From The Mercury Archives: Oct. 23, 1995 Discrimination: one teacher’s tale

Racist! The word brands with a searing hiss. Despite the number of unapologetic bigots allowed to practice their hate, sometimes public branding is a painful enough experience to force the perpetrator of racial discrimination into the limelight.

But what if the accuser is lying? The nightmarish events that haunted a UTD teaching assistant show how our university system works (or does not work) in racial discrimination suits.

Pat* was a UTD student teacher who suspected one of her students of plagiarizing his final project. After several unsuccessful attempts to contact the student, Pat, who was leaving town to visit her seriously ill father, transferred the matter to her college master. Upon her return, she learned that the student, who neither admitted nor denied cheating, had made a grave charge: That Pat, a Caucasian, was persecuting the student, an African American student, because of racial discrimination. “I was incredibly upset by [the allegations], especially because I try to deal with issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia in my classes,” said Pat.

Pat was told by UTD administration that, since she had no hard proof of plagiarism, she must give the student a grade, which would be an “A” if the project was assumed to be authentic. Pat believes that the student’s charges of racism influenced the decision to not pursue the plagiarism investigation. Pat said, “It’s not that the administration didn’t care about wrong or right, but it seemed to be a secondary concern to appearances. Of course, they don’t want their students to plagiarize, but they don’t want discrimination suits either.”

An angry Pat marched to the McDermott Library and within thirty minutes located the smoking gun – the original work that the student had copied and submitted as his own. The administration then decided to set up a disciplinary hearing against the student.

During the hearing, the student was allowed to berate Pat with questions irrelevant to the plagiarism charges, such as accusing her of not caring about her students since she left on a “vacation” while one of her students was having trouble.

The UTD administration failed to keep Pat informed of the status of the charges against her, never calling or writing to tell her that the student was found guilty of plagiarism and would not graduate. But the saga was not yet over: The student then filed a racial discrimination suit against the university.

Although a civil rights investigator determined that Pat had not acted in a racist manner by uncovering a student who had cheated, the toll on Pat’s life was immense. “I lost confidence in myself as a teacher and as a person,” she said. She was often angrier at the UTD administration than at the student. Besides failing to keep her informed, “they made me feel like I was on trial and not the student who had cheated,” she said.

Pat believes that the administration should try to work with the faculty and teaching assistants to provide guidance for these situations. She now makes it a point to discuss plagiarism with her classes, give all assignments in writing, and keep copies of the work of students who appear to be potential problems. Her relationship with her students has deteriorated since this incident. The student in question had already taken a previous course taught by her, and he frequently visited her during office hours before the charges occurred. Now Pat is leery of all of her students, not knowing if she will get burned again.

False allegations only serve to belittle the actual instances of racism that are a real threat in our universities. The UTD administrators should not fear bad publicity or possible repercussions so much that the cry of “Racist!” leads them to appease a deceitful student.

*Names have been altered to protect those involved.

BEN NGUYEN Managing Editor

The best and worst of esports today

Worlds comes to a close, Rocket League carries on and a massive tailgate is held in our backyard. Let's take a look at this cycle's best of five!

Esports runs the largest tailgate at UTD

Going off the front page, the team ran a massive tailgate event in the SU green, attracting at least 400 checked in Comets to get half a McDonald's sandwich and a Coke Zero to celebrate Zach "grafetti" Rendulic's victory at the summer Brag House tournament. Digs at free food aside, the event was greatly helped by its location, being located at arguably the most trafficked building on campus. It was interesting to see the large variety of people in attendance, and while the event was fully funded by a third party, I'd like to see more large events like this in the future from the esports team, as it really helps to bring fans onboard.

UTD Runs Collegiate Smash

UTD is poised once again to win the Collegiate Smash Brother's crew battle league, as it should be. At the time of writing, the team is in the semis of the upper bracket of the tournament, ready to stomp through New Jersey City University and the winner of the loser's bracket to win the event yet again. The team looks as dominant as ever, and with the power of DLC 2 and the wifi warrirors by their side, they can't lose. If the final matches are streamed, you can catch them this weekend and next weekend on the 6th and 13th.

Overwatch team continues undefeated run through Collegiate Homecoming

Following 2-0's against the Miami Redhawks and Boise State in the the OW Homecoming, it remains to be seen where the challenge will be for the Comets in this league. Until the team is faced with a real challenge again (like at the Will English Invitational) they're likely to keep on performing strong. UTD's coordination and play is only improving as time goes on.

The West fall once again at Worlds

Leading up to the World finals this weekend, the West (that is, NA and EU) were once again knocked out of the tournament at the quarterfinals. In close 0-3 defeats, Cloud9 and Mad Lions fell to recently knocked out Gen.G and probably soon to be world champions Damwon KIA. For some NA fans, it was honestly good enough that we got a team through the group stage, but I have the slight tinge of sadness from seeing the western teams fall yet again, in what always feels like is a closely disappointing way. I'll still huff the copium into next year, and with the roster shakeup rumours I'll hold my faith in NA next year.

Rocket League team ties up the record

With a close win vs. Texas Tech and a close loss to San Diego State, the Comets stand at a 3-3 record in the CRL standings for the fall. In the coming weeks, they'll need to start picking up some wins to start pulling ahead of other x-3 teams to have a chance at making it into the top four and qualifying for playoffs. There's still plenty of season left to go, so here's hoping that the team can boost their way to the top of the standings before it's too late.