Days at University Blue

New Stage

universityblue — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:36:46 +0000

Surprise! After 1.5 years working at the University, I have been offered a position in my field which will let me pursue my calling, and therefore I am leaving the world of students, faculty, exams, and Boise Fireworx copy paper. As a tribute to my wonderful sojourn in the chemistry department, here are the Top Ten Things I Will Miss from this Job.

Using two computer monitors.
Having a position that is sufficiently unimportant to keep me from being responsible for most mistakes and problems in the college.
Hearing students’ excuses for needing to miss exams/class or have homework assignments extended.
Telling them no.
The students who drop by occasionally just to catch up or tell me what is going on in their lives.
The faculty and instructors who consistently thank me for my work and give me even more respect than I deserve.
Having an interesting interaction with a student and then getting to retell the story to my husband, my coworkers, my director, my boss, the lab director, all interested instructors, and then this blog in turn.
Being called a doctor or professor on a regular basis.
Girls’ Night.
My amazing coworkers who listen to all of my stories, laugh with me about all the little dramas, and support me no matter what.

TMI

universityblue — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:54:06 +0000

—–Original Message—–

From: Student

Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 12:59 PM

To: Instructor

Subject: under the weather…

Hi,

My right eye is totally bloodshot and swollen shut. Why you might ask? I haven’t the slightest clue…I just woke up today and it was like that. I went to the clinic at 11:20 today and I the doctor said I have two corneal abrasions and she prescribed me some ointment for it. She gave me specific instructions not to do any kind of studying or homework and to rest. She gave me her email address and said to give it to my professors if you had any questions concerning my excuse.

In sum…I won’t be coming to class tomorrow! Regretfully I must say..I was hoping for some sort of extension on the homework due tomorrow?

Sincerely,

Student

My internal response:

Gross…
Honestly, I probably would not have asked about your red, swollen eye. Shocking, I know.
More grossness…
She gave you her e-mail address, but you don’t include it in your e-mail? Sounds more like a come-on than an excused absence.
At least you say these things “regretfully”.
Is that last sentence a statement or a question?
If you bring me legitimate documentation from the clinic, I’ll excuse you from class and extend your homework assignment.
Reach for the hand sanitizer, just to make myself feel better.

Rule-breaking

universityblue — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:07:24 +0000

One or two instructors around here are truly in a tizzy at the start of this semester. The root problem is that students do not believe that the rules we put into place and enforce are important, or at least not as important as getting exactly what the student wants. Honestly, our director of undergraduates is bordering on exasperation as she tries to enforce rules using technology and software that are not up to the task.

Each semester, students are allowed to drop and/or add classes for a full seven days after classes begin. During this drop/add period, we take the time to run a plethora of reports, mingling spreadsheet data across multiple semesters in order to determine whether the students currently enrolled in our classes have successfully completed their prerequisite courses.

One of our instructors for organic chemistry discovered a student in her lab who had outright failed the prerequisite course. He had absolutely no place being in an upper level lab without having passed the previous semester’s course. Therefore, the instructor followed the appropriate channels to have the student dropped from the course, and the student was informed that this had happened and provided with an explanation. The instructor was careful to do this before drop/add ended so that the student could re-add himself to another course… which he did.

Unfortunately for us, he re-added himself to the course from which he had been manually dropped.

Unfortunately for him, we are not as dumb as we look.

He was discovered the next day, back on the class roster as if nothing had happened. He had received a clear directive and had even experienced being forcibly dropped from the course, and he had the audacity to re-enroll in the same course, with the same instructor again. So that he could be dropped again.

While the student is culpable for his actions, the fact that our system will allow a dropped student to re-enroll himself at all is reprehensible on our part. Rumor has it that this situation and several others like it in our department have been raised as major issues all the way up the line in our dean’s office this semester, and the shock waves of blame and accusations are flying from one office to another.

There are times when being a lowly administrative staff person has its perks, I suppose, since I am not nearly important enough to be blamed!

A pebble on the shore

universityblue — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:31:42 +0000

Background: The following is the most offensive conversation I have had with any student to date. His initial e-mail is a reference to our exam excused absence policy, which states that if a student submits legitimate documentation to be excused from an exam, we will substitute his grade from the corresponding portion of the final for the missed exam grade. Of course, it is the students’ responsibility to inform me within a reasonable timeframe when an exam is missed for a legitimate reason. The student’s name has been changed in the conversation below.

—–Original Message—–

From: Miles Cray

Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 8:24 PM

To: General Chemistry Office

Subject: Chemistry Grade

Hello,

This is Miles Cray. I had an excuse for missing exam II but it’s showing me with a “0″ for it. The final part for exam II replaces it right?

Thanks,

Miles

________________________________________

From: GenChemOffice

Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 8:41 AM

To: Student

Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

Miles,

Did you ever sign the excused absence form? I do not have any form on file for you, which means you were never officially excused for Exam 2, which is why it is not excused in Blackboard. Unless you can come to see me in my office today before 3:00 PM, your overall course grade in this course will not reflect an excused exam. Please explain what you mean by having an excuse for missing Exam 2. Thank you,

Office of General Chemistry

Note: I course grades were officially due at 4:00 PM on December 21^st, so I needed to speak to Miles directly before then if we were going to be able to do anything. Our official policy is that we only excuse exams up to a week after the exam takes place, and this request was more than two months late. Still, I would have probably worked with him if he had arrived by 3:00 PM.

—–Original Message—–

From: Miles Cray

Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 4:01 AM

To: GenChemOffice

Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

I have not been able to come in because of work but my excuse was that I was in the hospital with pericarditis on that night. I was admitted into Sacred Heart Hospital. I showed the paperwork to the General Chemistry Assistant and she wrote down my name, class section, etc after photo copying my discharge paperwork.

Note: I have no doubt that Miles brought me hospital documentation, and the actions he describes are exactly the actions I take when excusing a student from class, not from an exam.

________________________________________

From: GenChemOffice

Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 8:58 AM

To: Miles Cray

Cc: Director of General Chemistry

Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

Miles,

Even if you brought me documentation of being in the hospital, if you did not tell me that you actually missed an exam because of your hospitalization, then I would not have known. As stated in your syllabus, you are required to fill out the excused absence form in order to be officially excused. Simply showing me documentation to be excused from class is not the same. Since the class had officially ended by the time you informed me of missing an exam, there is nothing we can do to change your exam grade at this time. It was replaced with the corresponding part of the final, since it was your lowest exam grade. Let me know if you have any further questions,

Office of General Chemistry

Brace yourself now.

—–Original Message—–

From: Miles Cray

Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 11:56 PM

To: GenChemOffice

Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

This is absolutely ridiculous! I TOLD YOU IN PERSON AND YOU NOTED IT, that I missed the exam II. THIS IS YOUR FAULT. I KNOW WHAT THE SYLLABUS SAYS! I HAVE A COPY! I gave you the documentation, you wrote a note down about the exam with information like my section/instructor/student ID. You better fix this! Thanks for messing up! I will be in your office in the near future!

________________________________________

From: GenChemOffice

Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 10:07 AM

To: Miles Cray

Cc: General Chemistry Office

Subject: Re: Chemistry Grade

Miles,

This is the director of general chemistry. It is not okay to be verbally abusive to the General Chemistry Assistant. We have ruled in your case, and if you dispute it, you should go see the ombudsman. We consider this case closed. Have a happy holiday,

Director

Note: Thankfully, by the time I saw Miles’ freakout e-mail, my director had already responded on my behalf. I work with good people.

—–Original Message—–

From: Miles Cray

Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 11:17 PM

To: GenChemOffice

Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

I don’t care who you are, this is outrageous. You being the director means nothing to me. You’re just another pebble on the shore. But thanks I guess, I will take it up with them [the ombudsman]. This is not a closed case and I do not know why you think it’s so. You DO NOT care about the students even though you do a job that “should” have that as a requirement for things like this, little things, should not happen. What am I supposed to do about an exam in the hospital anyways? Take it with “telekinetic powers” involving work which releases energy from telepathic interaction. We all know there is no such a thing, short of what God can muster.

At the very least, we all now have a much better concept of the way telekinetic powers work.

Between that affront to the director of general chemistry and the e-mail that appears below, I did some checking into Miles’ grades and spoke to the director personally. He suggested that I be the one to share the following piece of information.

—–Original Message—–
From: GenChemOffice
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 6:41 PM
To: Miles Cray
Cc: Director of General Chemistry
Subject: RE: Chemistry Grade

Dear Miles,

I decided to see what would happen if we did excuse Exam 2 for you, and upon calculating your course grade after excusing that exam, I found that the grade that is now posted on your transcript would not change. Here is the breakdown of your course grade, assuming that Exam 2 is excused:

Exam 1 (76)*0.2

Exam 2 (69 from part 2 of the final, due to excused absence)*0.2

Exam 3 (68)*0.2

Final exam (61)*0.25

Homework (93)*0.1

Class participation (52)*0.05

Add all of these together, and you will find that your total grade in the course is a D.

We will allow you to come to the General Chemistry Office at the start of next semester and fill out the excused absence form in order to excuse this exam. However, please understand that doing so will not change your letter grade in the course.

I hope this information is helpful. Sincerely,

Office of General Chemistry

Telling Miles that I hoped he found that information helpful was a little bit dirty, I admit, but it was much kinder than saying what I felt like: “Congratulations, Miles. You have just increased your D to a D. Well done.”

We have not yet heard a response from Miles.

A plea for extra credit

universityblue — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:35:28 +0000

Several semesters of working with students have taught me that the prevailing attitude toward grades falls somewhere between “I might as well ask for another chance, just to see if they say yes” and “Grades are completely arbitrary and if I volunteer to do extra work to bring up my grade, I am entitled to do so.” In order to try to stay the wash of requests for extra credit opportunities that flow in after final course grades are submitted to the Registrar, we always send out a clear, imperturbable statement to students during finals which reads, “Final grades absolutely will not be adjusted regardless of begging or requests for extra credit. Once the final exam is over, no other course work can be considered in the calculation of your final grade.”

Clearly, not everyone reads the announcement.

From: Student
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 11:02 AM
Subject: CHE: Any possible extra credit

Dear Professor,
I have been working in Chem. Lab very hard this year, however when it came to the lab practical I faltered. I know that I did not do well at all on the practical and most likely failed it. I was wondering if there was an extra credit or anything that I could do to improve my grade the slightest bit. I understand that I am asking a lot, and will completely understand if there is no such opportunity. Thank you for your time.

I will say this for this student – he was polite. We appreciate that kind of attitude around here, and that appreciation sometimes even merits a kind response to the student advising him to read the announcement posted in Blackboard for an answer to his question. I have a feeling that for these students, the realization that they’re not in high school anymore does not hit until right about five minutes into their first semester final exams.

Here is a similar, although more detailed, e-mail that came in after the end of summer school last year:

—–Original Message—–

From: Student

Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 3:37 PM

To: Administrator

Subject: Final Grades

Hello, I am was in Chem and I have a question. This class was very important to my college career because I needed one more science class to complete before I can student teach in the spring. I needed a C and I almost got it however I recieved a D. I have a lot to deal with this summer, another course I was taking, my sister’s pregnancy problems, a good friend past away, etc. So as you can see I couldn’t always find time to complete the homework like I normally would. I am a good student, things just didn’t go well for me this summer. I was wondering if I could re do a couple of the homework sets if it would raise my grade to a 70. I just need a 70 so that it will say C, so that I can student teach, and in turn get out of college in 4 years. If you could just let me know if their is anything I can do it would be really helpful. Thanks so much for listening.

We all need someone to listen to us once in awhile.

The Chem Department: Where Dreams Come True

universityblue — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:27:47 +0000

Our lab director, a good friend of mine, recently shared an e-mail she received from one of her students. The student had told her he needed to ask for an alternate time to take the lab practical, which is given at the end of the semester. She told him to e-mail her the details, and this is what she received:

The family trip I told you about is a trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin. We are going to see the Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Ravens on December 7. Please do not immediately dismiss this reason though. My family and I have been planning this trip since last year. Green Bay Packers tickets are hard to come by and this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity for me and my family. I am willing to do whatever it takes to make this absence possible. I will take the practical whenever is convenient for you, including earlier than everyone else. I will take it anytime of the day, early morning or late at night, that is convenient for you as well. For me, this is that one thing in life that I have to do before I die. And yes it is really that important to me. I will be more than happy to produce any evidence that you require to prove that this is the truth, including pictures from Lambeau Field itself. There is a 30+ year waiting list for tickets and we were able to get some 5 rows up from the 35 yard line through a family member. I am on my knees writing this email. I will do whatever you ask of me in order for you to allow me to make this dream come true. I will ultimately accept whatever decision you make, however. I appreciate you at least hearing me out and giving me a chance to make my case. Thank you.

Signature

Having just returned from a trip to see the Steelers play herself, she did not feel she could refuse. There are a few lessons to take away from this story.

We do accept and appreciate groveling.
There is a significant level of subjectivity in our willingness to respond positively to student requests. Students who beg but express a willingness to accept the consequences either way are much more likely to succeed.
We really like sharing stories with one another about our students.
Drama is never lost on a somewhat jaded and bored academic staff person.

If you can’t calculate you exam score, you should probably try our “chemistry for non majors” course.

universityblue — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:13:48 +0000

After each exam, there is always a smattering of students who think that their grades are calculated incorrectly, either because the student bubbled in the wrong answer on her scantron and circled the right one on her exam booklet or because the student does not know how to calculate partial credit. I once had a student bubble in almost all of her answers one spot to the right of what she intended; if she meant to bubble in a C, she accidentally bubbled a D, and so forth. There were tears when I sadly told her that there was nothing we could do. I felt very much like a Scrooge.

When students simply do not know how to calculate their grade on a 25 question multiple choice exam, however, I do not have as much pity. See this conversation between me and a very confused student this week:

Dear Mrs. Administrative,

I heard from my teacher that there was a 6 point curve on the exam. My grade that was listed on Blackboard the day after the test was an 88 and it still is now. I was wondering if the curve had not been added on yet because I looked at the key and I missed three questions which would have been an 88 without the curve.

She also said that there was a 3 point curve on the 1st exam, so I was just wondering if my 77 should go up to an 80. Thank you.

Signed, Student

Here is my initial response:

Thanks for your e-mail. According to the readout from your scantron, you missed 3 questions on the exam and received partial credit for one, which would give you an 82%. It is possible that you bubbled in an answer on your scantron accidentally but marked it correctly on your exam booklet. Here are your scantron answers:

(answers appeared here)

Let me know if you still have any questions.

Signed, Office of General Chemistry

Now, as you can see, I made the mistake of writing that he had only missed 3 questions, when in fact he had missed 4 plus the partial credit question. That is fully my fault… but the score I provided was still correct. I figured that would be the end of it – he would see exactly what he had missed and understand his grade. That is, until I received his response the following morning:

I was just thinking, if I got only missed three and got 22 correct, then wouldn’t 22/25 be equal to an 88%?

Aha – so he didn’t look at the answer key and scantron readout that I sent at all! If he had, he may have realized that he truly missed 4, not 3 questions. Because I had made an obvious mistake, I knew I had to send him a detailed response so that there would be no further misunderstanding.

I am sorry – in my first e-mail I misspoke. You missed 4 questions on the exam (8, 12, 14, and 22), and you got only partial credit for #25. Here is how to calculate your exam grades: start with 100, and subtract 4 points for every missed question. You missed four questions, so that would mean 100 – 16 = 84. Then you partially missed #25, which means we only subtract 2 points instead of 4, giving 84 – 2 = 82. Then 82 + the 6 point add on gives you a total score of 88.

If you have further questions about how this grade was calculated, you need to visit Dr. Instructor during her office hours so that she can explain. Best wishes,

Office of General Chemistry

Despite my own error in this instance, I truly feel that students should be able to calculate their own grades in second-semester chemistry courses, even when that means calculating partial credit and 6 point curves. If you can’t figure out your score on an exam, how do you expect to calculate the number of moles of a solution or to draw a Lewis structure accurately?

I must at least give these students credit for their undying hope that somehow, some way, they deserve a higher score than they were given. They’re the dreamers!

Evaluation Time

universityblue — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:00:37 +0000

I never got around to posting any evaluations from last semester, so you get to enjoy them a little later than usual. This is just a small smattering from a few different instructors. Ah, kids these days.

What is the most important thing you learned?

I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. I can apply this to my life
That I am still not a fan of this subject
That showing up to class every day is important
Life is not easy.
To do my work thorough & good.
To think long and hard before going to grad school Just joking.
Plug and chug.
Practicing problems helps you learn.
The book is never right.
How NOT to pass a chemistry exam.
Never take chemistry again.
You must come to class.
Putting salt in water makes it boil faster!
No matter what, you’re still a good person
Studying plays a big roll in getting the grade you want.

In your opinion, what is the most important outcome of this course?

Hopefully a C.
I’m struggling to hopefully get a C so that would be a great outcome.

Suggest ways the course could be improved:

Please keep making sound effects in PowerPoint! Haha.
Not talk so monotone. Go slower for harder theories and not talk to much about non-important ones.
It can by improved by playing Lil Wayne non-stop for every class and include videos of Patrick Ewing from the Snickers commercial shown every 7 slides.
Be more interesting so students are more excited to come to class.
I somewhat resent not being given the option to disagree on the environmental section.
The exam could be varied to include essays.
More interesting labs! If I look at another titration, I’m gonna kill myself!
Lighten up on grading.

Have Mercy

universityblue — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:20:15 +0000

Had to share a couple of great e-mails about the online homework assignment that was due last night at 11:45 PM. The first was received by one of our instructors from a panicked student, who forgot to submit the assignment before the deadline. The good news is that I will be able to give this student credit for the assignment anyway. The even better news it that this student truly has a dramatic way with words, and reading his plea was a great way to start off my day.

Hey, my name is (student). I’m the guy that caught the marshmellow earlier in class. Anyway, I very stupidly did my assignment and forgot to submit it. I had the assignment done by 11. I didn’t realize I hadn’t submitted it until approximately 12:10. All of the answers are correct. I did it all at the study today. Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, have mercy on me and don’t count this as a zero. I swear on anything and everything this is the truth.There has to be something I can do. It was an honest mistake. I’m really sorry to bother you with this but I really can’t afford to lose those points. I dont know what else to do. Please get back to me.

Sincerely,

Student

The second e-mail was not as thrilling, because sadly, there is nothing I can do to give this student a break. It’s the old, “If I do it for you, I have to do it for everyone else” problem. Furthermore, the student’s story makes no sense at all. I think it possible that it was the student who “flipped out” for two hours and 50 minutes, not Blackboard. See for yourself:

I know you posted the time in the announcements, but I always have went by the time on the assignment. Well at about 11 black board flipped out and wouldn’t let me log in for a few minutes, then it said I had like, 10 minutes left instead of three hours. Obviously I should have noticed what time it was -.- I know, I’m a freshman.

But if you could give me like, 30 more minutes i could get it done.

It gave me a 40 : ((

I won’t do it again : D

Well… since you’re a freshman, and you promise not to do it again, and you only need 30 extra minutes, and since you used a double frowny face, I guess we can make an exception. Because we’re all exceptions, really… right?

New Header

universityblue — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:23:23 +0000

A word of explanation about the new photo strip across the top of the page. The secretarial lounge is the staff women’s bathroom in our department. Here is what it looks like on the inside:

Inner sanctum of the secretarial lounge

We never, ever use this part of the lounge. Those couches are questionable to say the least, and we simply do our best to avoid them on our way to the actual bathroom.

Despite the undesirable associations that most of us have with the label of “secretarial lounge”, we have been unsuccessful at devising a less offensive name that would be just as effective at keeping students and faculty out of our bathroom. And we all know that marking our bathroom territory takes precedence over political correctness.

So there you have it – a new, more personal, more down and dirty look and feel for a blog that wants to be all of those things.