Thursday, March 17, 1994
Teacher-student relationships
by Jeremy Sloan
Collegian Staff
In any classroom, students
should be evaluated by the quality
of their academic performance
alone. For this reason,
universities pay attention to the
relationships between students
and faculty. The evaluation of a
student’s work should not be
colored by the personal
preferences of an instructor.
Penn State has a legitimate
interest in these relationships. A
sexual relationship between
student and instructor will almost
certainly affect the academic
relationship between the two.
Hence, most, if not all,
universities consider such
relationships a serious breach of
ethics. And rightly so.
However, Penn State policy
goes further, frowning upon
almost all personal relationships
between faculty and students.
The intentions of these policies
are admirable, but perhaps the
policies themselves go too far.
As an institution, Penn State
can be cold, clinical, and
maddeningly bureaucratic. In my
The
by Dave Barry
Syndicated Colwnniit
As a parent as well as a
human being, I am deeply
concerned about all this violence
and sex and nudity on television.
Especially the nudity. Why
can’t they put it on earlier? A
lot of us parents are asleep by
9:30 p.m. Why can’t they show
nudity when WE’RE watching?
They could feature it in
programs that children never
watch, such as the network
news. (“Good evening, I’m Dan
Rather.” “And I’m Connie
Chung.” “And I’m Bambi.”)
No, seriously, I am deeply
concerned about TV sex and
violence, and so is the U.S.
Senate (motto: “Working Hard
For You To Re-Elect Us”).
Leading the way by
courageously holding press
conferences is Sen. Paul Simon,
who has a special stake in this
issue because he receives TV
signals directly via his ears,
which are like satellite dishes,
but bigger. (And before I get an
angry letter from the Association
of People With Unusually Large
Body Parts, let me state that I,
personally, find this attractive.)
As a result of this concern on
the part of Sen. Simon and
myself, 1 decided to attend this
year’s National Association of
Television Program Executives
experience, friendships with
professors make college more
personal - less of a gristmill and
more of an education.
Can we reach a compromise
that allows students and faculty
to interact, if they so choose, but
still protects students from
favoritism? In my experience,
yes.
Over the Christmas break, I
spent an evening with three
friends. I brought a bottle of
wine, and over an excellent dinner
we talked, told stories, and
laughed. We talked until two in
the morning. One of the three is
a Behrend student and, the other
two are instructors at the branch
campus I attended last year.
What bothers me most is that I
cannot feel safe using their names
in print.
Our evening together would be
considered a breach of policy and
ethics by Penn State.
Inexplicably, the glass of Scotch
I drank before dinner and the wine
I drank with the meal compound
the offense.
I was of legal drinking age, but
that does not seem to matter.
Apparently the instructors present
(NATPE) convention in Miami
Beach. This is a major annual
gathering of TV executives, who
are wooed intensively by people
trying to sell TV programs. The
convention is held in a huge hall
filled with flashy display booths
featuring lavish buffets,
costumed characters, models
wearing outfits that would look
skimpy even on much smaller
models, and Personal
Appearances by famous stars
such as - while I was there -
Wink Martindale, Ivana Trump,
Captain Planet, Burt Reynolds
and Mr. Food.
The purpose of the glitz is to
lure TV executives into the
booths; they are then taken into
elaborately furnished back-room
deal-making areas, where they
talk business while sipping
complimentary beverages
containing a chemical that
temporarily renders them so
stupid that they will willingly
purchase programs such as “The
Best of Love Connection,”
which consists of reruns of
astoundingly shallow people
recounting their dates with other
astoundingly shallow people.
I’m kidding about the
stupidity, of course. The TV
programming executives are
SMART to purchase this kind of
show. They are making
Dumpsterloads of money,
because we watch these shows.
(sJsffißsfi®
and the University would have
been liable had my student friend
or I been involved in an auto
accident, never mind that we were
both sober and alert during the
short drive home.
This issue of liability branches
into an entirely different problem,
but it also touches upon a central
question: must an instructor at
Penn State always act as an agent
of the University when dealing
with students?
In an academic environment,
instructors certainly act as agents
of the University. But in a social
environment, must instructors
continue to do so?
Current Penn State policy
removes the practical need for an
answer to this by distancing the
students from faculty. However,
this distance, this gap, may itself
hamper the learning process.
At this point we should ask
whether or not a student and an
instructor may have a friendship
which does not erode the
educational standards within the
University. I believe that it can
be so.
At Behrend, I learn. That is
my ' full-time occupation.
WE’RE the idiots. Not that
you’ll hear THAT from Sen.
Simon. He’s not about to say:
“If you don’t like what’s on,
TURN OFF THE TV, YOU
MORONS, and let the Senate
deal with REAL issues such as
whether federal health care
should cover ear reductions.”
No, he’s not going to tell us
that, and we’re not going to stop
watching these shows, which is
why the TV executives are not
going to stop buying them. The
NATPE convention was full of
purposeful, suit-wearing,
briefcase- carrying people,
frowning and talking - in
hushed, urgent tones suitable for
discussing nuclear proliferation -
- about shows such as “Biker
Mice From Mars.” This is an
actual show. I hung around in
the “Biker Mice” booth and
eavesdropped as two intense TV
executives discussed it while
standing right next to two
people costumed as enormous
mice wearing Hells-Angels-style
outfits.
“It’s going to depend on the
percentage,” one of the
executives was saying, as the
giant mice waved to the crowd.
“Yes, but it has to be a
separate financial entity,” the
other executive said. As if to
emphasize this point, the giant
mice bumped butts with each
other.
Whether or not I personally like
or dislike my instructors remains
secondary to the question of
whether or not they teach well. I
have taken classes in which I
found the instructors to be
enjoyable, but unable to teach
effectively. Likewise, I have
taken classes in which I did not
like the professors but I learned
from them.
But there have also been times
when my interest in class
material has been matched by an
affinity for the professor teaching
it. Occasionally, I have come to
consider my instructors as
friends, and have kept in touch
during the semester and after
classes ended.
Have these friendships affected
the evaluation of my coursework?
I do not believe so and this is
why: those instructors with
whom I have built friendships
have in common a deep love of
teaching and a strong sense of
ethics. If anything, I think that
those professors have
consistently come to expect more
from me as a student.
I have not expected special
consideration from these
ot box
“Biker Mice From Mars” is,
needless to say, a children’s
show. Here are some of the
other ones listed in the NATPE
program directory (I am not
making these up): “Clowns of
Justice,” “Chicken Minute,”
“The Yum Yums,” “The
Whimlies,” “The Moo Family,”
“Goomer’s,” “Noozles,”
“Smoggies,” “Bumpety Boo,”
“Scuddlemutt,” “Dinky Dog,”
“Wowser,” “Bubsy,”
“Mirthworms on Stage,” “Rude
Dog and the Dweebs,” “High
Narc,” “Goshu the Cellist,”
“Basil Hears a Noise,” “The
Great Bong,” “The Miraculous
Mellops,” “P.J. Funnybunny”
and “Let’s Make War.”
Also you need to know that
there is a nature show called
“Wombats: Bulldozers of the
Bush.”
The highlight of the
convention for me was when
Mike Donovan, a college
professor who also works for
NATPE (at least until this
column appears), showed me a
tape of one of the greatest TV
shows of all time: “Winky
Dink.” This was the first
“interactive” TV show. You, the
viewer, sent 50 cents to Box 5,
New York 19, New York, and
you got back a Magic Window,
which was a piece of transparent
plastic that you put on your TV
screen. Then, under the direction
instructors. Rather, I would be
upset to find that I had been
treated unfairly. I would lose part
of the respect which drew me to
them in the first place.
When I spend time with these
friends I consider them just that,
friends. If I run into a professor
at a bar or restaurant, and sit and
talk for a while, I do not expect
that conversation to affect my
grade.
Can such a standard be
maintained? That, of course,
depends upon the individual
stiutents and instructors involved.
Some instructors cannot frankly.
Other students and professors
simply have no interest in one
another outside the classrom.
But are a few unethical
instructors reasonable enough to
justify a policy which, while
outside the classroom,
completely isolates faculty from
students? I do not believe so.
Certain types of testing remove
all chance of favoritism, and an
honest instructor evaluates
performance, not preference.
A university in which students
and faculty cannot build
friendships seems a cold, lonely
place.
of Jack Berry, you used special
crayons to draw lines on the
plastic. (Or, if you were my
sister and I, and you didn’t have a
Magic Window, you drew right
on the TV screen and interacted
with your parents later.)
After the lines were drawn, you
and Jack Berry said the Magic
Word “WINKO!” and the lines
became part of, say, a bridge,
which Winky Dink would use to
cross a river.
(“What always bothered me,”
said Mike, “was that even if you
didn’t draw the lines, Winky
Dink still got across the river.”)
As part of the nostalgia
display, NATPE had a TV set up
on the convention floor, playing
old Winky Dink shows. Mike
put a piece of plastic on the
screen and gave me a marker. I
drew the lines where Jack Berry
told me to, producing a vaguely
round object.
“OK, kids,” said Jack Berry.
“Let’s say the magic word! One,
two, three...”
“WINKO!!” yelled Mike and I,
causing startled TV executives to
whirl around and stare at us.
Inside the circle I had drawn,
goldfish appeared. It was a fish
bowl! You don’t get quality
entertainment like that anymore.
Which is probably just as well,
because - Sen. Simon, take note
-- the fish were naked.
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