I’m taking a microbiology course and we’re required to turn in our lab assignments every 4 weeks. We’re supposed to put all the assignments into a folder and turn it into the professor.
We turned in our folders a week ago. Yesterday we were supposed to get our folders back and everyone in class was aware of it. 2 hours before class began, I was in the tutoring lab with a study group. Suddenly, my lab partner walks in and hands me my folder. I ask her “How did you get this?” She says “Oh I went to speak to the professor about my grades. I asked him to give me my folder back… Got yours too” I wasn’t comfortable with the situation, but I didn’t know what to say at that moment.
This girl has been known to cheat off other students in class. I’m not really friends with her, she’s just a classmate. The assignments we get back are supposed to help with our exams. I’m pretty sure she took photos of my assignments to use them to her advantage because she knows I have a high grade average.
I know you all are thinking “She was just trying to be nice” but I highly doubt that, especially since she has the lowest grade average in class.
So I’m wondering, is it against college policy for professors to hand another student someone else’s assignment?
@intparent If the professor is one of those professors who seldom change assignments, she could sell them to a future student and that could get the OP in a whirlwind of trouble.
You’re making the assumption that the professor gave her your folder intentionally. Given the description of the girl, I think she saw an opportunity and took your folder without asking, and then tried to pass it off as the professor saying it was ok.
She specifically didn’t say “he gave it to me”. She said “got yours too”. So clever of her not to outright lie, but neglect to say just how she “got yours too”.
I’d absolutely talk to the prof, and I wouldn’t assume he/she knows that the other girl had your work.
intparent, put yourself in my shoes… I’m working my behind off to get As in this class, not so someone else can just take photos of my work and use them to study. If she can’t find the correct information in order to study for exams, then she should suffer for it.
And like CaliCash said, she could’ve taken photos so she can sell them to future students.
I am putting myself in your shoes… which is why you need to go talk to the professor. I would just say that somehow she got your folder, and you aren’t very comfortable with that. Could he please make sure that only you pick up your work in the future? If she snitched it without his knowledge, she is in trouble (good). If he just gave it to her, then he probably won’t do it again in the future. I wouldn’t spin conspiratorial ideas up to him about what she could do with it – just say that you’d prefer not to share your work with others. Heck, she can now see your grades on that work, assuming it is on the assignments, and that alone is a reason to not want others to have your folder.
A third possibility: he handed her her folder and unknowingly handed her yours. Obviously not likely if these are huge 3 ring binders, but if they were manila folders one could easily get stuck inside another or maybe he grabbed two thinking it was just one.
But regardless, you should talk to the professor. That way if he did it intentionally he won’t do it again, and if it was by accident (or if she grabbed it), he will be aware of the situation.
“is it against college policy for professors to hand another student someone else’s assignment?”
This may be a somewhat different situation since this is your lab partner. Aren’t the two of you supposed to be working together? Maybe the two of you and the prof should sit down for a chat together.
What is the policy at your school? If the work is graded, I thought FERPA did not allow another student to see your grades…unless you handed in the same lab report.
What harm will come to you? none. If you get an A, and she gets an A there is no harm to you.
Will the lab partner get an advantage? Probably not…she can look at your material all she wants but probably won’t learn any more from that than she did the textbook
If you feel strongly about the issue, you could go to your professor’s office hours and said you were surprised when your classmate gave you your folder…You hope that the intention was helpful, but you weren’t comfortable with her looking at your grades…isn’t that a FERPA issue? In the future, you will be happy to pick up your own folders. And you had a question about Lab 4, what was the purpose of the second step?
That should not have happened. Assignments are checked regularly online for plagiarism through programs such a us. turnitin. If at a time in the future someone copies your work you can be charged with plagiarism even though you didn’t do the cheating. And then you would have to prove it was not your fault.
However, chances are the girl just gave you your folder and didn’t copy anything and isn’t planning on selling it in the future. But still your work should be kept confidential and never shared with another student.
Without a doubt you have to talk to the professor first because first and foremost you need to establish which one of the following happened:
a)he gave it to her by accident
b)he gave it to her intentionally
c)she took it without his noticing
If it’s A, I think you’re being paranoid, but if you’re correct, good to have it clearly established that it was his mistake that led to your work in her hands.
If it’s B, it sounds odd to me, but If you’re lab partners, there may be an assumption of collaboration that would lead the professor to see no issue in handing your lab folder to her (in contrast to an exam, which would obviously never happen). If this is the case, it is certainly within your right to request that anything you hand in as an individual be returned to you and only you. And like above, it will be established that he gave your work to her.
If it’s C, that will be very bad news for her and her alone. This is surely a violation of your school’s honor/student conduct code. It would honestly have been a terrible play on her part. Would have been better to never acknowledge the folder publicly and let the professor think he simply lost it.
Way back in the day, junior year of college I think, we had a professor in my major who returned assignments, including tests, by placing them on a table at the front of the classroom. Two times in a row I went up to get my assignments and they were just not there. By junior year people in my major (about 110 kids total) knew who was who and who did well and who didn’t and I was someone who did well. I assumed they were taking my assignments to study from and/or put in fraternity files. I had to ask my professor to hand my assignments directly to me.
I’m guessing this method of returning assignments wouldn’t happen in today’s world of FERPA. But I second the comments that you should definitely go talk to the professor about this .
I don’t know all the intricacies of FERPA, but it was initially passed in 1974 so the world of FERPA has been around for a while. Speaking from personal experience: as recently as 2007 professors would still return exams by placing them on a table in a hallway of the department for people to grab at their convenience.
Until recently, a lot of instructors winked and chuckled at FERPA. Lately, at least at my school, we’ve gotten more clarity and warnings about what not to do. Online management systems like Blackboard and Canvas make a lot of problems disappear, but all of them.
It’s just been the last few years since I started saying, “I can’t give it to you” when a roommate says, “Jenny wants you to give me her paper.”
I can see how a professor might not think it’s a problem, but it is, and he really should know that.
ETA To clarify. Even if I’m sure it would be OK with the student, without a signed release form, it’s not OK.
Not a good situation but there is not much to do about it. You could politely request that the prof refrain from doing the same thing in the future. You could mention your concerns. That would reduce the likelihood the prof repeated that with you or anyone else. But making a big stink about it is not in your best interest.