We all know (don't we?) that professors should not have sex with their students. We also know that plagiarism is wrong. These topics can be great fun to discuss, but they may not be as instructive in helping us understand more subtle ethical issues. So today I present a less sexy but pretty common dilemma for you to consider.
I presented this case last month at "Boot Camp for Profs©," a workshop for college teachers held in Leadville, Colorado (that's where all the pictures are from). The presentation was called "Positive Ethics and Positive Teaching," and the participants were knowledgeable, sharp, and deeply thoughtful faculty members from all over the country. The case revolves around how to deal with attendance, which—along with grading—is a ubiquitous and difficult issue for lots of us.
Read this paragraph, then stop and decide on your course of action.
Your university has a global policy that a particular number of absences in any course means automatic failure. You endorse this policy and have it on your syllabus. A student in your class is a first-generation college student who has failed this course once already, and is now doing much better because of tutoring they sought out with you and the college learning assistance center. The semester is two-thirds over. The only problem is that the student has been absent the number of times that trips the automatic failure rule. The reasons for the student's absence are good (e.g., taking care of younger siblings, volunteering with a charity for which you serve on the board, a job interview, etc.), but not ones you listed on your syllabus as excuses you would recognize. What do you do?
- What options are there?
- What did you decide to do?
- Why?
- How confident are you that your decision is the most ethical?
- What other information might be important for you to know?
- What facts would have to change for your decision to change?
This case generated much interesting discussion at the Boot Camp and there was very little consensus about the best choice. Most of us had a definite opinion about what we would do, but we were not 100% sure that we had the best (most ethical) answer. Indeed, there is research evidence that people in general are more confident in their abilities than they should be (sometimes called the
Lake Wobegon Effect), and it might be that the most ethical professors are not the ones who are the most confident that they are choosing ethically!
Here are some of the alternatives that we discussed at Boot Camp. Are your ideas represented in this list?
- Fail the student; after all, students need to learn that behaviors have consequences.
- Encourage the student to petition the dean for a waiver, knowing that if the waiver is declined you will need to fail the student.
- Talk to the dean informally (the dean used to be in your department), and see if you can "grease the skids" for this student (although you haven't done that for others).
- Tell the dean about this student, and lobby hard.
- "Mis-enter" the number of absences in your records. After all, the student has put forth more effort than others who've been to class every time, and should be rewarded for this effort.
- Fail the student, but then write to the educational policies committee and share your thoughts that the policy should be changed.
What are your thoughts about how ethical each alternative is?
Now, see if any of the following questions make you reconsider your judgments (Be thoughtful and be honest; after all, nobody's looking...):
- What characteristics did you assume for the student? What gender, socio-economic status, ethnic background, disability status, etc., did you picture for the student? Would different characteristics change your decision or your confidence level?
- What if the student were a student athlete? An honors student? A student you hate? A student you find physically attractive (I knew I'd get sex into this somewhere), or unattractive?
- Put yourself in the position of the student. What would you like to see happen?
- Think back to when you were a student. Have you ever been in a situation where you could have used an exception? Have you ever learned a valuable lesson from making a mistake and having a policy enforced even though you suffered in the short term?
- Think about the perspective of the other students in the class who find out what you did. Can you justify your actions to them? (A good guideline I use for ethical decisions is that if you are not comfortable sharing your decision and your reasoning with others, it may not be such a good decision.)
- Did you find yourself leaning towards options that were easier for you to do?
Do you want to know the right answer? Me, too. The only obvious thing about this case for me is that as the professor I should have talked with my student after their
first absence. I would have let the student know the consequences of their actions, and that passing or failing the course is really a matter of their priorities and their choice of how much and what kind of effort they will expend in the course. Indeed, this might be part of a conversation I have with my entire class about
how to do well.
Obviously, there's a lot more to think about—much of which is or will be covered in my other blog posts. I just wanted to get you thinking. I'd be happy to read your comments on what decisions you reached, and, even more important, why.
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Mitch Handelsman is a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado Denver and the co-author (wtih Sharon Anderson, of Ethics for Psychotherapists and Counselors: A Proactive Approach (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
View from Leadville, Colorado
