Ok: follow up.
yes she is a psych major. Yes, all of our majors have the APA manual
and we all go about joking that this is the 'real' bible around here
(we are a catholic-associated institution) and often quote 'chapter
and verse' (section and page number)!
The final in this class is later today and I thought we should talk
before her final because clearly the outcome of the talk could be
that the final would be a moot point. So....
I talked to her today and her explanation was she knew she was
just lifting things but couldn't get the paper done in any other
way--her father had had a heart attack 2 weeks before the paper
was due and she had spent the past 2 weeks prior to the due date
continuously at the hospital. She said she just threw the paper
together to hand it in.
We talked at length--about many, many aspects of school, the big
picture of life after school, the implications of her behaviors;
what she could learn about talking to people and handing things
in late for a few points off versus this situation, applying that
to future life lessons. The long and short of it was that we decided
she would take a zero on the assignment with an "infraction statement"
filed in the dean's office--this carries a less serious consequence than
a 'serious violation'--which could carry with it expulsion.
Interestingly she did claim to have accessed Paul Smith's website!
She does understand that given her exam grades in the class she
might not pass the course anyway now because I work on
an accumulation of points rather than an averaging of letter
grades per assignment--so a zero is a pretty stiff penalty.
However, she left stating that she would take her final exam
late this afternoon with the hopes of doing well enough to pass.
I think I was too easy. I don't know. If the story about her
dad is true then maybe she has enough to deal with now. I felt
her 'upset' was genuine, not contrived. I also felt that given
her relatively poor performance up until this time she may not be
one who can think things through to some final end game (to borrow
a chess analogy since her paper was on expert memory among chess
players!--an obscure topic compared to most).
What a way to start a morning! Maybe a little caffeine will settle
me down inside.
annette
Annette Taylor, Ph. D.
Department of Psychology E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of San Diego Voice: (619) 260-4006
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
"Education is one of the few things a person
is willing to pay for and not get."
-- W. L. Bryan
