______ _ _ ______ _____ ______ /\___/\ / __ \ | `. | | / __ \ | __ \ / __ \ /\___/\ ) ( | |__| | | `. | | |__| | | | \ | | |__| | ) ( =\ /= | __ | | |`. | | __ | | | | | | __ | =\ /= ) ( | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ) ( / \ www.|_| |_| | | | | |_| |_| | | | | |_| |_|.net / \ ) ( ______ | | | | ______ | |__/ | ______ ) ( / \ |______| |_| |_| |______| |_____/ |______| / \ \ / e z i n e \ / \__ __/ __________________________________________________________ \__ __/ )) (( // "I Do Some Cheating For Nikki" \\ (( 03/02/02 by Higgins anada513 )) \) ________________________________________________________________ (/ Nikki entered my office and I could tell she was not happy. In fact, she was pouting. I knew why. I had recently informed her that although she had been accepted into the doctoral program in Psychology, an assistantship could not be awarded to her. This time she was dressed in a yellow sunsuit with red and white trimming. Her perfect little feet were encased in black leather sandals. There was a yellow ribbon in her hair and a small golf emblem was pitted to her blouse. I think she had come hoping to change my mind. I again explained to her that graduate assistants must be full-time students with the proper background and could not hold a full-time job outside of the University of Connecticut. They would be given eighteen semester hours of tuition waiver and would receive a monetary stipend. Nikki said, "Oh please, Professor Higgins, I must have an assistantship. Can't you use your influence?" And then I told her of a new idea regarding assistantships which had been developed by a committee in the School of Arts and Sciences. The committee fully realized that it was somewhat unrealistic to ask students to give up their jobs, so one member of the committee, Professor Clipper, suggested the development of a compromise assistantship which came to be known as a Clippership. The idea was that doctoral students could retain their jobs, but their awards would consist of a nine hour tuition waiver together with a monetary stipend exactly half as large as the usual assistantship. The university workload carried by the student would be half as many hours as that for the traditional assistantship. I said, "I can give you a Clippership for the coming academic year." But Nikki wasn't interested. She said she didn't want a Clippership, she wanted the ordinary assistantship. "Please,"she said, can't you use your muscle to sway the administrators who make these silly rules. You know I can handle both my job in the County Public Schools and the assistantship duties. I would be working with you on research projects, and it would be exciting." I said that I would think about it and then she left my office. I didn't see her smile much that day and that was not characteristic of Nikki Nelson. The decision I finally made on this matter, which made me feel uneasy, was to recommend Nikki for an assistantship without discussing the matter with my Department Chair or my Dean. I simply sent the recommendation to my chair, thinking that none of the powers that be would know that she held a full-time job in the schools. It was August when this occurred and she was indeed given the assistantship. She was so happy she came to my office with tears of joy and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I wasn't at all worried whether she could successfully carry both jobs, but I was worried that we might be caught. The fall semester of the new academic year went well. Nikki succeeded on both tasks, giving me 15-20 hours per week on the assistantship, and she attained grades of A-plus in all of her courses. I needed someone to teach the computer course in the spring term. The course dealt with two major statistical packages, Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Now Nikki loved technology in general and computers in particular. Furthermore, she was intimate with these two statistical programs, especially with SAS. She often tutored other graduate students in the use of this software, sometimes helping them to get their research data through the computer and then to interpret the outputs correctly. In addition, she had a good record as a teacher. So I made a further decision which I knew would make me even more vulnerable. I asked her to teach the course and she accepted. So I wrote a letter to my Chair recommending that Nikki Nelson be appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and that she teach the computer course in the spring. Well, he did approve this recommendation without question. And somehow Nikki did pull off the triple-pronged task -- assistantship at U-Conn, teaching, and working in the schools. Now I was skating on thin ice and Nikki was my accomplice. I felt that we were low level criminals. But she did make it through the year with flying colors and no one questioned our behavior at that time. Well, the axe finally came down on my neck the following July. A call came from Nancy, my department chair's secretary, requesting that I meet with him in his office the next day at 3:00pm. From one point of view, I had no idea what the purpose of the meeting would be, but from another I sensed an ominous feeling, like a black cloud floating just above me. When I entered his office he said, "Have a seat, Professor Higgins," and he closed his office door. "Do you know Mrs. Nikki Nelson?" "Yes," I replied. "I know her very well. She is an excellent student and a fine person -- perhaps the best graduate student I have encountered in the last decade." "Does she hold an assistantship?" he asked. "Yes, she does research for me." The Chair then asked, "Has she taught a computer course for you as an Adjunct Assistant Professor?" "Yes, she is an excellent teacher. The students really like her. Her student evaluations were unanimously positive." "And does she work full-time in the County Public School System?" he asked. ["He has really done his homework," I thought.] "Yes, her superior in the schools is delighted with her work." "Professor Higgins, I am very disappointed with you. You have made some bad decisions and have behaved unethically. I don't know if we can trust you any more. Are you in love with Nikki Nelson?" "No, no, no, although I find her attractive and enjoy working with her on research projects. I will be directing her dissertation." The Chair said, "Do you think that administrators are stupid?" [No comment.] "Well," he said, Mrs. Nikki Nelson will never teach a course again at the University of Connecticut. I am withdrawing her Adjunct appointment. Furthermore, I am retracting her assistantship." I said, "Can we not award her with a Clippership?" "No," he said. "There will be no further appointments or awards for this woman. Not while I am the Chairperson of Psychology. The Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Provost have been alerted to this matter and they are very upset." Thereafter, the Chair was reserved and cold toward me. One sometimes could not tell whether he was happy or sad. Much of the time he resembled Scrooge in Charles Dickens' famous Christmas Carol. But perhaps I am just rationalizing. Being in his position I might have done the same thing as he. The most difficult part of all this nightmare was to communicate the bad news to Nikki. I didn't want to do it through a letter, so I asked her to come to my office. She waited silently, sitting in a chair across from my desk. As I told of my meeting with the Departmental Chair her eyes began to fill with tears. I stood and she walked around the desk and held me, pressing against me, sobbing. I could feel her body trembling. My shirt became wet with her tears. And she felt so guilty. She said, "I am going to ruin your career. No one will ever trust you here at the university. Your very position may be jeopardized. I am so sorry. You are my favorite professor." "We did it together my dear Nikki. We weren't thinking clearly. After a while this will all blow over and people will forget. Seen in the long run, this series of events we engaged in will be regarded as trivial. You are my favorite student, little girl." ___________________________________________________________________ /|/| ` ( @ @) anada513 has been brought to you by Higgins. ) ^ / ||| (c) 2002 Anada E'zine www.anada.net * Anada is cat-friendly. / )|||____________________________________________________________________ (__________________________________________________________________________)