Ok, so I have this group project in my Modern Corrections class. Our topic is "Violence and Victimization in Prisons". There are 2 main phases to the project: A group presentation, and a final 10 page paper composed of our combined smaller papers.

On day one of class, we picked our groups. I got hooked up with 2 other people whom I've known for a while, so things were looking up. Another member was an unknown, but it was evident that she was no dummy, so everyone was comfortable.

Then comes Thomas. Thomas cannot speak english. Thomas is also an idiot (a genuine idiot - I'm not saying this because his english isn't so good - he's genuinely stupid.)

He's also got some rippin' body odor.

At any rate, we've got 5 members.

Now, I have no idea what Thomas is doing here. I had to bust my butt to get accepted into school, and I'm a fairly intelligent and resourceful individual. This guy is a twit.

So we begin dividing the project up. Steph gets "Physical assault", Thomas gets "Sexual Assault/Rape", Cynthia gets "Homicide" and Tony and myself get "Theft, Robbery & Extortion". Somewhere in here, I am also elected group leader.

So begins the research. Thomas' repeated questioning of very basic things doesn't inspire confidence. When he's not asking questions, he's sleeping in class. Cynthia decides that she's going to cover "Rape/Sex Assault" and let Steph cover both "Physical Assault" and "Homicide". Unfortunately, there's a miscommunication - we thought Cynthia was still doing Homicide and that she was going to oversee Thomas' progress. This is not the case - she actually did the whole section as well. So now nobody's done the Homicide section, which is a fairly important aspect of prison violence.

The one and only time I interacted with Thomas was Monday, when he sent me his outline so I could put it into powerpoint.

None of the sentences made any sense whatsoever. It's totally useless - I can't even read the sentences and guess what he was trying to say! So I just sort of fabricate his 3 slides in the powerpoint.

I talk to Cynthia, who agrees that she didn't provide adequate warning, and decides to cover the Homicide portion of the presentation/paper as well - no small feat.

So now here I am - it's 2am, I'm waiting for Cynthia to send me her outline so I can finish up the powerpoint presentation.

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is, but I do believe that if you don't speak english, then you sure as hell shouldn't be attending the hardest Criminal Justice school in Maryland.

All that, and he just sits there with that dopey smile on his face. God I wish I could just punch him.

Sleepily yours,

XXL

 

I like to think that group projects are to teach us how to work with others, but really they do not. They are to teach us that many of the people you will work with are idiots, or if you are the idiot many of the people you work with will be smarter than you. Anyways hang in there, get it done, and don't work with Thomas the village idiot again..... There you learned something


EDIT:

btw, from one college student to another, I feel your pain.

 

Powerpoint o Powerpoint, Thank God I got out of college before Powerpoint was invented. Can't anyone do anything without Powerpoint.

 

College group projects are the WORST!! I just had a similar experience this summer, only one of the members just did verbatim "cut and paste" from various web sites to create her entire part of the paper (no quotes or citations). The thing that really ticked me off about it was she wasn't even creative in trying to disguise what she had done. I did a google search and bang- first two listings were the sites she lifted the stuff from. If we had let that slip by and not caught it, the entire group could have failed the course for plagiarism.

My theory is that group projects don't work in college because of one simple fact- the "reward" level is not the same for everyone involved. While you may do the work to get an A (what you consider the minimum you want out of the deal) another will do the work to just get a C or D to pass the course, and too bad for the rest of the group. In the "real world" the incentive is cash,
a promotion, or simply keeping your job.

Next time you encounter a group project at school, speak up and ask the instructor to include peer evaluations as a percentage of the grading scheme. It may not help much (in the over all grading scheme), but it sure feels good when you have a way to express how others did at the end of the project.

 

Oh wow. I'm the spiteful type I guess. I would include his stuff VERBATIM.

When the stink hit's the fan simply produce his original documents and offer it as proof of accuracy.

Then offer to sue if the entire group is failed because of it.

Takes you right out of the loop and places the responsibility squarely where it belongs - with the school and the Bozo.

FWIW.

 

I'm sort of in the camp with ctfuzzy. Can you go to the instructor and in a VERY CONSTRUCTIVE manner explain your concerns as an individual AND as Group Leader:
The weaknesses of one individual will have a negative impact on the entire group UNLESS the rest of the group carries the weight (i.e. does the work of) the incompetent individual. While this CAN be done, is it the correct way of dealing with the "skill challenged" individual? Will this send the right message to Thomas? That is; "Don't worry if you can't do the job - there are folks there who will do it for you and you can get by on their coat tails."
While any responsible college student does not mind assisting a fellow student, the additional demands placed on you and the others of your group could impact your performance in other classes.
You get the picture...
This type stuff is a sore subject with me. I was in similar situations in my college days, although maybe not as bad as yours.

I do think, absent understanding and support from your instructor, I'd consider passing along Thomas' work ver batim. If the instructor nails you on it, I'd be looking up the number of the Dean of whatever department he/she is in, and/or the Dean of Student Affairs, or find some other way of standing up for yourself.
Presumably you are paying good $$ to earn your education, and hopefully good grades. You are NOT paying good $$ to earn good grades for someone else!
Please let us know how this turns out. To my way of thinking, it is a little snap shot of a lot of what is wrong in society today.
Thanks!

 

I think the fact that this COULD very effectively demonstrate to this individual that there are others around that will carry him if he "can't" carry himself can not be over stated here.

Bottom line; will your group correcting his work help develop and individual you would want covering your back in a bad situation?

'just another pitchfork full from the barn yard.

 

My first though was that this kid is as dumb as a fox. Here you are doing his work and correcting everything he's done. Basically giving him a leg up with no effort on his part. Who knows, he could be our next President.

 

Not likely - he barely speaks english. He thinks my name is "math".

We've cut him out of the whole thing entirely and we've done his part, so we get the grade and he'll fail.

I can't say that I feel bad - he tried to deep-six all of us.

Cynthia finished his section at 4:30am, I finished everything up at 6am.

Now I'm killing time until I have to go.

XXL

 

No, we've thrown out everything he did (not much to begin with) and we filled the holes in, but he's not going to get credit for any work.

EDIT: I've got copies of the work he sent me. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll post some of the gems of wisdom featured in his outline. For a teaser, I'll give you this:

He states that prison rape is part of a race war.

'nuff said.

XXL

 

Hey, BigMatt: WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD! You'll find "Thomas or Thomasina" everywhere you go. You'll have to carry him/her every time you work together. Fortunatly, if you become "group leader" out here in the real world, there are ways of getting Thomas off your team. The key is know the employer's policies and create a paper trail. When the time comes to get rid of him, you have the documentation to back it up. Good luck!

 

On more than one occasion, I've told my profs that I will not work in a group on a project. Once, right in the middle of the thing. I explained what the situation was, and she let me out of it. I did my own project with half the time remaining, and still pulled off a B. The rest got D's or something low. I HATE group work. It's the most miserable of all school work. On the other hand, one time I was in a group and everyone just clicked on what we were all trying to do. It went really well. One time.

 

YOU ONLY HAD ONE DEAD BEAT IN A GROUP OF FIVE at a major university? Count yourself extremely lucky. I have had 2 similar projects when I was in college 14 years ago (thank God no power point back then) and both times got stuck doing the entire project myself, one group didn't even see the finished report until the "instructor" handed it back with a B.

I was the only one working (let alone full time work) and I couldn't type (read my worst job post). Hand wrote the entire report both times and paid someone to type it up on a word processing program for me to edit. Both times the instructor gave me a line about it being a real world experience having to work with others (I guess working in a slaughter house with a bunch of people that didn't speak English and would kick your *** for not pulling your share didn't count). The real world experience I took away was I need to raise more **** when I'm getting screwed.

 

I'm sort of lucky, most of the profs at my school realize this is how group work usually works, so they dont make me bother with it. The fact is...a lot of people simply dont care about their work. They dont seem to realize that everything they do is a reflection of them, and their personality. So i always love to see people making some kind of presentation, which they obviously made up the night before when they had 3 months to work on it, completley embarass themselves and get a failing grade. I find thats a much more effective way of teaching people than group work, where they can be excused for their lazy fat asses.

Some people treat college like it's high school, like they just have to do enough to slide by, because thats what's required of them. Umm no....guys, you dont have to be here. You dont have to be doing this work, you're suppose to be doing it because you want to learn something and want to give people a good impression of you.

There's this one kid in my physics class, who reminds me of the thomas guy you're talking about. He's some kind of arab, he gots nasty bo, never shaves, and spends most of his time sleeping. He seems to have mastered the art of leaning on his arm, staring at his notebook, and holding a pencil in his other arm to make it look like he's studying or something instead of sleeping. I've been grouped with him a few times on some minor projects, and he's less than worthless, you cant understand a thing he says. I'm sure even in his own language he's a moron.

What makes me even more upset is professors who dont speak english. I had this indian algebra teacher. This dude has lived here at least 30 years, and he still cant make a coherent sentance. Not only can he not speak english, but he is also a terrible teacher, on top of that. I thought algebra was hard, until i got an american teacher who actually had some skill to teach to me.

 

Just consider it preparation for enountering all the worthless humans you will be forced to deal with in the workforce.

Trust me, you will. Currently, I'm sitting at work, babysitting a moron that can't spell her own name. She's got the IQ of a grapefruit and the ambition of a desk lamp. Add to that the fact that she (after 10 + years of being in the US) still can't speak English worth a crap, and it's truly infuriating to even be in the same room with her. Trying to accomplish anything where she is involved compllicates matters 10 fold. I will spend the majority of my day correcting her errors, trying to prevent them, tracking the ones she made yesterday down, and cringing everytime the phone rings, knowing that, #1 - she is going to try and answer the phone, which is truly infuriating to the person on the other end, along with myself... and #2 - It's probably someone calling me to tell me that they found another of her mistakes.
Now, add to this the fact that I've just today come back to this shift, after being on nights for almost a year, and therefore, have no desire to even be awake right now, let alone am I capable of remembering how to do things I haven't seen in a year, and explain to me how I still have to explain to her how to do her job on a daily basis.


So, Matt, get used to it, there's morons everywhere. I feel your pain.