At 02:44 PM 9/25/2006, you wrote:
Think of the issues that could come up later if you give the student
a less-than-desireable grade. ("I even voted for his candidate,
because I thought it might help." "I got the impression it would be
helpful for my grade, but it wasn't.")
And the related flip side of "I got a poor grade because I did not
sign the petition, agree to vote for the candidate, register to vote,
etc." And, if by chance the student does not hold the same political
view, this situation could really explode because of the potential
for an apparent conflict of interest, whether that conflict actually
exists or not. And, in this particular case, I can already hear the
student the next day in class talking with other students about how
the professor came to the apartment campaigning for ____, which in
turn could influence the perceptions and/or actions of other students
in the class.
My general rule of thumb when I encounter a student off-campus is to
treat the interaction as though I was on-campus. Just because it
isn't in my office, during class, etc. doesn't change the
teacher-student relationship that exists between me and the student.
If/when the student talks about the interaction later, they are most
likely to refer to me as their professor, and as a result, I have to
keep the obligations and issues that exist because of that
relationship in mind. And for me, this extends beyond the end of the
class/semester as well since it is possible I could have that student
in another class in the future.
Of course, having said all of this, I'm not sure if I would describe
someone who did knock on the door as unethical... an unwise decision
perhaps because of the potential issues that could arise, but not
unethical, provided it was clear that the interaction would in no way
influence the grade in the course.
- Marc
=============================================
G. Marc Turner, PhD, MEd, Network+, MCP
Senior Lecturer & Technology Coordinator
Department of Psychology
Texas State University-San Marcos
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---
To make changes to your subscription go to:
http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
