This is ridiculous. I've sent some messages to this forum under the name "Bill Scott". Do you think I deserve to send messages to you this way? I have never (as far as I can remember) made claim to any status. Maybe I am an undergraduate student. Maybe I am the dean of students at my college. Maybe I am chair of the department of psychology here. But, perhaps I am an uneducated and undocumented alien who is using one of the library computer stations at this college. I might be male, but maybe I'm female. Perhaps I am a serial murderer. Maybe I have a license to practice psychology and maybe I don't even have a driver's license. I might even be your sister.
What makes you respond to my messages? Your belief regarding my faculty status? Think about it. Bill Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Callen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 11:25 PM Subject: Comment on the MS deal > As the person who initiated some of this discussion, I feel I must jump in with some comments. Although a dedicated lurker, I have been lucky to have been a part of Tips since its inception, when some were still viewing such listservs on things like Charlotte and other newsgroup-type vehicles. Pretty early on we started to have contributions from Louis Schmier, who initially attracted his share of detractors suggesting that he take his "random thoughts" elsewhere. Louis persisted in posting, those that didn't want to read his posts filtered him, and others replied and challenged him as they saw fit. Correctly, although some challenged our dedicated listowner Bill to remove him, I believed Louis' posts should be allowed as they were, as he was a faculty member, although not in Psychology, who had ideas, suggestions, concerns, philosophies, and genuine "thoughts" that he believed helped him in way he tried to improve as a teacher. He was and continues to be as he has stated in his posts, a tenured faculty member at Valdosta State. > > I don't know exactly when they started, but posts from a Michael Sylvester, Ph.D. from Daytona Beach, email address from Embry Riddle University, began to appear. These posts, continuing until last week, were clearly intended to reflect the posts of someone who was a faculty member teaching psychology courses. The posts over the years have repeatedly referred to "questions from students" and "my dean has planned to do this..." and "on my next exam I will...", all suggesting an ongoing professional engagement. There certainly has been some frustration over his ability to post some things that seem to some outrageous, and I have witnessed over the years people leaving this list in part due to such silly and obviously-trolling posts. I didn't search the whole archive, and I encourage those who have not been witness to this list for awhile to do so, but some of the frustration that many have felt over the years is expressed I believe in this post by our listowner in 1999: "Bottom line - I am tired about hearing about Michael. This is a list about the teaching of psychology, not a list about Michael. Yes most of you can simply delete his posts if you don't like them, but I have to spend time on a regular basis dealing with the concerns and problems he creates." > > Now, in the interest of freedom of speech, such problems would be a part of any list, as we all know. But for me here's the problem. We have had presented to this list this week evidence that brings into question, at the very least, the role of this person as an instructor as implied in virtually all posts he has made, not withstanding a suggested affiliation that doesn't exits with a university. Some can talk about how much pleasure people get "showing no mercy" or that his posts do no harm as they sometimes can be humorous and stimulate some thought. I think what one of the Tipsters posted earlier is an essential point. Our profession, as educators and scientists, is based on a credo of integrity, honesty, ethics, and basic trust. When any of us violates that, we rightfully lose that trust that our colleagues afford us. There is a big difference in this regard when a post says "A student today asked this..." instead of "What if a student asked this...". or "My dean has said this...." instead of "What if my dean said this..." . > > When we are witnessing instances of violations of such principles in journalism, such as the Blair NYT situation, the Boston Globe plagiariasm, plagiarism at an Iowa University, as well as what we in academia are seeing increasingly in terms of academic honesty violations, do we really as professionals feel it appropriate to shrug our shoulders in this particular situation and say "Oh, it's just Michael doing what he always did, he's harmless, leave him alone."? > > > Ed Callen > Professor and Chair, > Psychology Department > USC Aiken > Aiken, SC 29801 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Bill Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Fri 3/26/2004 9:43 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences > Cc: > Subject: Re: New Address > > > > Puh-leeze, > > I'm a sometimes contributor but usually lurker here. As someone who believes > that variety is intellectually stimulating, I enjoy reading Mr. Sylvester's > jibes, ersatz questions, and racially motivated comments. Why would we want > to ban him from participation? I don't think he has ever pushed the envelope > on daily "contributions" as others have. Do I really need to hear from some > of you three times a day or more? What makes you think that your > contributions are more worthwhile? I agree that we should keep to the topic > of teaching psychology, but most of the comments in this thread have been > nothing but ad hominem. Those who have contributed to this thread should > consider whether or not they are actually contributing to the mission of > this group. > > Bill Scott > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
