11: The Faculty/Student Nonaggression Pact
Anne Matthews's comment on the “mutual nonaggression pact” is in
Bright College Years
(op. cit.), p. 206; Arthur Levine's “tacit agreement” is in his book,
When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student
(San Francisco, 1998); and Dorothy Puch's remark came in the
Chicago Tribune'
s series on higher education (op. cit.), 6/23/92. The Boyer Commission report
Reinventing Undergraduate Education
outlined many of the maladies discussed in this chapter, and also provided the quotes beginning, “Ironically, the first years of university studies,” p. 29.
In doing research for this book on the topic of class size for introductory and/or freshmen courses, I was amazed at how schools, particularly public universities, stonewalled on this subject. Psychology departments seemed especially sensitive, and even the one at my university was reluctant to divulge class sizes. However, for the spring semester 2000, the numbers appear to be 255 students enrolled in the smallest lecture class and 377 in the largest; also department chair Joseph E. Steinmetz acknowledged that the department employs an adjunct lecturerânot a regular faculty memberâto teach “one section of P101 in the fall [semester] and one section of P102 in the spring to about 450 students [for each section] using a lecture hall,” 11/29/99. To be fair to the IU psychology department, nationally ranked for its research, its large introductory lecture courses are the norm across the country, not an IU aberration. In addition, this department, like an increasing number of others, uses unpaid undergraduate students as teaching assistants to lead discussion sections; Ms. Holly Welker, a student at Indiana University, described her experiences as a UTA (undergraduate teaching assistant) in sociology, and the experiences of some of her friends as psychology UTAs, 3/23/00. The psychology professor who remarked, “That's the whole idea,” explained: “Going public with my comments would do me zero good. I benefit from the current system and do not want it changed.”
The University of Missouri (Columbia) undergraduate filled in the P.S. section of the questionnaire on the web (op. cit.), 9/17/99. The 2000 edition of the
Insider's Guide to the Colleges
had the comments on Ol' Mizzou quoted in the text here, as well as the 90 percent figure for this school's acceptance rate. Christopher J. Lucas wrote about “Gigantism” in
American Higher Education
(op. cit.), p. 289; Anne Matthews (op. cit.) quoted the “anti-âCheers'” remark, p. 51; and the Ohio State female wrote her comments on a hard copy of the questionnaire filled out on the OSU campus, 11/17/98.
The Indiana University survey of student attitudes, “Senior Satisfaction Study,” was published by the IU Office of Institutional Research, 1/20/99; I am indebted to Deb Olson of that office for a copy of the survey. Emily Chui, a columnist for the
Indiana Daily Student,
wrote about staying awake in class, 3/6/98. Folklorist Simon Bronner (op. cit.) studied the desktop carvings, p. 203. Amy Webb published her column on student attendance in the
Indiana Daily Student,
1/20/97.
U Magazine
's article, “WHAT ME STUDY?” appeared 9/94 (no author given); and the
Chicago Tribune
discussed the study guides, 6/21/92. Student newspapers often discuss test files and test banks; Christopher Smith wrote a revealing article about the subject for the Texas Christian University paper,
The Skiff
, 10/1/07; and Pauline Vu of the UCLA
Daily Bruin
explained how exams are stolen from examination rooms, 1/14/99. The Purdue undergraduate put his comments on the web questionnaire for this book (op. cit.), 6/6/99; the questionnaire asked respondents to state their cumulative GPAs, and these averaged 3.3 (out of 4)âthis number is slightly above the national average.
The
Chronicle of Higher Education
headlined a long letter-to-the-editor from Syracuse University professor Frederic A. Lyman, “Education's Dirty Secret: Grade Inflation,” 2/10/93, p. B3. Christopher J. Lucas in
American Higher Education
(op. cit.), chapter 6, wrote about faculty attitudes toward most undergraduates; Joseph C. Goulden in
The Best Years
(op. cit.) commented on the GI vets' scorn for traditional faculty attitudes, one ex-GI saying that if the student vets could grade the average professor, they “would give him a big red âF' and rate him as insipid, antiquated and ineffectual,” p. 79f. Arthur Levine discussed the results of his research on grade inflation in an op-ed piece, “To Deflate Grade Inflation, Simplify the System,”
Chronicle of Higher Education
, 1/19/94, B3; and biology professor Rose Morgan informed the
Chronicle of Higher Education
about grade inflation in the sciences in a letter, 1/27/93.
In addition to the causes of grade inflation discussed in the text, other factors contribute to it. At some schools, instructors do not have a plus/minus option for grades, and teachers tend to bump high C students into the B range, and high B's into A's. In 1999, the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Parkâa school without plus/minus gradesâdebated this issue, with some professors arguing that plus/minus grades would enable faculty to make greater distinctions among students in a course, and deflate grades. John Henderson, a reporter for the student newspaper,
The Diamondback,
covered the debate, 4/27/99. Unfortunately, at many schools with a plus/minus option, grade inflation has never abated.
Some critics of grade inflation also argue that fear of bad student evaluations motivate faculty to give high grades. Possibly this occurs at some schools; however, as Anne Matthews points out, few officials ever read these evaluations, and even fewer act upon them. Moreover, student evaluationsâgood, bad, or indifferentâtend to be neutral items in promotion, tenure, and salary decisions. A faculty member's research is the key factor in these decisions, and student evaluations are used to confirm already-decided-upon judgments; for example, good evaluations for a good researcher adds to that person's success, and bad evaluations for a bad researcher seals failure; however, bad evaluations for a good researcher tend to be ignored, as do good teaching evaluations for a bad researcher.
Indiana University, Bloomington, introduced an interesting anti-grade inflation plan in 1998 called “Expanded Grade Context.” Student transcripts now reveal, in addition to the grade for each course, the “complete distribution of all grades awarded in the class” (how many A's, B's, etc.), and various other items placing the student's specific grade within context. This tends to reveal whether the course was a “mickey” or not. Students decide whether to have the university send the expanded transcript or the standard, grades-only one to prospective employers, etc. Sarah Rupel of the
Indiana Daily Student
reported on the plan, 3/10/98; in the years since its inception, the average GPA of the student body has not declined.
The late Dennis Turner, a cinema studies professor at Wayne State University, often used the expression “The River of No Return” in the context of grading hard, referring to one of Marilyn Monroe's films and her suicide. William Cole wrote an op-ed piece, “The Perils of Grade Inflation,” for the
Chronicle of Higher Education
, 1/6/93, B1. Undergraduate opinion on grade inflation is very mixed. For example, Baylor University student Paul Gibson wrote in his student newspaper, “Looking at my GPA and knowing how easy some of my classes were ⦠I'm inclined” to complain about grade inflation. “Not that I didn't like getting the
grades. So-called blow-off courses help revive some low grades ⦠[from] more serious courses” (
The Lariat
, 3/31/99). Going into the Lexis-Nexis database with the U-Wire file (a collection of college newspapers) reveals this ambiguity from coast to coast.
12: Cheating
Professor Richard A. Fass wrote his comments in an essay, “Cheating and Plagiarism,” in the anthology,
Ethics and Higher Education
, edited by William W. May, published by the American Council on Education (Washington, D.C., 1990), p. 180; on that page, he also commented on administrators blaming the “deficient moral standard of our students” for the cheating. Helen Lefkovitz-Horowitz (op. cit.) related the cheating at “Yale in the 1860s,” p. 33; and Simon Bronner (op. cit.) discussed some of the traditional cheating methods, p. 31f.
U.S. News
polled a huge sample of students and placed the results on its website, 11/13/99. Marie Miller, director of Undergraduate Affairs for the Indiana University School of Business, noted, “Cheating is so commonplace at IU that for every student caught and reprimanded, one hundred more get away with it” (
Indiana Daily Student,
4/10/92); by all accounts, the situation became worse at this school and others like it through the 1990s. Marie Miller's comment connects to another result from the 1999
U.S. News
poll: “Ninety percent of college kids believe cheaters ânever pay the price.'” Donald L. McCabe and Patrick Drinan wrote an op-ed piece, “Toward a Culture of Academic Integrity,” for the
Chronicle of Higher Education,
10/15/99, in which they cited the research on 13,000 undergraduates. The Michigan State sophomore left his “eye for an eye” comment on the web survey for this book, 10/10/99. Julie Farren of
USA Today
quoted Michael Moore, the author of
Cheating 101: The Benefits and Fundamentals of Earning an Easy A
(Brunswick, N.J., 1992), and Prof. Michael Moffat, 1/7/92.
Anthropology professor Peter Wood of Boston University saw the course lecture notes on the web as an “assault on the integrity of higher education” in
USA Today
, 9/15/99; that newspaper printed its editorial on the subject the same day. The
New York Times
tracked the topic through the fall of 1999 and into 2000, even putting an article on it by Jacques Steinberg and Edward Wyatt on the front page of the Sunday “News of the Week in Review” section, 2/13/00: again, the main issue for faculty was whether they owned the copyrights to their lecture notes or whether their universities did; both sides saw big bucks in the e-commerce involved, and neither considered the possibility that this form of pedagogy might not succeed on the web.
University of Texas (Austin) student columnist Rhys Southan wrote his comments in the
Daily Texan,
11/3/98; he also described the UT lecture situation of “sitting in a bolted-down chair, staring forward for endless hours.” Jacques Steinberg reported on the lecture notes on the web controversy in a front-page article in the
New York Times
, 9/9/99; he quoted Mark Edmundson, an English professor at the University of Virginia; and Anthony Scimone, in a letter to the editor responding to the Steinberg article, gave his views on the new websites, 9/12/99. Kim Porter, an official at the University of North Dakota, told the student newspaper,
Dakota Student,
about cheating in lecture classes versus small upper-level courses, 3/25/99. Carolyn Kleiner and Mary Lord wrote a cover story on student cheating for
U.S. News,
11/22/99; in it, they quoted Bob Corbett, an expert on the subject, “when students really care about learning”; Donald L. McCabe and Patrick Drinan (op. cit.) discussed the research on honor codes. The information about Rice University was gained from an on-campus visit, 6/28â30/99; the Rice student who commented on her school's honor code was Giselle Everett, 6/30/99. Mary Beth Marklein of
USA Today
wrote an excellent feature on honor codes as the solution to cheating, 1/5/00.
Professor Ronnie Hawkins of the University of Central Florida complained about “the increasing casualness” of student cheating in a letter to the
Chronicle of Higher Education,
2/26/99; the student at the University of New Mexico left her comment on the web survey for this book, 7/17/99. Indiana University undergraduate David Vrabel created “The Only Syllabus You'll Ever Need” for the
Indiana Daily Student
, 2/7/97. The
U.S. News
cover story on cheating (op. cit.) discussed the use of alphanumeric pagers, and quoted English teacher Connie Eberly about the “thrill” of cheating. The University of Iowa student “into gambling” was interviewed on campus, 5/29/99; the student admitted that he was in debt to student bookies and did not want his parents to find out.
Alison Schneider of the
Chronicle of Higher Education
reported on the faculty reaction to student cheating, 1/22/99; she quoted Northwestern University classics professor Daniel H. Garrison and other academics on the difficulties of pursuing student plagiarists and other cheaters. Stephanie Corns, a student reporter at the University of Arizona, wrote a story about James Karge-Taylor's problems in his history of jazz course in the
Daily Wildcat
, 9/21/98; the
U.S. News
cover story on cheating (op. cit.) contained the anecdote about “Tim, a University of Arizona senior” buying a paper for his jazz lecture course.
U.S. News
did not identify the course as Prof. Karge-Taylor's, however, the university's schedule of classes on the web disclosed that he was the only professor teaching this course, and so probably Tim was in it. David Plotz of
Rolling Stone
discovered the flaws in the anti-plagiarism search engines (10/14/99). The Indiana University professor with the note in his course syllabi is the author of this book; hopefully, the reader, like an experienced teacher, recognized the telltale stylistic signsâparticularly sentences containing dashesâand overuse of such conjunctions as “however.”
U.S. News
commented on the academic scandal in the University of Minnesota athletic department, 11/22/99; that article also quoted sports expert Richard Lapchick stating that “in the past year alone, [he] counseled tutors and former players at six different schools to report cheating, only to have every athletic directorâand one college presidentâinvestigate and deny there was a problem.” The
St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press
and the
Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune
covered the Minnesota scandal in voluminous detailâunfortunately, the website of the former paper does not provide free access to its back issues. However, the
Tribune
does, and the reader can follow all the twists of the story there. Of particular value are the following articles: the long summary of the university's report on the scandal, 11/20/99; Jay Weiner's history of athletic scandals at the university, 11/22/99; and Chris Ison and Paul McEnroe's piece on the never-ending recruiting problems of coaches in a state without many blue-chip football and basketball players, 12/17/99. Ison and McEnroe quoted faculty member Sander Latts on “star forward Courtney James's” paper, 3/14/99, and the lack of administrative follow-up, 3/18/99. Apparently, as a result of the investigation, the president of the university, Mark Yudoff, has reprimanded some administrators and faculty members for their roles in the academic fraud but, as of March 2000, the first anniversary of the scandal, these penalties have yet to be enforced.
Ernest Boyer, the head of the Carnegie Foundation, commented on “the cynicism that stems from the abuses in athletics” in
College
(op. cit.), p. 184. The comment about Peter Warrick's involvement in a shoplifting incident came from a student at the University of Georgia, 11/19/99. IU student Andy Short suggested the survey question to probe the connections between student cheating and college sports, 2/20/94; and the
U.S
.
News
poll statistic of 18 percent on turning in a classmate was on the magazine website, 11/15/99. The respondents quoted at length in the text on helping the athlete cheat were a freshman female at Illinois: “I would help the athlete prepare”; a Tulane senior male intercollegiate athlete: “I'd tell him to eat shit”; a junior female at Ohio State: “It would be a total mess”; and a sophomore woman at Temple University: “No help for this pathetic moron from me.”
In the ongoing debate as to whether intercollegiate athletes gain meaningful university educations, many observers note the higher graduation rates for female athletes than for their male counterparts. The reason is obvious: female athletes, less burdened by the fantasy of playing pro sports, place a higher value on their free educations and try to beat the training system to obtain them. The further away the female athlete is from a pro sports career, the higher the grad rate; as a result, women basketball players have the lowest grad rates for female athletes, and field hockey players have very high rates. Whether the female grad rates will erode as professional women's sports expands is an open question.