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// "I Do Some Cheating For Nikki" \\
(( 03/02/02 by Higgins anada513 ))
\) ________________________________________________________________ (/
Nikki entered my office and I could tell she was not happy. In fact,
she was pouting. I knew why. I had recently informed her that although she
had been accepted into the doctoral program in Psychology, an assistantship
could not be awarded to her. This time she was dressed in a yellow sunsuit
with red and white trimming. Her perfect little feet were encased in black
leather sandals. There was a yellow ribbon in her hair and a small golf
emblem was pitted to her blouse. I think she had come hoping to change my
mind. I again explained to her that graduate assistants must be full-time
students with the proper background and could not hold a full-time job
outside of the University of Connecticut. They would be given eighteen
semester hours of tuition waiver and would receive a monetary stipend.
Nikki said, "Oh please, Professor Higgins, I must have an
assistantship. Can't you use your influence?" And then I told her of a new
idea regarding assistantships which had been developed by a committee in the
School of Arts and Sciences. The committee fully realized that it was
somewhat unrealistic to ask students to give up their jobs, so one member of
the committee, Professor Clipper, suggested the development of a compromise
assistantship which came to be known as a Clippership. The idea was that
doctoral students could retain their jobs, but their awards would consist of
a nine hour tuition waiver together with a monetary stipend exactly half as
large as the usual assistantship. The university workload carried by the
student would be half as many hours as that for the traditional
assistantship. I said, "I can give you a Clippership for the coming
academic year."
But Nikki wasn't interested. She said she didn't want a Clippership,
she wanted the ordinary assistantship. "Please,"she said, can't you use
your muscle to sway the administrators who make these silly rules. You know
I can handle both my job in the County Public Schools and the assistantship
duties. I would be working with you on research projects, and it would be
exciting." I said that I would think about it and then she left my office.
I didn't see her smile much that day and that was not characteristic of
Nikki Nelson.
The decision I finally made on this matter, which made me feel
uneasy, was to recommend Nikki for an assistantship without discussing the
matter with my Department Chair or my Dean. I simply sent the
recommendation to my chair, thinking that none of the powers that be would
know that she held a full-time job in the schools.
It was August when this occurred and she was indeed given the
assistantship. She was so happy she came to my office with tears of joy and
hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I wasn't at all worried whether she
could successfully carry both jobs, but I was worried that we might be
caught.
The fall semester of the new academic year went well. Nikki
succeeded on both tasks, giving me 15-20 hours per week on the
assistantship, and she attained grades of A-plus in all of her courses.
I needed someone to teach the computer course in the spring term.
The course dealt with two major statistical packages, Statistical Analysis
System (SAS) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Now
Nikki loved technology in general and computers in particular. Furthermore,
she was intimate with these two statistical programs, especially with SAS.
She often tutored other graduate students in the use of this software,
sometimes helping them to get their research data through the computer and
then to interpret the outputs correctly. In addition, she had a good record
as a teacher.
So I made a further decision which I knew would make me even more
vulnerable. I asked her to teach the course and she accepted. So I wrote a
letter to my Chair recommending that Nikki Nelson be appointed as an Adjunct
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and that she teach the
computer course in the spring. Well, he did approve this recommendation
without question. And somehow Nikki did pull off the triple-pronged task --
assistantship at U-Conn, teaching, and working in the schools. Now I was
skating on thin ice and Nikki was my accomplice. I felt that we were low
level criminals. But she did make it through the year with flying colors
and no one questioned our behavior at that time.
Well, the axe finally came down on my neck the following July. A
call came from Nancy, my department chair's secretary, requesting that I
meet with him in his office the next day at 3:00pm. From one point of view,
I had no idea what the purpose of the meeting would be, but from another I
sensed an ominous feeling, like a black cloud floating just above me.
When I entered his office he said, "Have a seat, Professor Higgins,"
and he closed his office door. "Do you know Mrs. Nikki Nelson?"
"Yes," I replied. "I know her very well. She is an excellent
student and a fine person -- perhaps the best graduate student I have
encountered in the last decade."
"Does she hold an assistantship?" he asked.
"Yes, she does research for me."
The Chair then asked, "Has she taught a computer course for you as an
Adjunct Assistant Professor?"
"Yes, she is an excellent teacher. The students really like her.
Her student evaluations were unanimously positive."
"And does she work full-time in the County Public School System?" he
asked. ["He has really done his homework," I thought.]
"Yes, her superior in the schools is delighted with her work."
"Professor Higgins, I am very disappointed with you. You have made
some bad decisions and have behaved unethically. I don't know if we can
trust you any more. Are you in love with Nikki Nelson?"
"No, no, no, although I find her attractive and enjoy working with
her on research projects. I will be directing her dissertation."
The Chair said, "Do you think that administrators are stupid?"
[No comment.]
"Well," he said, Mrs. Nikki Nelson will never teach a course again at
the University of Connecticut. I am withdrawing her Adjunct appointment.
Furthermore, I am retracting her assistantship."
I said, "Can we not award her with a Clippership?"
"No," he said. "There will be no further appointments or awards for
this woman. Not while I am the Chairperson of Psychology. The Dean of Arts
and Sciences and the Provost have been alerted to this matter and they are
very upset."
Thereafter, the Chair was reserved and cold toward me. One sometimes
could not tell whether he was happy or sad. Much of the time he resembled
Scrooge in Charles Dickens' famous Christmas Carol. But perhaps I am just
rationalizing. Being in his position I might have done the same thing as
he.
The most difficult part of all this nightmare was to communicate the
bad news to Nikki. I didn't want to do it through a letter, so I asked her
to come to my office. She waited silently, sitting in a chair across from
my desk. As I told of my meeting with the Departmental Chair her eyes began
to fill with tears. I stood and she walked around the desk and held me,
pressing against me, sobbing. I could feel her body trembling. My shirt
became wet with her tears. And she felt so guilty. She said, "I am going
to ruin your career. No one will ever trust you here at the university.
Your very position may be jeopardized. I am so sorry. You are my favorite
professor."
"We did it together my dear Nikki. We weren't thinking clearly.
After a while this will all blow over and people will forget. Seen in the
long run, this series of events we engaged in will be regarded as trivial.
You are my favorite student, little girl."
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