"Treat it as a life lesson. Stuff does happen. Stuff will keep happening." Photo: Michel OSullivan
To some, it is a gross miscarriage of justice. To others, it is a textbook example of a middle class problem. But since the Sydney University corporations law exam was disrupted by a fire alarm a fortnight ago, the law faculty has been pitched against elements within the law student body, with enough claims and counter-claims to outdo the saltiest of courtroom dramas.
The facts of the case are these: on Tuesday November 12, 450 law students presented themselves at the university's McLaurin Hall for their corporations law exam. Some students spilt over into a smaller exam room adjoining the university quadrangle. About 20 minutes into the test, a fire alarm sounded and the students were evacuated.
As they milled about in the evacuation zones, there are reports - all hearsay, and therefore generally considered inadmissable - that some students consulted smartphones or conferred over correct answers to the exam's gnarlier questions. After about half an hour, the students returned to their exam rooms and the clocks were reset so they could start over.
Soon after, they were interrupted again, by a pair of corporations law lecturers who informed them university protocol was that they had to complete the exam, even though, given the interruption and early reports of cheating, they would probably have to resit it. They should treat it as good practice.
After that ''the vibe changed'', according to one student, who did not want to be named. Some students left early. It didn't feel like a ''real'' exam.
The plot soon twisted again, when the law faculty decided, post-facto, that given the inconvenience to students if they were to resit the exam, the results of the interrupted test would stand - a decision which was vociferously opposed by some students. Some emailed complaints to the faculty which were expressed in ''intemperate language'', causing the faculty to warn that such students risked ''defaming diligent staff members''.
An article in the student newspaper Honi Soit provoked a letter in response from the law school dean Joellen Riley, who compared the exam to the natural disaster that had occurred in the Philippines on the same day, and said by contrast this ''tragedy'' was a ''typhoon in a tea cup''.
She also took the opportunity to deliver some advice, lawyer-to-baby lawyer.
''The fun of hurling insults at people is short-lived,'' she counselled. ''Lawyers in particular need to learn that lesson quickly.''
And then, a few words which no Type-A personality could ever accept: ''Treat it as a life lesson. Stuff does happen. Stuff will keep happening.''
The university issued a statement saying its decision was reached to ''ensure the least ongoing harm to students''.
Thirteen students had made special consideration applications over the exam.
No comments:
Post a Comment