University of Manchester professor Annmarie Surprenant, who seems not to read her students’ exams before grading them (background here), has issued a statement in response to press reports about this behavior, now under investigation by her university.
Here tis.
I am quite politically incorrect, outspoken and have never adhered to the oft-repeated and probably excellent advice to ‘watch your back’, because I believe watching one’s back will never move us forward.
This makes me an easy target for a certain type of person. Half-truths, false accusations and malicious gossip readily ruin one’s reputation in the eyes of that certain type of person. But in the end it is your work that stands.
No student has ever been inaccurately or unfairly graded by me, and that stands. [Every exam paper has been double-graded and] diligently and accurately annotated and marked.
While not as bad as Columbia University’s Madonna Constantine, whose corner cutting involved plagiarizing her students’ work, or Bonnie Ashley, Annmarie Surprenant’s statement is quite, quite bad. SOS will now tell you why.
When you’ve been accused of something so bad that it makes the papers, you have a couple of choices. If you’re guilty, and you probably are, you can confess to the behavior, or something short of the behavior but bad nonetheless, and offer a reason or two maybe… The most important thing, though, after acknowledging some fault and expressing willingness to cooperate with investigators, is to shut up.
Bonnie and Madonna, as you see if you’ve clicked on their names, gassed on and on and on. Wrote volumes.
Why shouldn’t you pen your confessions at this point?
Well, because you got into the deep shit you’re in because you’re kind of an idiot, kind of an unpleasant whacked out individual. Specifically, what got you into trouble is a sense of your exemption from the rules other people follow, coupled with a pinch of paranoia. THE MORE YOU WRITE, THE MORE EVERYONE WILL SEE THIS. Your prose will give you away. You’re the sort of person who should never be allowed to testify on your own behalf. The best thing for you to do is shut up.
Annmarie begins her statement with a big fat pat on the back for being so great. She is bold, bold, free as the wind, standing firm at the fierce crosswinds of human progress. And we all know that in repressive countries like England people who go against convention are beaten down. The world is full of evil envious gossipers who will try to destroy your work by destroying you….
Yet Annmarie herself almost destroyed her life’s work a few years ago, by repeatedly lying on grant applications about having earned an MD.
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Surprenant ends with a belligerent insistence on her total innocence.
Like the other two writers I’ve mentioned, Surprenant has broken the cardinal SOS rule to control your emotions. Especially when you’ve been accused of something, you’ve got to stay cool. Why? Because we all learn, from dealing with children, that the guiltier you are of something, the louder your insistence that you’re not guilty is likely to be.
And again – most damning of all – what’s lacking in this statement is any expression of willingness — you could even make it eagerness — to cooperate with investigators.
I’m distressed by the accusation that I’ve been negligent in my grading. I look forward to working with the university investigating committee.
Something like that. Short, calm. Acknowledge you’re upset, by all means. That’s honest. But then stop talking about how you feel and get down to business. Don’t tell me you’re being pilloried for being such a gifted person.
… admit you cut corners and pledge never to do it again. Very simple. Your public statement should have two sentences, tops.
People never learn this. Ye olde ego seems to make it impossible. Instead of a brief apology, you get Surprenants. Surprenants are named after ex-Manchester University professor Annmarie Surprenant, who was found to have slapped A‘s on all her student exams and returned them without mussing one eyelash in actually looking at them. (This class management method is especially popular now that online courses are the rage. Venetia Orcutt, an ex-colleague of UD‘s at George Washington University – chair of its physician assistant program! – did nothing for the entire duration of two online courses and awarded all of her students A’s.) Cornered, Surprenant went on and on about her glorious misunderstood being:
I am quite politically incorrect, outspoken and have never adhered to the oft-repeated and probably excellent advice to ‘watch your back’, because I believe watching one’s back will never move us forward.
This makes me an easy target for a certain type of person. Half-truths, false accusations and malicious gossip readily ruin one’s reputation in the eyes of that certain type of person. But in the end it is your work that stands.
Moving us forward… But my work will stand!
And now you’ve got Deborah Martinez, a University of New Mexico public radio reporter who plagiarizes her stuff. Here’s her apology:
“I’ve earned four Associated Press awards over my decades-long broadcast career, producing hundreds of stories with the aim of telling the truth,” she writes in an email … “I made a mistake and was disciplined for it and KUNM and I now move forward with the same goal of informing the public in an open and honest way about news that affects them.”
Moving forward again! Always moving forward!
Scathing Online Schoolmarm doesn’t know quite what to say about people who allow the same self-regard that got them into trouble to generate the apology for having gotten into trouble. This isn’t really about helpful editorial hints. Character is destiny.
How bad is Manchester University?
Consider how long it took the university to deal with the now-notorious Professor Surprenant; and consider that even now the university has communicated nothing about the whole sordid affair to the students who had to suffer her appalling presence. No updates; no apology. Nothing.
… James Wyatt, who was the Life Sciences School Representative at the time, told [the campus newspaper], “the problem with her teaching style was that she was completely disorganised and a terrible communicator.
“The combination of her often illegible diagrams photocopied from a multitude of textbooks delivered in an order that she often seemed to be confused by, her random rambling, sidetracking, and often inaudible mumblings made for a shocking course of lectures.
“I was one of those who made audio recordings of lectures, these only served to remind me of the appalling lecture delivery the first time round.”
According to another student who took the module, in one lecture the entire room of students resorted to shouting at Surprenant as they couldn’t follow the flow of her teaching, with the room of outraged students described as “a riot.” [Unfuckingbelievable. How can a university be so contemptuous of its students that even after this incident it would fail to remove Surprenant from the classroom?]
As Surprenant’s lectures became “increasingly chaotic and hard to understand,” student representatives within the Life Sciences Faculty raised the issue at a staff-student liaison committee in October. At this meeting it was arranged for Wyatt, along with Carly Mckenzie, the Life Sciences Faculty Officer for the Students’ Union, and other course representatives to meet with Surprenant herself to discuss the students’ concerns.
However, following the discussion with Surprenant students remained unconvinced of any improvement. “She totally disregarded the concerns put to her [and] tried to imply that we were the voice of a worrying or complaining minority,” said Wyatt.
Students also expressed concern that the teaching they received has ultimately affected their final degree qualification, Wyatt stated: “I wholeheartedly believe that this unit severely impacted on the time and effort that I could dedicate to other course units.”…
She sounds, from the students’ descriptions, quite, quite drunk.
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Update: Then there’s the
politics department.
… the University of Manchester who are checking out her comments on now-retired Professor Annmarie Surprenant (background here).
She’s been found guilty of gross misconduct. Manchester’s pharmacy school will take a massive hit to its reputation, and could lose accreditation altogether. You’re not supposed to hire and retain people like this.
There’s a rather chaotic comment thread about the events here, at the Times Higher Education. Read carefully, it gives you a sense of the woman’s ballsy, psycho, personality. [Note: That link’s not working very well at the moment. I’ll keep checking on it.]
Speaking of which, the one aspect of the affair which does surprise UD is Surprenant’s continued silence about the tragic youthful circumstances that made her the person she is today.
The definitive university precedent for this comes from Richard Berendzen, one of two recent disgraced ex-presidents at American University. Within minutes of his resignation, Berendzen issued a book about the tragic youthful circumstances that made him the person he is today. UD predicts a Surprenant memoir in the next few months titled
‘YOU’LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU LIE, MARIE!’ — Surviving My Mad Mother