One would think that at a small private liberal arts college, where the college president told me, in response to my job interview description of my Free Expression course where I make students actually exercise their First Amendment rights about something about with which they are passionate, "why this is a very civil campus," that such would apply to students with a propensity for delusions of entitlement.
One more week of classes and a student who started out as a triple major, is now just trying to finish one major, having burned the bridges in the other departments. In my department, for example, said student wanted to finish the last 4 of the nine courses in the major as independent studies, including the senior seminar and the advanced writing class. Keep in mind that faculty are not compensated for teaching independent studies. I said no. The student dropped my major, but then zoned in on the one department where there was a chance to complete a major and graduate on time. The modus operandi? Do a thesis instead of the required classes that were not available this semester. Thus the battle began. Inspite of this student's ongoing resistance to heading the advice of the thesis committee regarding the scope and depth of the thesis, these colleagues stuck with the student. Now apparently there are questions regarding the academic integrity of the thesis and the parent has shown up, and things are getting ugly... fast. This is one of those moments where cards are on the table - who backs faculty? Will the powers that be... be there? Where is the AAUP when needed?
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