Different teachers have different (and in comm classes often very, very SPECIFIC) guidelines for assignments. Directions must be followed to the letter and I’m guessing the paper your daughter wrote followed the directions given by her professor, not your sons. What worked at Cornell or any other school is not guaranteed to work here simply because each teacher has different standards.</p>
<p>That being said, what were you thinking? Watching your son do poorly must have been difficult, but this is completely absurd. I hope your son didn’t actually turn in that paper and is too embarrassed to admit it to you because he’s doing poorly & he secretly knows it’s his own fault. At least that would spare him the trouble of facing the honor board.</p>
<p>My advice? Stay out of his academic life from now on. Going to Cowen would have been a waste of your time even if you hadn’t encouraged your son to plagiarize. Going now would definitely get him expelled. Your son would do best to meet with the professor in order to look over previous, non-plagiarized assignments and see if there’s anywhere he can make a solid argument about getting points back or, at the very least, get advice about how to salvage his grade. Professors that are seemingly unpleasant or rude during class can be surprisingly kind when you come to them for help.</p>
<p>This is amazing. Is this another ■■■■■?</p>
<p>What happened to your other post, tulanechild? It was pretty bold!!</p>
<p>MartiniGirl is definitely not a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>jym626- Fallen here has sent me snappy emails in the past, telling me to be nicer to people and not as sarcastic. So I’m trying. </p>
<p>That, and I hate feeding ■■■■■■.</p>
<p>I’m very appalled this isn’t a ■■■■■, actually. Who on earth would think this is a good idea?</p>
<p>OK, I was wrong in giving my S my D’s paper. However, the prof didn’t show up for 2 appts that S had made. That brought me to the point of thinking this was totally personal. All your points are valid. I let my anger get the best of me. I’ll let you know how this turns out.</p>
<p>MG: different story then…your son probably should have notified dept chair of the cancelled appts and his concerns back in the beginning of the semester (or at least in October); </p>
<p>now he knows…hope it is all resolved in a way that is satisfactory to him (and to you!)</p>
<p>Was I snappy? I thought it was rather gentle. You never told me about the Queen, though.</p>
<p>I agree with rodney. That does put a very different light to things (just shows how important all the facts are). When a student makes a couple of attempts at getting help so they can in fact find out what they are doing “wrong” and how to improve their grade, it is absolutely the duty of the faculty/staff member to provide that. It is the main reason they are there. Your son should lay out his case in a calm and reasoned way to the professor, if he can. It might not do any good, and sometimes that is just the way it is. There are idiot professors, even at Tulane it pains me to say. Fortunately they are the exception. He might not even be one, there could be 100 reasons this has gone badly. But getting a C when you have tried to get the information to do better doesn’t sound fair to me either. I know, life isn’t fair.</p>
<p>Agree that contacting the department chair would have been the next step, but if the student is already worried that the professor doesn’t like him, he might be afraid to take this next step. It can be intimidating. The students are almost at exam time, but it isnt too late to try to get this resolved. Good luck</p>
<p>FC- I took “snappy” to mean clever or quick-witted. Dk if that’s how tulanechild meant it. I didnt take it as a negative. And what is the reference to the queen? Hard to follow the conversation :)</p>
<p>LOL, inside info. Need to know only.</p>
<p>Maybe you are right about snappy. I am an old fuddy-duddy, I have no idea how these terms are used these days. I didn’t take it as a negative either though. Just having fun with her. She and I have PM’d a number of times. She’s a good one. Top student too.</p>
<p>Aw come on… inquiring minds want to know. The queen??? spill :D</p>
<p>Long live the Queen!</p>
<p>I’m stunned by this whole thread. Student should go to see Dean MacLaren. Like yesterday.</p>
<p>UVa…are you suggesting student should tell the Dean about the plagiarized paper? Or go to the Dean complaining about bias a week before the final exam, omitting the student’s own participation in this tangled mess? IMHO, the student cannot admit the paper was not his own, yet he has little evidence of bias except for the missed meetings. I do not doubt that this prof is biased against the student, but I do think that by his act of deceit (submitting a paper he did not write) he would be lucky to take his C and run. And stay in school. Just so everyone knows, this Dean, Dr. McLaren, is eager to hear from students, listens to them and acts when students have a legitimate gripe. Case in point was the grad student who was torturing my daughter’s calc class early this semester. She and others spoke to the Dean and he ended up yanking the grad student and installing a full prof. The class remained hard, and the prof is a poor communicator, but he is fair and knows his material well.</p>