The Waiting Game

There's a Bittersweet song that I love. It's called "The Mating Game." Over the last week, I've been hearing this song in my head and changing the words to the chorus, so that I end up singing about "The Waiting Game."

On Monday of this week, my public policy professor sent an e-mail to my class apologizing for the delay in posting our final grades. He attributes this delay to the fact that many students, he didn't disclose how many, have instances of plagiarism in their final exams and final policy memo projects. As a result, he and our "teaching colleagues" what my department calls TAs, are running all of the final exams and the memos through plagiarism-detecting software.

As with any witch hunt, those accused tend to second-guess themselves throughout the process. While I re-read my submissions and believe that I'm not one of the students they will accuse, the ordeal is entirely frustrating. And so with a new-found rigor, I have been checking my grade-posting website as if it's my job. My anxiety is beginning to reach new heights. Grades were supposed to be available today. Magically, my grades have not yet been posted.

My frustration with this situation exists on many levels. First, let's assume that the witch hunt turns up some real offenders. I'm sure there are students in my academic community who have knowingly or unknowingly failed to cite sources appropriately in their final exams and memos. Unfortunately for them, we are in graduate school. The standards should be high. I've seen this happen in two group project situations.

I participated in two group papers for two different classes this past semester. In both cases, there was a student, who lifted large passages from a text and presented that writing as his/her own work. In one situation, I noticed the plagiarism. In the other, my group members picked up on it. Both groups were able to weed out the plagiarized text. I can only hope that it is this type of infraction that my professor is trying to prosecute.

Both of these students in my group projects were international students. This is of concern only because the standards of citation are higher in the U.S. academic world than the home countries of these students. Were these students adequately prepared for the level of citation/sourcing they would be required to do? If so, are these students that are just turning in half-ass work because they aren't great students? Or did the prep work just not sink in?

Not sure what conclusions I should be drawing from this experience. Right now, the only conclusion I can draw is that I still don't have a grade for this class. My second semester starts in about a week.

1/20 UPDATE: I got an A on my policy memo and an A- in the class. But I didn't get the grade until 1/18. Talk about last minute...the semester starts on Tuesday.