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[senor_lorca]

I am new to my college and an adjunct. A star athlete who is failing my class just submitted a paper "proving" that "homosexuals made the choice to be gay" and so "problems between homosexuals and strate [sic] students" are not bullying. The paper constantly references his discussions with "people in the Gold Box" (the box at the stadium for local non-university "power and money," like the governor and big deal CEOs.)

If he fails this paper, he loses his athletic eligibility.

I'm a gay man. That's google-able.

What would you do in this situation?

[prof_smartypants]

Do you have a rubric? Grade the paper according to the guidelines you set up. Grade them strictly. Sounds like he'd fail based on proper citing, use of appropriate sources, and backing up his argument with evidence. Try to grade it as objectively as possible so as to stand up to any and all future appeals.

[zharkov]

ROTFPMP.  Reminds me of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.   What an opportunity for poetic justice.

I suppose a serious answer depends on your school's culture.  If you are newish adjunct, talk to your chair.  Some schools are very supportive of the need to maintain academic standards with student athletes, and the coaches some down hard on students who mess up.  Other places, not so much. 

In any case, this seems strange, that a single paper would result in a student losing eligibility.

If he fails this paper, he loses his athletic eligibility.

[larryc]

Flunk him entirely on the mechanics of his paper--spelling. grammar, structure, etc. Mark the paper meticulously and make a photocopy before you hand it back.

I would not bring your chair or anyone else into it. Don't set off any alarms. The kid is probably already losing his eligibility for his performance in other classes. You may never hear a peep about this.

[tuxedo_cat]

Flunk him entirely on the mechanics of his paper--spelling. grammar, structure, etc. Mark the paper meticulously and make a photocopy before you hand it back.

I would not bring your chair or anyone else into it. Don't set off any alarms. The kid is probably already losing his eligibility for his performance in other classes. You may never hear a peep about this.

Yup.

[goldenapple]

A student turned in a paper using evidence drawn from informal conversations? The paper has no structure and the writing is grammatically substandard? Give it an F. The paper fails and the rest is not your problem.

If it's your job you're worried about, just don't start criticizing the athletic department in a national newspaper. That does tend to get the Dean's attention in the worst way.

[duchess_of_malfi]

Larry is right; the student had a lot of academic problems on the road to your class and this paper.  I caused a student to lose eligibility last year on the basis of a zero score in the in-class exercises category.  It was only 20% of the grade, but that is two letter grades and he was, at best, a C student to begin with.  There were some alternately hostile and weepy emails that ended when I told him to have his coach contact me.  It was uncomfortable and it was my problem.  But it's part of the job, and I've been through much worse with students.

I rarely give F's on papers and there is a 0%-50% range within F, but using any rubric for my assignments, it's hard to see how a source-less paper passing off personal opinion as fact could result in anything higher than 50%.  With a paper like this, it's tempting to write a lot of comments, but the student won't understand them and will interpret them to mean "My professor is bias," so to the extent possible, treat it as if it were any other bad paper.  As others advise, keep good records including of any emails.  I have a written procedure for students to use to argue for a reconsideration of an assignment grade that helps me avoid being yelled at face-to-face somewhat.   Then I would wait to see what happened.

Good luck.

[dr_alcott]

What was the assignment? That information might help us advise you.

For now, I'd say this:

Do you have a rubric? Grade the paper according to the guidelines you set up. Grade them strictly. Sounds like he'd fail based on proper citing, use of appropriate sources, and backing up his argument with evidence. Try to grade it as objectively as possible so as to stand up to any and all future appeals.

And this:

Flunk him entirely on the mechanics of his paper--spelling. grammar, structure, etc. Mark the paper meticulously and make a photocopy before you hand it back.

I would not bring your chair or anyone else into it. Don't set off any alarms. The kid is probably already losing his eligibility for his performance in other classes. You may never hear a peep about this.

Personally, I wouldn't bring it up with the chair unless you already have a good relationship with him or her.

I'm curious: why is your own identity an issue here? Are you suggesting that he googled you, knows you're gay, and is trying to provoke, insult, or "fix" you? Or that he'll accuse you of being biased if you fail his paper? If the former, he's a first-rate jerk. But either way, it's important to grade the paper according to the standards you've set up for him.

The student sounds like an idiot. Good luck.

[monsterx]

Well, just to be different, I will argue that the course of events might go like this: student gets an F, and is threatened with losing eligibility.  There may be other reasons why this could happen, but let's suppose that this is the straw about to break the camels back.  He decides it is unfair, and, after a little googling discoveres that the OP is gay.  Bias!  So he runs to his couch who goes to the chair and they decide that a star athlete is important to the university , but an adjunct is not.   I'm not saying it would play out this way, but it is a possibility. 

Still, in the OP's shoes, I'd fail him.  It is part of the job, and you have to do your job.  If he complained, I'd let someone else, someone with some standing, grade it, and overrule my grade if they want to.   

[tuxedo_cat]

I'm curious: why is your own identity an issue here? Are you suggesting that he googled you, knows you're gay, and is trying to provoke, insult, or "fix" you? Or that he'll accuse you of being biased if you fail his paper? If the former, he's a first-rate jerk.

Hmm, let's see:  a star athlete (let's guess he's a football player, since the guys on the fencing team don't generally compete in a "stadium") argues that since the gays have chosen that "lifestyle," strate students have the right to "bully" them.  And generally "bullying" gay men isn't restricted to saying lots and lots of mean things to them.  Especially if you're, say, a linebacker who doesn't know how to spell the word "straight."  He probably can't spell or define "impunity" either, but that won't stop him from having fantasies about how all these powerful people might be on his side if he decides to engage in some "bullying."

So, I yes, I would say that under these circumstances, the identity of the instructor is relevant.

I would also say that this takes us well beyond the label of "first rate jerk."

[concordancia]

I'm curious: why is your own identity an issue here? Are you suggesting that he googled you, knows you're gay, and is trying to provoke, insult, or "fix" you? Or that he'll accuse you of being biased if you fail his paper? If the former, he's a first-rate jerk.

Hmm, let's see:  a star athlete (let's guess he's a football player, since the guys on the fencing team don't generally compete in a "stadium") argues that since the gays have chosen that "lifestyle," strate students have the right to "bully" them.  And generally "bullying" gay men isn't restricted to saying lots and lots of mean things to them.  Especially if you're, say, a linebacker who doesn't know how to spell the word "straight."  He probably can't spell or define "impunity" either, but that won't stop him from having fantasies about how all these powerful people might be on his side if he decides to engage in some "bullying."

So, I yes, I would say that under these circumstances, the identity of the instructor is relevant.

I would also say that this takes us well beyond the label of "first rate jerk."

I was already thinking of this interpretation, which, by the way, means that this paper should be turned over to student affairs and/or campus police. So what if it is a choice? Why the FVCK does it being a choice justify bullying? The paper itself IS an attempt at bullying and should be treated as such.

[drj_b]

Just my 2 cents from having a handful of athletes in classes. We always had the athletes identify themselves early on with a letter from an athletics coordinator person, who also provided their travel schedule and other things I as an instructor or TA had to accommodate. Mine was a Big 12 uni, and there was a different coordinator for nearly every sport. 

The coordinator is the person you need to talk to, not the student, not the coach. They are supposed to work together with you to accommodate the student athlete's needs but not let them get away with stuff (i.e., lying about missing class due to a tournament, etc.). S/he is the one who is the gatekeeper for student athlete eligibility. You should have had this person's contact info from the very beginning of the semester.

If there is time for the student to withdraw from the course without automatically drawing an F, then talk to the athletics coordinator IMMEDIATELY and inform them the student athlete is on their way to failing. They should take care of whatever intervention they deem necessary in terms of the student's fate (tutoring? dropping? something else?).

Everyone I encountered - even the not so smart ones - seemed to be making a really honest go of it. Though I know people who had athletes who really didn't try and didn't care - football players in all cases. They told the coaches that these athletes were going to fail at the rate they were going, and most dropped the class, whilst a couple scraped themselves up to a C after tutoring and really, really trying. Only one athlete was a first-class jerk, but he thankfully dropped the class after the first week.

What I would do, personally, is call the coordinator and explain non-dramatically that you hate to fail the athlete but he or she is not doing the required work or submitting substandard/ unacceptable work. Then offer the chance to re-write the paper, this time according to the standards (citations, spelling, etc.) you required of the rest of your class. Give them a new deadline and say that this is a special accommodation because you don't want him/her to lose eligibility. But that this is as far as you are willing to go. Don't say anything about your personal views on the topic of the paper - I'm sure the coordinator will think the paper was dumb too. In any case it's not worth it to get into any kind of entrenched argument with such a person.

Last but not least, photocopy the paper and print out all your emails with this athlete and keep it in a safe place. If anything comes up you can always tell them you have proof you bent over backwards for the student. Make sure the emails you print out contain the full headers.

[dr_alcott]

I'm curious: why is your own identity an issue here? Are you suggesting that he googled you, knows you're gay, and is trying to provoke, insult, or "fix" you? Or that he'll accuse you of being biased if you fail his paper? If the former, he's a first-rate jerk.

Hmm, let's see:  a star athlete (let's guess he's a football player, since the guys on the fencing team don't generally compete in a "stadium") argues that since the gays have chosen that "lifestyle," strate students have the right to "bully" them.  And generally "bullying" gay men isn't restricted to saying lots and lots of mean things to them.  Especially if you're, say, a linebacker who doesn't know how to spell the word "straight."  He probably can't spell or define "impunity" either, but that won't stop him from having fantasies about how all these powerful people might be on his side if he decides to engage in some "bullying."

So, I yes, I would say that under these circumstances, the identity of the instructor is relevant.

I would also say that this takes us well beyond the label of "first rate jerk."

I was already thinking of this interpretation, which, by the way, means that this paper should be turned over to student affairs and/or campus police. So what if it is a choice? Why the FVCK does it being a choice justify bullying? The paper itself IS an attempt at bullying and should be treated as such.

And just to be clear: I wasn't saying the instructor's identify is NOT relevant. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether the student knows the instructor is gay. If so, then yes, add bullying to the list of reasons that the paper is problematic. But it wasn't clear to me what the student knew.

[concordancia]

I'm curious: why is your own identity an issue here? Are you suggesting that he googled you, knows you're gay, and is trying to provoke, insult, or "fix" you? Or that he'll accuse you of being biased if you fail his paper? If the former, he's a first-rate jerk.

Hmm, let's see:  a star athlete (let's guess he's a football player, since the guys on the fencing team don't generally compete in a "stadium") argues that since the gays have chosen that "lifestyle," strate students have the right to "bully" them.  And generally "bullying" gay men isn't restricted to saying lots and lots of mean things to them.  Especially if you're, say, a linebacker who doesn't know how to spell the word "straight."  He probably can't spell or define "impunity" either, but that won't stop him from having fantasies about how all these powerful people might be on his side if he decides to engage in some "bullying."

So, I yes, I would say that under these circumstances, the identity of the instructor is relevant.

I would also say that this takes us well beyond the label of "first rate jerk."

I was already thinking of this interpretation, which, by the way, means that this paper should be turned over to student affairs and/or campus police. So what if it is a choice? Why the FVCK does it being a choice justify bullying? The paper itself IS an attempt at bullying and should be treated as such.

And just to be clear: I wasn't saying the instructor's identify is NOT relevant. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether the student knows the instructor is gay. If so, then yes, add bullying to the list of reasons that the paper is problematic. But it wasn't clear to me what the student knew.

OK, but the student should still be reported, justifying a violent act isn't much different than threatening to perpetrate a violent act, whether it be against the instructor or against other students.

[benchmark]

Well, just to be different, I will argue that the course of events might go like this: student gets an F, and is threatened with losing eligibility.  There may be other reasons why this could happen, but let's suppose that this is the straw about to break the camels back.  He decides it is unfair, and, after a little googling discoveres that the OP is gay.  Bias!  So he runs to his couch who goes to the chair and they decide that a star athlete is important to the university , but an adjunct is not.   I'm not saying it would play out this way, but it is a possibility. 

Still, in the OP's shoes, I'd fail him.  It is part of the job, and you have to do your job.  If he complained, I'd let someone else, someone with some standing, grade it, and overrule my grade if they want to.   

I agree with this. It's important to realize that this might not turn out well - it's a possibility. A lot depends on the integrity of the institution. Hopefully it is run by people who will do the right thing and support you, not the idiot student.