Leadership - discipline with love

We just completed our last week of exams at ETSM and final exams will begin next week. In one week, we will have our graduation exercises with hopefully 15 people walking across the stage. This is our highest amount since the initial cohort that began in 1998 (and graduated in 2002). The faculty has already begun to read the "senior papers" written by interns who are about to graduate. Their defense will be next week.

However, the anticipation of next week's joy has been dampened by a couple of students who we had to discipline. Three third year students (who normally would begin their 1-year practicum after the exams next week) were caught in blatant plagiarism. It was more than quoting from a commentary and not giving credit. Instead they had actually taken old term papers from previous students and simply put their name at the top of the paper. And a couple students had done for three different term papers.

So we held an emergency faculty meeting. Actually, I was in Germany and we held a video conference concerning the matter. Of course, the normal discipline measure for this offense would be dismissal from the school - that's true in just about any college. Sadly, we have to discipline these three promising young men.

However, it was interesting how things went in the final chapel service. In a small school, the interpersonal dynamics are very much like that of a family. The students in question offered an apology (although one of them still smiled the whole time) to their classmates. This prompted a compassionate response among the students who in turn questioned our decision to dismiss two of the students. (There were special considerations in the case of the third student.) "Can't you change your mind? That is too strict!"

Actually, we were lenient. We are allowing the students to complete their final exams. They must "rewrite" their papers. They are "suspended" for one year after which they can re-apply and be admitted into their internship. If they are diligent, they could still graduate by 2010.

Of course, the faculty and administration were also aware that any decision we made is in itself an act of teaching. And the lesson is: leadership is doing the right things.