tcpip: (Default)
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2004-07-30 12:48 pm

A certain incident....

Readers of my last protected entry will realize that I have been having a bit of trouble with my CCNA instructors (not tutors, I have been duly informed) and access to module assesments.

On Wednesday one of the instructors, Graham Timmins, telephones and informs me - in the most abusive and threatening manner possible - that I had been expelled from the course and if I attempted to attend on Saturday that he would remove me. He also claimed that he "knew my type" and that I had done nothing in the past fifteen years except be a professional student (clearly he doesn't know how to do a websearch).

Now of course you can't prove anything by 'phone. So I requested that he send me an email of all this - at which point he hung up. Soon afterwards I received send email, minus the personal abuse and of course the threat to throw me out substantially modified ("you will be refused entry").

He also said for further discussion I should either 'phone him or see him personally. Neither is an option to me. I don't want to engage in a conversation with a man with that sort of 'phone manner, and the idea of seeing an erratic individual who wants me to go to a building which he has just threatened to throw me out of is unlikely.

I have submitted a formal complaint to RMIT on account of his actions.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-07-29 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)

I've contacted the Student Union about it. The person in question is a lecturer at the School of Life and Physical Sciences. I've contacted the Head of School and their Pro Vice-Chancellor.

[identity profile] paula-angela.livejournal.com 2004-07-29 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
With the sort of behavior you're describing, it could amount to a disciplinary matter against the staff member in question.

Bear in mind that while lecturers seem all-powerful, they come in everything from the tennured variety (impossible to get rid of), to the sessional (basically temp staff). You could infer from such attempts to "throw his weight around" that he in fact has fairly little real power.

Also, expulsions never happen on the spot, and are always in writing. This person is trying to scare you away, which is infinately easier than securing a formal expulsion.

It's now up to you to make sure your studies don't suffer. When you're in dispute with a lecturer, there should be some mechanism to get an alternate person to mark your work. Good luck.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-07-29 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)

Whilst I have no doubt that all this things are true, he did claim that he checked with administration beforehand on whether he had the authority to expel me - and as a short course fee paying student apparently I am of the less rights variety of student.

It's now up to you to make sure your studies don't suffer.

Good advice, and I have already made new plans.

[identity profile] paula-angela.livejournal.com 2004-07-29 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Good Luck :-)
& always verify
...never trust an adversary to explain the rules to you!

[identity profile] angel80.livejournal.com 2004-07-30 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like rot to me. Certainly he could not throw you out of a course for something as trivial as arguing with him about your rights to view your marked assignments.

Assuming he is actually employed by the University, as opposed to some subsidiary entity, you would have the same entitlements in this regard as any other student - and all the appeal processes that are available if he did actually attempt to prevent you from attending class.

I don't know what RMIT policy is, but at my place he would not be within his rights in refusing to let you see how you went during a mid-term assessment.