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What is a guild? A guild is…

… among other things, a closed enterprise that protects its own. See the university act as a guild.

A student in [University of Central Florida] Professor Richard Quinn’s business class posted a new video on YouTube. The video is from the first week of class, when Professor Quinn told students he writes his own mid-term and final exams.

But it seems Professor Quinn never wrote the mid-term exam his students cheated on. It was written by the publisher of the textbook for his business class. One student found a copy on the internet, and passed it on to others. [Quinn’s statement to the class is excellent pedagogical technique, no? Keep the students off the scent by telling them that you write your own exam. Don’t check the book! I write my own! You’d be wasting your time checking the book! … Yet one of his enterprising charges looked anyway! Shouldn’t Quinn give that person extra credit for business acumen? Never trust what other people say! Trust your instincts!]

… UCF spokesperson Grant Heston told WFTV “it’s not uncommon for higher education professors to use these pre-made exams produced by the publisher.” [Ah, Heston.  Guildmaster speaks.  Not uncommon, so that means, uh, perfectly fine so shut your face.  It’s a guild thing; you wouldn’t understand.]

… Eyewitness News asked if [Quinn] would be punished for using a test that’s so easily accessible online.

“It’s irrelevant. The focus shouldn’t be on the professor, but on the students who used the test inappropriately,” said Heston.  [Get the effing focus off my man!  This is how professors behave and did I already say shut your face?]

Background here.

And a new editorial in the local paper.

Margaret Soltan, November 14, 2010 4:25AM
Posted in: professors, where the simulacrum ends

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3 Responses to “What is a guild? A guild is…”

  1. dance Says:

    I wonder what Quinn did during the first part of the class to convince his students that studying the publisher’s test would be useful, despite his claim.

  2. Bill Gleason Says:

    What EXACTLY is it that these students are accused of? It is starting to sound as if they got the exam from the internet. How EXACTLY is this wrong? At many reputable places the instructor actually provides students with old exams so that they will know the types of things they might be expected to be able to handle on an exam.

    Although preparing an exam can be a bit of a chore, an instructor with knowledge of the subject should be able to knock out an exam in short order. Of course if you are inclined to give multiple guess exams, that might take a little longer.

    And if someone claims to be writing his or her own exams, the position taken by this person seems at least a little dishonest?

    If anyone can enlighten me further about this situation, I’d appreciate it.

  3. University Diaries » “[E]arly in the new semester, Ms. Wycoff said, “it came to [the professor's] attention that people were either passing the quizzes to their friends or just grading their own. She addressed it in class — she was ba Says:

    […] and produce a viral YouTube revealing to the world that she is an ass (the professor in the YouTube got his exam questions out of a book – too lazy to write his own – and thereby made it supersimple for students to get the […]

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