Skip to main content

Betrayal

I caught a student cheating on a final exam this morning. I had a line of sight on them and watched for ten minutes as they took their cellphone out of their pocket, kept it below their table, typed into it, read it, put it away, then wrote on the exam, repeating this cycle over and over again.  I was a bit surprised as the exam was open notes but this student had not attended many of our classes, just stopping by for exams, and I conjecture that they had no notes to open.

I confronted the student who admitted that they had done wrong in an inarticulate non-confessional way. By the afternoon they had signed off on the honor code violation report to avoid further investigation and possible sanctions beyond failing the exam. 

Is anger the right emotion to feel now? I had a working relationship with the student, although they had not contributed much to it. They had deceived me in order to gain unwarranted advantage over their peers in the class and that is not right.

I don't want to burn the student at the stake, although I could pleasantly go for many years without seeing them again. Ideally there should be a path for them back to honor but our system of reporting exists because we individual instructors only see one perspective of the student; if they cheat in many classes then redemption does not seem to be on their minds without some kind of punishment to encourage it.

As always, I feel anger that the one student made me less friendly to the other students, in this case as they turned in their exams. It is too easy to focus on the small number of students who misbehave and this particular anger is at myself.

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 19, 2024 at 10:09 PM

    I definitely understand your anger on the matter as the student had not taken the time or effort to prepare for the exam showed no respect or effort in class; and when faced with the consequences of being unprepared, chose to take an unfair route of advantage. Having known students like this, I have witnessed firsthand how this same behavior seeps into multiple courses, and when confronted they unfortunately care more about getting caught and consequences thereof instead of honorable academic behavior. I wish there was a better way that an Educational institution could rehabilitate students out of a mindset of selfish unpreparedness and disrespect, but this behavior translates across the professional and academic life of the student and I am afraid that these types of students will only focus more on avoiding being caught than actually being a respectful, honorable, and competent student. Sadly, I have seen a fair share of this type of student and as harsh as it sounds, they are unfair to their peers and lack any sort of accountability. Their spot in a course is often a waste of instructor energy, and the opportunity of more deserving students.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holiday Break

I have been teaching for 37 years now, and I go through many of the same things at the end of the Fall semester each year. There is relief at the completion of a significant task (teaching each of my classes) but there is a good deal of physical and mental weariness and aches. I could sleep for several days straight if not for my sleep disorder. By and large my mind is not very sharp and as an introvert I try to be pleasant with loved ones but am not outgoing at all. With age the feeling of being drained deepens in more and more ways. Of course this is when we have, almost every year, taken a road trip to visit birth families in the Northeast, a full day of driving each way, often involving winter weather far worse than what we are accustomed to in NC. I love my birth family members as well but as with my created family I am weary and not very outgoing. The conversation is rarely about me and my day-to-day life but rather about younger family members and family friends that I do not kn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Collective

Something good happened this week; I was informed of it yesterday when a colleague forwarded an email to me announcing it.  The announcement had to do with our university administration committing resources to something that needed doing; the fact that it had not been done had threatened the safety and work environment of dozens of my colleagues. I was clueless about it until in my job as ombudsperson I heard about it from multiple individuals. 95% of my job as ombudsperson (roughly) is focused on the individuals who come to me, brainstorming about their options and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each. I've been around my university for over 36 years so I've picked up some knowledge of our system and as a mathematician I have a lot of training and experience in problem-solving. I'm not bad at counseling stressed individuals; professional development at ombuds meetings has helped me a lot with that. 5% of my job as ombudsperson (roughly) is managing upward. The...
Post a Comment
Read more