Happy Postscript

I was just hitting "publish post" when the phone rang: the dean had gotten my e-mail on his cell phone and called to let me know that the student--what a surprise--had never mentioned the plagiarism issue at all. The dean also told me that the final decision about whether to allow the W--for whatever reason--rests with me, even if it were about attendance. He might try to plead the student's case, if attendance were the reason, but it would still be my decision. And he said that when he talks to the student tomorrow, he'll mention both that the W is mine to give or not and, more important, the plagiarism issue. I said if the student is too angry or feels too burdened to come back to class, then I'd understand--and the dean completed the sentence "and then he'd have to take the grade he deserves." Yep.

Just to note: if attendance had been the problem, and if the dean had explained what had happened, I'd probably have shown some mercy: turns out the young man was a victim of an attack. And I said to the dean that if the student had apologized and taken his lumps about the plagiarism, I might have shown more mercy (witness the other student I talked to today). But trying to weasel out of it, being combative? Nope. No mercy.

So now it will be very interesting to see A) whether the student comes back and if he does, B) how he behaves. I'm not taking bets either way, but I'd be curious to know where you all put your money.

But I'm very happy to know that I didn't need to worry about getting in there with my side of the story before the kid could do an end-run around me and my policies, that the dean wouldn't have overridden my decision in any event. Very good news.

And now, stay tuned for further exciting developments.