Well, hell.

Two unfortunate events from students in 102 this afternoon. One, the Inadvertent Plagiarist submitted that paper for the third time. This time he corrected the problem, but apparently he didn't understand that I was giving him one, and only one, chance to un-do the zero he had earned on the first submission. When he did it wrong again, as far as I was concerned, he was done. In the past in a case like this, I'd have said, "Sorry, you only got one chance; the zero stands"--and I may still do that. But on the other hand, he did (finally) do it right--and I know that this wasn't a case of him trying to cheat but a genuine cultural misunderstanding of what is and is not plagiarism. So now I have to figure out what makes sense, whether there's a "teaching opportunity" here. Does the zero stand? Or do I give him some kind of partial-partial credit? (The arrangement when I gave him the chance to fix it was that I'd give him half the credit the paper would have earned if he'd done it right the first time. Do I now give him a quarter of that?) I'm not going to decide now; I need to let this stew for a while--and talk it over with trusted advisers (Ed, Paul)--but I'm annoyed that I even have to make this kind of decision at this point.

The second unfortunate event (I feel like Lemony Snicket) is that a student came to me at the end of class, looking pale and stricken, and told me that she'd checked the syllabus I have online and it said that the final paper is due Monday, the self-evaluation today. She was absolutely certain about that--and because she took it as gospel, she didn't have her paper today. I have something of a vested interest in getting this student over the finish line: she started out the semester silent and apparently with all the lights turned off, but she's been lighting up and her writing has done a significant turn-around. I'd been feeling positive about her chances of ultimate success, despite the fact that she hasn't been as clear and diligent about assignments as I'd ideally like.

But because the lights have been coming on, when she said that she'd seen conflicting information online, I gave her the benefit of the doubt--despite the fact that A) the assignment sheet has the due date very clearly spelled out, twice, and B) for the past two weeks I've gone over when everything is due at least three times, if not more. Further, everywhere that the assignment is mentioned, my handouts clearly say it absolutely MUST be handed in on time or it will not be accepted and the student will fail the class. But the real kicker is, I went to my faculty homepage, downloaded the syllabus that is posted there--and what do you know: it clearly says that the final paper is due today and the self-evaluation on Monday.

So either she's trying to get away with something (possible), or she found an old syllabus somewhere (though I can't imagine where), or she was looking at the syllabus for one of my lit electives; their papers are indeed due Monday. But now what do I do? Do I give her the F--or tell her she needs to withdraw? This is a pretty egregious fuck-up; at very least, she's not paying attention (or not taking responsibility for checking up on an apparent discrepancy: "Hey, Professor, you've been saying in class that the paper's due Wednesday, but this syllabus I'm looking at says Monday: what's the deal?") On the other hand, I want to give some positive reinforcement to the fact that she's been turning things around (feels similar to the dilemma I'm in about the Accidental Plagiarist: I at least want to acknowledge the learning that has occurred). So do I accept the paper but give it some kind of whopping penalty? If I do that, she probably won't pass anyway, as her early work has already given a huge hit to her grade; given that fact, does it make more or less sense to accept the paper at all?

Again, I need to take some time to stew, and to consult with the inner circle. In this case, I also need to see how the student responds to my e-mail informing her that the syllabus online does, in fact, have the correct due dates. A lot will depend on what she says, or (more to the point) if she responds at all.

So poor Paul has been tripping all over deliberate plagiarism from his students, and I may find myself there, too, in this last shove, but I think these problems are going to be my trial for the end of semester. If this is as bad as it gets, I truly can't complain, but it feels icky. I don't like this kind of conundrum; it's too easy to second-guess my decision ad nauseum. I have been known to make decisions that I think work well and to feel good about them ever after--and I've been known to make decisions that I regret profoundly. Ick, ick, ick.

In any event, the rest of the students pretty much flung their papers at me and fled. Fine by me. The Lovely Young Woman arrived late, but she was the only one of the bunch to take the time to reread her paper (and found and corrected a "bozo error" in the process). She's also the only one who wants comments on the final paper, and the only one who has said she wants to come to the office to get a final grade sheet from me on Wednesday. Somehow I expect that her paper will be the best of the lot. I hope so; it would delight me no end. Brains plus work. There it is again.

More in the "relief" column: I presented the stuff about TaskStream (the idiotic Assessment program) to the committee and survived. I did see the kinds of faces I was anticipating (stunned, pissed off, bewildered--all appropriate reactions), and weirdly, the person I had the hardest time talking to about the stuff was Bruce. He kept saying, "We do this anyway," and I kept saying, "Yes, but now we have to do it IN THE PROGRAM, and we have to be a lot more specific in order to fit inside what the program requires. So even once we have the conceptual stuff in place--which we don't, really--we still have to input it, or take out what we don't want." He kept saying, dismissively, "How long could that take?" Well, to do it right, longer than he thinks. The front end stuff is going to be heinous in the extreme. Once we're into the groove with it, it may make reportage easier, which would be nice--but we have to be very careful that this computerized tail doesn't wag the educational pooch. But now there are five of us who will be actively involved in both the conceptual stuff and in the hands-on adjustments in the damned "work space." The two of us who were originally trying to sort all this out have been joined by highly intelligent reinforcements. When I told Paul the composition of that subcommittee, he agreed with me that we got pretty much the cream of the crop: people who will actually think and get stuff done, both.

Speaking of getting stuff done, the real pleasure of the day was that I managed to churn through most of the stuff I had wanted to accomplish yesterday, so I was able to cross a bunch of things off that triage list. Hallelujah. This means that tomorrow, between classes, I can turn my attention to the adjunct scheduling again and both sort out any mess I may have made yesterday plus make some forward progress. That'd be sweet.

And it's early, given when I'm usually finishing up a blog post and getting ready to pack up my tents--yet I'm able to head home with as clear a conscience as possible. I'm not going to say that I may get a breather here, or that the end of the semester may actually be relatively easy and smooth (saying so seems to jinx things), but at least I know I can take it easy tonight, and that's enough bliss right there.