Re: Problem Student?

["Dr. Deborah Martinson" <dmartin@oxy.edu>]

All, 
	I just wrote Kelly off-line about the details of this students' "clone"
that I worked with for years at Oxy. We too honor students, and its small,
but EVERYONE on campus knew Mikhail and his idiosyncracies. The way I
finally got through to him, while still trying to be professional was: 1)
when he took my class I refused to read papers #3, #4, and #5 until he
agreed to write thesis and analysis-- "humor me," I said. Then remained
adamant.  He cared a great deal about grades and it worked.
	As a writing consultant, after session after session of exhausting
"wrestling" over the discourse, I asked him why he even bothered with me,
or help, or anything--since he obviously felt he knew it all. Finally, we
came to a workable accord. I swear I saw him a hundred times in the 3 years
I worked with him (thankfully he went the the UN, and abroad for an entire
year.)
	I think much of the problem was cultural, and while we study and honor
diversity at Occidental as a primary component of our work there, this
young man stymied me--I couldn't figure out, and still don't know, whether
our problem was cultural, personal, gendered, power-dynamic, or? He is the
only student our writing advisors ever refused to work with--ever.
	After graduating, he still sends me all sorts of things--especially about
computer viruses. And he did write a letter about me that was so wonderful
the Pres and Dean of Faculty wrote me about it--I would NEVER have guessed
he appreciated my working with him, and I earned every syllable of that
letter. And more. Good luck to Kelly.

Debby




At 12:28 PM 3/21/97 -0600, you wrote:
>I have a developing situation in my writing center that I am unsure of
>how to handle:
>
>We have a Russian exchange student who is becoming increasingly
>difficult in terms of accepting what help we give him.  If we don't
>drop everything we are doing and immediatly attend to his needs, he
>gets loud and unruly.  If we don't pick through his papers with a
>fine tooth comb, he does the same (indeed, to my face--I told him I
>would look at the first few pages and work with him on some error
>analysis skills (his language ability is excellent) and he told me to
>read and correct the whole thing--I asked him to leave after that).
>
>The problem is political--we are a small school that worships the
>students--to the point that nearly all "F's" are negotiable--and if I
>were to "ban" this student, or even have the appearence of doing so,
>it would be a week of Dean City for me--something I try to avoid.
>
>Any comments?
>
>Kelly Lowe
>Director of Writing Programs
>Mount Union College
>Alliance, OH 44601
>330/823.3153
>lowekf@muc.edu
>"In a world ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile." --Hunter
>Thompson
>
>
>