Their Lyin', Buyin' Hearts

Cranky has had enough espresso to make her veins ache. Cranky has been on every search engine the god/dess ever made, Cranky has been to the library, Cranky has access to Turnitin.com (more useless than a mousetrap in a barn full of cats). Cranky has undergrads with fat wallets who are turning in papers that in no way match their near non-existent abilities to write analytically and grammatically in class. She watches them get all horky-snorty when they get back papers with grades clearly not earned by them. We have a strict policy: no source, no plagiarism accusation. One can hint, one can ask that the student "explain" the paper, but our students who engage in this deceit are also masters of the bold-faced lie. Cranky has had students become almost violently belligerent until she has produced the source for the plagiarism hotly denied. So what is Cranky to do ? This has eaten up an enormous amount of time, but worse, it is getting to CIA. She is VEXED. Of necessity, this post must be in the third person, because without some distance, Cranky is going to explode. Hee-haw.

4.5.09 Update, now that I have had time to read. University Diaries (see sidebar) has two posts relevant to this p³ mentality (pay, plagiarize, play): the first, on Doris Kearns Goodwin's lack of deserved academic disgrace and a second, on bogus diplomas obtained, by of all people, K-12 supervisory personal and teachers, here. Of the first, it cheers me that the Vanderbuilt students see right through the pomp to the essence of the matter. On the second, my cynicism is boundless: it seems that the more stress this system puts on accountability, standards, and testing, the more it is revealed for the house of cards it is, and the all the more should higher ed stay far away from any "reform" that resembles it. I am still of the opinion that if a student can survive public K-12, s/he may finally get an education at college.