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Sunday, April 17, 2005
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TEACHING TODAY A University Diaries Series PROOF OF EATING FORMS Here we are again in this latest installation of Teaching Today [type the phrase in the search feature above for many previous TT's], following yet another instance of a professor giving out higher grades to students willing to militate on behalf of the professor’s pet project. You may recall the professor who would not pass students unless they voted in the last presidential election. And the professor who made grades contingent on students doing phone surveys for him in his work as an advisor to a legal team. (“The students claimed they used bogus responses because of deadline pressure to complete the survey, on which they received a grade.”) Now there’s the professor at the Stevens Point campus of the University of Wisconsin who “sent an e-mail from his university account … to students urging them to patronize non-smoking establishments and collect signatures to put an anti-smoking referendum on the [Madison Wisconsin] ballot. In exchange, he wrote, the students would get up to 1,500 extra credit points.” The course, "Healthy American," was “dedicated to encouraging students to make healthy food choices.” Students also got credit for eating out in restaurants: “Forms were … attached to the [email] to be handed out for each student choosing to eat at the restaurant to earn 500 extra credit points and asking for a ‘Proof of eating form at the cash register.’” "It's very troubling that professors were using their pulpits in the classroom to get students to go out and do their work for them and then reward them with extra credit," said part of the team that’s suing the professor and the university, seeing as state employees are barred from political activities while at work. In all, the professor has violated Regent Policies, the Wisconsin Administrative Code, and state statutes. One local bar owner working on the other side of the smoking issue summed it up eloquently: "I can't believe that a teacher would do this. ... It's extortion and bribery…. You can't promote your political agenda through the resources of the community." |