Monday, December 19, 2011

Write Timing


As I am entering the library earlier this week, I pass by a student on a cell phone and hear the student make the following statement: “I finished all my finals but I still have to write a 60 page term paper which is due in two days.”  As hard as it is to believe, the student clearly stated that the paper is due in two days.  I’m a good writer and assuming all the research is done, I could write a good paper in two days but I seriously doubt that I can write a first rate paper that is anywhere near 60 pages long (even assuming I use large margins and type size) in such a limited time frame.  I know nothing about the student I passed by; he could be an awesome student or an awful student but in either case, I would question whether time management was an area of strength for this person.

I think to some extent we all overestimate what we can do and how long it takes us to do it until the moment of truth arrives.  A 60 page paper is clearly a moment of truth.  And what does the student do at that moment—write continuously, ask for an extension, ask for an extension based on a traumatic event, borrow someone else’s paper?  The alternatives range from not good, to not smart, to counterproductive,  to not ethical, to perhaps fatal.  I still remember the person in graduate school who lost a grandparent every semester at final time.  The first time it happened everyone was sympathetic and the student was given extensions in all his courses. By the third time everyone was skeptical.  To my knowledge this person, though very intelligent, never completed his degree.

One semester in graduate school I had the opportunity to schedule all my courses for the semester on one day, with classes from early morning until late at night.  Since I was doing adjunct teaching at the same time, the one day schedule was irresistible to me.  Everything was going well, with all my exams and papers scheduled on different days until final exam time. For final exams there was a set schedule where the exam was the last class of the semester.  In some colleges and universities there are provisions where a student can reschedule a final if there two other finals are scheduled the same day.  There was no such provision that was available for me to make use of.  And so, I came to class and completed the four finals in one day.  I did very well on the first two, well on the third, and just OK on the fourth (though I knew the material well).  By the fourth exam, I was no longer exam focused.  Not surprisingly, I never took advantage of a scheduling opportunity like this again.

There are so many subjects that we teach well that are critical to a good education but we rarely teach time management.  Some university 101 courses do cover this material but I believe it is presented to a small minority of students and perhaps appreciated by even fewer.  An educated person also benefits greatly by being able to allocate his or her time in the best manner possible.  We should do more to reinforce this concept.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Right Time


Late this week, I received a letter from our longest serving faculty member.  This person has served for over 50 years as a full-time faculty member and continues to be an excellent teacher, an outstanding colleague and a respected scholar.  The letter started off by stating “Much to my own dismay, I have come to the conclusion that now is indeed the time to begin the process of my retirement.” The letter continues by noting that “there are moments when inevitability takes precedence over all else and I must defer.”

This faculty member will be retiring at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year when she will have completed 54 years of service.  Prior to that time she plans to maintain the same sustained high level of activity that has characterized her decades of service up to this time.  In addition she plans to help create a new institute on campus and plan a detective-fiction conference.  As you can tell, this person has been and continues to be a tremendous asset to the University and she will be missed.

Not every career works as smoothly.  When I first arrived at Hofstra there was a person who was both an excellent teacher and a nationally recognized scholar.  This person was one of a handful of Hofstra faculty that I had heard of prior to joining Hofstra.  But this person never wanted to leave even though, over the years, the person’s abilities declined until what remained was a shadow of the original outstanding scholar/teacher.  No colleague ever spoke to this person about what was happening but many colleagues suggested to department chairs and deans that it was, and had been for a number of years, clearly time for the person to go.

When is the right time to go?  The easy answer is when you are still at the top of your game, or in baseball terms, when you are still a 300 + hitter.  Life and finances sometimes makes that hard to do.  Lack of feedback also makes it hard to do.  I never cease to be amazed when faculty or administrators come to talk to me about the diminished skill set of a colleague without every talking to the colleague, even though this happens on a regular basis. Why can’t they talk first to the person they are talking about?  Students also tend to talk to other students about faculty but you can’t expect them to talk to the faculty member about these issues even though they are being shortchanged. Teacher evaluation programs can help but that feedback alone may not be sufficient.

For someone who has served many years, a soft landing is essential.  On-going comprehensive feedback is also essential.  The feedback can’t just be there when everything is going well.  With that combination together with the common sense of the overwhelming majority of faculty, I think the answer to when is the right time to retire will be clear.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Test Takers


I had a terrific experience as a doctoral student. The courses, the faculty, the other students all made for a wonderful educational journey. I was certain economics was the right field for me before I began and I was even more certain by the time I graduated.  Within this wonderful experience, one moment still stands out, not because it directly involved economics, not because it represented an intellectual breakthrough, but rather because I learned an important life lesson.

That moment was when I took my statistics qualifying examination.  That day approximately a dozen students came to take the exam.  The faculty proctor handed out the exam and we all began.  Now the statistics qualifying exam had a reputation for being rigorous but also had a reputation as an exam where typically 5 people passed.  If there were a small number of test takers or a larger number, the results always seemed to be the same—five students passed.  About thirty minutes into a two hour exam, the proctor decided to leave the room while we all continued working on our examinations.  Shortly thereafter one thing changed.  Even though this was not an open book examination, one of the test takers took out the textbook plus a notebook, and began working on the answers with the added support in clear view. What did I do and what did the rest of the class do?  Each of us just kept working on the examination and following the rules.

About an hour later, the proctor returned for the last 30 minutes of the examination period.  Within a few minutes most of us handed in our exams and left the room.  I thought I did well on the exam but nevertheless, was a little apprehensive.   I didn’t say anything to the proctor as I was leaving about the person cheating, and to my knowledge neither did anyone else.  A day or two later, I found out that one of my classmates reported the student who cheated.  His exam was disallowed and I was told he was suspended from the program.  A penalty that was certainly deserved.

When the results of the exam became known about two weeks later, I was relieved to learn that I had passed.  Five students passed this qualifying exam, and going from highest to lowest passing grade, I was number 5.  If the cheater hadn’t been turned in, I assume I would not have passed.

I have been thinking about the Long Island students who paid other students to take the SATs for them.  For a few thousand dollars, they were on the fast track to a much more impressive SAT score and the resulting benefits in terms of gaining admission or being awarded a scholarship.  But very often, just as was the case in my statistics qualifying examination, someone cheating their way to admission or a scholarship likely precluded the person deserving the recognition from receiving it.  In all the publicity regarding the exam takers and those who paid for someone to take the exam, the real potential victims have not been identified. They are the individuals who did everything right, but nevertheless would have been shortchanged out of the positive results of their efforts.  I know it can happen.  It almost happened to me.

I often think that we are not as stringent as we should be in our monitoring and enforcement of academic honesty and I also think that we are often too lenient in the penalties we impose for violations of academic honesty.  If we are to be fair to the individuals who do everything the way it should be done, we (faculty, students, and administrators) need to do more to eliminate cheating. If we turn the other cheek to cheating, we are hurting ourselves and cheating the system that we are part of.