Aaaannnd Done (Last Minute What a Surprise)

As freshman year comes to a close I’m going to take this last blog post to reflect on my transformation as a writer. In my last blog post I mentioned how I can see the growth in myself as a writer but I did not expand on it. As I also mentioned many times before that I have struggled with my writing because I have had very little experience and I didn’t have much confidence in my ability as a writer.

My experience as a writer is not one to brag about. Throughout grade school I wasn’t a bad writing student but the classes that I had to write for were my lowest grades. I also didn’t think that I needed to make drastic changes because my teachers did not give helpful feedback pertaining to the way that I write. I mentioned how I had never had a proper lesson in grammar or punctuation. The little experience that I did have were not ideal writing either. Growing up in New York State we are all accustomed to the standardized tests (shiver). Personally, these standardized tests have taught me how to follow instructions or write to fulfill a list and how to write an essay in under 120 minutes. So obviously this course was a huge change in direction for me and my previous writing experiences. Because of this gap in experience, I did not have the amount of confidence that I should have had.

I struggled with comparing myself to others through our writing. I would read other peoples blog posts and hear what they had to say in class and think, “Wow, that is so smart, why didn’t I think of that”. During the group project, I didn’t know what to say half the time and when I did think of something, I was terrified that it would sound dumb or the other people in my group wouldn’t agree with me. I didn’t think that my voice would matter because I didn’t have as much experience as some of my classmates. It was not until Dr. McCoy explained that the writing process takes time and that I am going to struggle and that it is okay to be in a different place in my writing career as someone else.

I truly think that through this course I have developed as a writer not only in the way that I write but the way I think of myself as a writer. I was given the freedom to write about what I wanted and was able to practice my writing; because of this my confidence in my writing has gone up drastically. I have finally realized that the writing process cannot be mastered at the press of a button. I must thank Dr. McCoy for helping me build my confidence, staying patient with me and truly push me to do my best. If she hadn’t, I truthfully would not have become the better writer that I am now.

Procrastination At Its Finest

I told myself that wasn’t going to wait until midnight on the 30th to do finish these posts but… here I am.  I have a huge problem with procrastination (as you can tell from the abundance of blog posts) and this assignment did not help that at all.  Granted we had all semester to do them and we are being graded on how well we space them out but that didn’t fix my habit.

At first, I wasn’t too worried about the assignment because I had the same type of work assigned to me in high school.  We were given prompts and we had to choose from a list of about twenty prompts to answer.  So, when Dr. McCoy first told us about these blog posts I thought it would be like my previous experience, I could not have been more wrong.  She didn’t give us anything, no prompts, no heads up on what we could or couldn’t write about.  She gave us total freedom and that scared me.  I thought that needed to know what I had to write to get a good grade.

My first blog post was a disaster, it was cluttered, rushed, and didn’t make much sense.  I remember thinking to myself, “she can’t give me a poor grade because there are no guidelines, no help”.  I didn’t know what she wanted from me so how would we know how to receive a good grade?  She left comments on that first post so, for the next post I followed them with the hope of receiving a better grade.  I received a higher grade, but it was still one that was no where close to where I wanted to be.  I kept trying and trying but I never knew what to write about.  Up until recently, I was very frustrated with myself and the assignment.

I hadn’t realized until my sixth blog post that this assignment helps us as writers to look back on our work and mark the progress that we have made.  For me it has been a place to vent, for others they use the blogging space to make sense of what we had just discussed in class or compare something that they had previously experienced.  Now that these blog posts have come to a close, I can reflect on the semester that I have had as a writer.  I can document my improvement throughout the semester and reaffirm my growth.  Although I did not see the purpose of the blog posts at the start of the semester, I now see the benefits and they are very refreshing.

Practice Makes Perfect

Rob Urstein’s quote, “intelligence, rather than being a fixed trait, is something that grows over time and can be developed with effort” from Ian Chipman’s article “Realistic Expectations” has been the theme for me as I worked through this course. Without sounding too full of myself, I usually pick up on things quickly. However, this class was totally different because the writing process takes time and I wasn’t ready for it. I went into the class with very little training and still expected to go from zero to one hundred without much work. In turn, I got frustrated and started making excuses when I wasn’t making the progress that I had hoped for. Excuses such as “it’s hard to balance everything”, “I am not interested in this class”, “I have better things to focus on”, “I will never need this ever in life”. When I got my final grade back for the “Bloodchild” essay I was not pleased. I thought I had done a good job, granted the grade was not horrible but I thought I has earned a better grade. The comments that were left were problems that I thought that I had fixed. I tried to rewrite the essay to the best of my ability and I really tried to make improvements, but nothing was working. On top of that, the in-class activity that we were doing was making me even more frustrated. I was ready to give up. I was putting the “effort” in that Urstein talked about so why wasn’t I getting better?

I have played sports my whole life and practice has always made perfect. I always enjoyed improving the way that I played. The feeling of achievement that I had after I mastered something that my coaches had told me that I needed to work on was amazing. Although I would still get frustrated that I was not getting the hang of it right away, I still worked hard at it. Why was it so different when it came to school? I understand that school is very different from sports, but the concept of growth is still the same. So, I compared my struggle the writing process to my development in sports.

My softball coach once said to our team, “once a coach stops yelling at you, they have given up on you”. She meant this as if coaches are hard on you, they see potential and believe that you are capable of so much more. My coach (Dr. McCoy) recommended things that I could do differently to improve my writing. These recommendations were not meant to hurt me, but they were left to help me. Dr. McCoy saw potential in me which is why she left those comments. Although she did not yell at me, Dr. McCoy believes in me and therefore was hard on my writing and left constructive criticism with the hope that I will improve.

Through all my frustration that I have been feeling, Urstein’s concept can also be directly related to real life situations—not just sports. I have three more years of school, so I know for a fact that I will encounter other classes like this one that frustrate me and that I won’t want to take. In the real world too even after college, I will have tasks at work that frustrate me that I’ll have to work harder than others to master them. When I start a family, being a mom is hard and it takes a while to get the hang of. But that’s something that I can’t just get frustrated with and quit. My comparison of Urstein’s quote to sports and life helped me to understand that it takes multiple tries to get the hang of something. It requires both time AND effort.

Taking a Step Back

This semester was very stressful for me. So stressful that I withdrew from my macroeconomics class. At first, I was hesitant about withdrawing because I had never done anything like that before, even in high school I hadn’t dropped a class. So, the thought of withdrawing was kind of scary. What would happen? Would I get in trouble the school? Would my GPA drop? Would I be set back? Originally, I wasn’t going to but the morning of the 2nd, Jessica was talking about it in class and she made me realize that it’s not a big deal to just retake the class next semester. The macroeconomics class was the only class that I took this semester that pertained to my major; the rest were general education requirements. Because of this, I thought that the classes would be easy and therefore did not try that hard in the beginning of the semester. So, when I got my first tests and assignments back for the general education classes, the grades were not as good as I had hoped; this stressed me out to no end. I was so stressed out with all my other classes that my attention was drawn away from that macroeconomics class that I needed for my major.

Last semester I had taken two classes for my major and one of them I did not do very well in. For business majors, to be admitted into the school of business you must earn a 2.85 GPA. (I’m pretty sure all majors have the same requirement). Unfortunately, my GPA was not at that after the first semester. I needed to get a good grade in my macroeconomics class to get my GPA up, so I can get into the school of business. I am an economics major so everything that the professor said in class made sense and I understood everything that was going on…or so I thought. The grades I had received on the first two tests, my GPA was not going to get that 2.85 GPA that I needed. Because of this, I decided to withdraw. After I withdrew, the questions that I had asked myself before did not happen rather, huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I could then focus more on my general education classes and get my overall GPA up for this semester.

I needed to step back and realize that retaking it is what is going to be best for me in the long run. If anything, this was more of a learning experience than anything else. I realized that I had to take more pride in my business courses and that this wasn’t going to be easy. Next semester I am confident that I will finish that macro course with a better grade; I just needed that reboot.

G.R.E.A.T. Day

For G.R.E.A.T. day I attended the Key Note speaker who was Mrs. Barbara Kellerman. She is a very talented woman who has 19 of her own books pertaining to the topic of leadership. She discussed how she believes that leadership positions should be treated as an occupation rather than a vocation. She believes that every leader before they come into a position of power must complete three steps: education, training and development. An occupation such as a doctor or a lawyer requires years of training before they can enter their field. She then questioned why leadership positions were so different. Without making this too political, the current leader of our country entered the office with no previous knowledge of how any type of government works. This lack of experience becomes obvious in some of his policies and just in the overarching way that he presents himself and speaks to others.

Both her speech and her life work can be related back to what we talked about in our INTD course. The course is titled “Risks and Rewards of Academic Partnership”. And with every partnership there are leaders and followers, even if we don’t know it. With our current class project, we are all working together in a partnership and a few students have designated themselves as the leaders. These students did not do this with a declaration of words, but with their actions. Other students that are not the “leaders” did not do this on purpose rather just not knowing what to say or felt out of place. I am one of the students who doesn’t know what to say.

Outside of the classroom, I have always been a leader. I was a captain of most of my sports teams in high school, I am the oldest of three, and even in the classroom topics that I’m comfortable with I become a leader. This project has hidden that leadership quality that know that I possess. Personally, I think that it’s because this topic is out of my comfort zone. In my past blog posts, I wrote about how I thought I was gaining confidence, I was speaking up more about the ideas and not how we could write them. I don’t have trouble with coming up with ideas as much as I do with formulating them into words. So, when it came to the revisions part of the process my confidence dropped about fifteen levels. In my previous blog posts, I mentioned my lack of “training” and that I might as well be useless when it comes to the mechanics of revising. This lack of training has set me back in the revision process of papers and caused me not to speak up as much as I did when we originally started.

I found Kellermans speech to be very interesting and very relevant. One thing that stood out to me however In Kellermans eyes, I would not be a viable option for a leader because of the lack training that I have received. However, she does mention that it doesn’t take much to be a good leader. She said during her speech that all you have to be is “good”. By “good” I infer that she meant good at heart and have good intentions for the greater public. This made me realize that by following her recommended the steps of education, training and development, I too could become as confident as some people in my class in their writing abilities. Although I recognize that it takes hard work to become a leader and it is in fact a process, I also believe that it is possible for me.

Schoolhouse Rock Has Not Trained Me Well

Grammar and punctuation, are always things that have confused me yet are a crucial part in the way that we write. I haven’t had a real lesson in grammar or punctuation lesson since the sixth grade. We would watch the Schoolhouse Rock videos and that was realistically the extent of the grammar lessons that I received in grade school. I was only given a very brief lesson on punctuation as well. Punctuation I think some teachers through grade school didn’t really think to teach because there are so many tools within apps like Microsoft word that could help us with that. The level of understanding grammar, punctuation and usage that I am expected to be at is not where I am. We are already expected to know all these things before we even get to college. Therefore, there are no formal lessons on grammar or punctuation at the higher levels.

It has always been something that I struggled with because I haven’t had much experience with it. Whenever I would get papers back, there wouldn’t be many comments about grammar and punctuation, but I would still get a 4/5 on the rubric for that section without even knowing what I did wrong. I understand that it’s a lot to focus on but it’s something that I need to know how to do. Dr. McCoy commented on my previous blog post about my specific punctuation she mentions my excessive use of commas, the use of semicolons that weren’t particularly correct and certain homonyms that were used incorrectly. The homonyms were more of a lack of proofreading rather than a lack of knowledge. However, with the punctuation, I have no idea what I’m doing. She also posed the question of “Are these things a matter of needing to acquire/deepen skills? A matter of proofreading? Of needing a mini-lesson on punctuation and spelling?…These are little things—why am I picking on them now?” To answer her question, she is picking on these little things now because I have evolved with the structure of my writing and have improved immensely (or at least I think so) on the solidification of my ideas. Now that I have grown more confident in those things with my writing, this is the next thing that I need to focus on. Coincidentally, when Dr. McCoy made the comment about this pattern in my writing, I have reached the modules of INTD starting to focus on grammar, usage and punctuation.

After completing these three modules, I learned things that I should have learned way before these modules. Like the noun (or phrase) that a pronoun is replacing is called an antecedent. Also, some ways that I use grammar are incorrect and I had no idea. For example, I know that I change the tense that I write in a lot, but I can never seem to catch it when I’m proofreading. There is also an order with adjectives that I had no idea about. The module tells us that the order is, “Determiner, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose.” When using adjectives of the same category, they should be separated by a comma. I liked the comparison that was made for starting sentences with conjunctions: the sentence or sentence fragment that starts with the conjunction is the ladder and a ladder can’t stand on its own therefore, it needs a tree to lean on. This tree is another sentence fragment.

The punctuation module is the more important one for me. I have more knowledge with grammar than I do with punctuation. I understand that punctuation is difficult as well as grammar, but like I mentioned before, I do not have a lot of knowledge on punctuation. I think the reason that punctuation is so hard for me is that because when people talk, you don’t hear punctuation. In her comments, Dr. McCoy mentioned what is called a comma splice? Before completing the module, I didn’t know what that was. She also mentioned that I did not use semicolons properly. Honestly, I don’t know how to use them. I just used it because I’ve seen other people use them.

During the modules I found things with punctuation that I didn’t know: 1. If you are not starting a new sentence and using a transition word, you must use a semicolon before that word. 2. There is such thing as a serial comma…a serial comma is a comma that comes before the word and when listing things that consists of three or more things. 3. Commas are also not supposed to be (between the subject and verb of a sentence, after any number, before and preposition, and before any conjunction). 4. Semicolons and colons are not interchangeable. Semicolons can be used when separating things in a list when those items already have commas. Whereas colons are used after complete sentences and to formulate lists.

Although I completed these modules, my confidence with grammar and punctuation is still very low. We’ve talked about old habits and previous training that has come back to haunt us in our writing but with punctuation and grammar, I have very little previous training which has left me with no bad habits to break. But my ignorance is what has set me back.

Confidence is Key

Group work can be very rewarding, there is an abundant source of brain power that can come together to work on a certain activity. However, with group work you must keep an eye out for some risks.   In her short story titled “Bloodchild”, Octavia Butler mentions, “accept the risk. There is a risk Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.” (Butler, 26) These risks can include things such as; one person taking charge of the whole activity and not listening to what anyone else has to say, others might feel as though they don’t have to contribute because everyone else in the group can do it for them. Other people might sit back and choose not to say much because their scared that their ideas aren’t good enough and that they might get shut down; that’s where I come in.

I have a hard time trusting my abilities as a writer. I touched a little on it before in my last blog post when discussing the confidence of my writing abilities and my past “training”. This lack of confidence becomes more apparent when working with a group.  I don’t trust my strength as a writer enough to make strong contributions. Obviously when working in a group, I want to contribute as much as I can as well as having it be at a high quality. However, because my confidence in my strength as a writer is not where I need it to be, I am unable to contribute to the group with that quantity and quality.

These past four classes have pushed me out of my academic comfort zone. Three weeks ago, we started a project to rebuild the letter that students receive when put on academic probation. We were all put into groups to work on this said letter. The first class that we worked on this activity was terrifying. I sat there and didn’t say very much, I was incredibly intimidated. The other people in my group seemed to have it all down and they knew what they were talking about. They just kept suggesting ideas that I didn’t even think of. I felt very out of my league being in that group. The second day was somewhat better, I had a better understanding of the task at hand. I contributed more often but I was still not confident in the things that I suggested. Once the third and fourth days rolled around and we switched up groups, I had an even better understanding of the assignment and I started to feel a lot better about my contributions to the group.

Then today when we rearranged again into different groups and were told to combine two letters, my participation increased even more. I wrote about it in my reflection at the end of class discussing how I felt this sort of confidence with this group that I didn’t feel with the other groups. My suggestions were used almost always, and I felt as though I knew what I was doing. Personally, I think it’s because I became more familiar with the activity, so I had a better understanding of the task at hand and was able to contribute my ideas much easier. I also think that it’s because my grade on my previous blog post was significantly higher than it was on any of the blog posts before. I finally realized that I had the ability to write well and that my ideas were good. For this reason, I didn’t hesitate to share those ideas and enjoyed the activity much more. If I had not had that quick shift in confidence, I then would have never have contributed as much as I did, and I would have not understood the importance of the group activity.

Receiving a high grade on my blog post as well as becoming more comfortable with sharing my ideas as a writer in a group setting have made me realize that my confidence doesn’t have to be so low. Therefore, I count on my confidence to grow exponentially from now, until the end of the semester

Change is a Good Thing?

Writing and rewriting this “Bloodchild” essay has been a very new concept to me.  First, this essay was the only piece of official college writing that I completed, so that was a challenge in and of itself.  Then, the fact that we could rewrite it made my brain explode. 

My past writing experience has been the “complete the bullets and you will succeed” type of experience.  So when Dr. McCoy gave us no information other than the fact that we had to use Octavia Butlers “Bloodchild”, I was scared.  Not knowing what I need to do to get a good grade is very nerve racking.  For the most part, I think that trusting my ability as a writer was the scariest part; especially because I have never done anything like it before.  Being accustomed to the bullet point mentality has set me back in the writing process because it has not given me a chance to really think for myself and make the connections on my own.  With the writing that we did in high school, we always talked about potential topics in class and everything was very in your face and obvious.  Even if the teacher didn’t hand you a piece of paper that had bullet points on it.  They basically gave you all the ideas anyway. 

The ability to rewrite papers has also been a new concept to me.  For me, papers have always been something that you got done, handed in, got back a grade and never looked at it again.  For this reason, the rewrite is also hard for me.  The version of the paper that I handed in was one that I thought was great, so I saw no need for improvement. 

When Dr. McCoy and I met to discuss the rewrite, I forgot about the comments that she gave me.  My forgetfulness of the comments was not so much because of laziness but because I have never had this opportunity before.   In the past, the comments that my teachers had left for me, I never took to heart because I had never seen the point.  I didn’t have a chance to improve what I wrote.   Additionally, their comments were about the specific content within my essay, rather than the structure of my essay.  One comment that will always stick out to me is one that my eleventh grade Literature teacher left on my paper.  She wrote something along the lines of “this is not what we talked about in class”.  I remember thinking “aren’t we supposed to think outside the box?  Isn’t that what you want?”  Because of these experiences, professor McCoy’s comments consisting of pointers about ways that I could reformat my essay instead caught me by surprise.

I see the rewrite as both a blessing and a curse.  It’s positive because it gives me a chance to fix what I might have done wrong or catch the mistakes that I did not see and has made me realize that my previous comment about how there was “no room for improvement” is not true.  However, with rewriting the paper, I’m allowed to look at it again and figure out how to fix those mistakes.  That extra effort that I’m putting in to the paper is just something I’m not used to.

This whole process is just a new experience.  But as Dr. McCoy said, that’s what college is all about. 

Pomodoro Technique (a little late)

After reading the article, “5 Strategies to Demystify the Learning Process for Struggling Students” by Deborah Farmer Kris, I agree with everything that was stated in that text.  I agree with the fact that everyone learns at a different speed as well as making connections and metaphors to enhance learning and to make connections easier.  Many people in my class discussed the Pomodoro effect and how they believe it doesn’t work.  However, through personal experience, I do believe that the study habits mentioned are very helpful.

              Barbara Oakley, former math hater turned engineering professor in the process of writing a book for ages ten to fourteen on the topic of “learning how to learn”.  In her article crediting Oakley, Deborah Farmer Kris breaks down the main ideas of Oakley’s writing.  Kris breaks it down into five sections titled “Hiker brain vs. Race Car brain”, “Chains and Chunks”, “The Power of Metaphor”, “The Problem of Procrastination” and “Expand Possibilities”.  All these concepts connect with the topic of “learning how to learn”.  I agreed with all the points that Kris made crediting Oakley, especially the Pomodoro effect and how that can make someone a better studier.  Personally, I use the Pomodoro technique and I find it very helpful.  Everyone uses a different study technique, so the Pomodoro technique may not work for everyone.  However, from personal experience I have found that it works wonders.  When I study, I find it hard to concentrate on one subject for a long time especially when it’s something as boring as reading notes repeatedly.  The words start to look the same and my mind wanders to things that aren’t about the topic I’m reading about.  Having technology is a blessing and a curse when it comes to studying and getting work done.  On one hand, it’s very easy to gain access to resources otherwise not provided at such ease.  However, with this technology so easily accessible there are also many opportunities to slack off and get distracted.  My biggest problem is my cell phone, without the Pomodoro effect, I make the mistake of leaving it next to me when I do work and am tempted to check it every two minutes.  Even when I have it on the do not disturb mode, I’m still constantly checking it.  I always feel like I’m missing out on something when I’m not constantly on my phone.  I assume that every individual has different ways of conducting the Pomodoro technique personally I put my phone on silent, put it on the other side of the room, set a timer on my computer and get to work.  When I find myself eager to check in on the world outside I look at the timer and realize that I only have those remaining minutes left.  Another problem that comes to be is the fact that when the timer does go off and I get to check my phone again, the struggle becomes limiting myself to those five or ten minutes and not to get carried away with having that freedom.  I also see it as a reward for the hard work that I’ve done and to use my phone for longer than those five to ten minutes would be taking advantage of my reward.  I use the technique to get through every school related activity that I have had problems with focusing on so far.  I find that the most helpful task is with writing.  Writing can be a long and painful task that does not come easy to many people.  Writing is not something that you can do in one lump sum rather, it’s something that you must do in increments. 

              This Pomodoro technique further explains Barbara Oakley’s thinking on the two different types of brains.  The hiker brain versus the race car brain is something that is very prominent in the education system that many children and young adults have been through.  So often as students we think that the faster we complete something the smarter we are and the more we learn.  This is what Oakley calls the “race car brain”.  The students with the race car brain complete assignments and learn at a very fast pace to “finish first”.  However, with this type of brain and way of completing work, often, because you are going to fast, you miss out on important details.  Like a race car racing around a track.  Because they go so fast, they often miss important details.  The other type of brain Oakley alludes to is known as the hiker brain.  Unlike the racecar brain, the hiker brain takes more time in their learning process as well as learns material in a more elaborate way.  When a hiker takes a hike, they can last a very long time.  This is because they take their time and really get to learn everything (the birds and the trees) as well as appreciate the things that they’re walking past.  Speed doesn’t always equal smarts and with each method, the learner achieves their goal. 

              I bring this subject up because so often students think that if they learn something fast then that means their smart.  I think that I have more of a hiker brain but try to learn as if I have a race car brain.  I used to think that if I learned fast and completed things at a fast pace then I was smart.  However, I had not retained the knowledge that I thought I had.  If you ask me what I had learned in physics my senior year of high school, I could not tell you.  However, a subject such as World History I retained a lot of the material we learned, and I could talk about that all day.  But that was because I spent a lot of time with that subject and really absorbed all the material.  Additionally, I took that course my sophomore year of high school. 

Sometimes it can be frustrating because no one wants to spend a lot of time on school work, however material that is important to learn to people are worth taking extra time on it.  Taking time to learn things, with small breaks and really making thing more efficient is a very helpful tool for me.  For this same reason, I think that the Pomodoro method works for a hiker brain like mine. 

Up In the Air

Truthfully, this was the first Code of Conduct that I was told to read for an assignment.  Typically, in high school when asked to read it, I would either not read it at all or on the rare occasion that we had to return a signed piece of paper, I would just sign the paper and not even look at the Code of Conduct itself.

I started reading with the assumption that it would just describe certain actions that everyone knows are actions that should not be done on a college campus, such as consuming drugs or sexually assaulting someone. Surprisingly, the text was very long and somewhat specific.  However, with the Code being in depth, it was also very vague.  As my classmate Laura stated, the text must be open to interpretation so that everything that someone could possibly do is covered in the text and could interpret it anyway that they desire.  However, that raises the question of which parties get to interpret it?  For example, the last sentence before the list of actions that should not be taken is a sentence that reads “This list is not all-inclusive”.  With the list not being all inclusive, how then does the student body at Geneseo as well as faculty and even the Geneseo community decipher what actions should and should not be taken.  Granted, some rules are common sense such as sexually assault someone, or damage of the colleges property.  But other misdemeanors such as recording people are not so clear.  So often now, people use their phones to take pictures of things or to record something that someone is doing.  Every time someone does this without the subject of the picture or video being notified, they are in violation of the Code of Conduct, even if the purpose was not to harm the subject of the video.  This concept for me is hard to wrap my head around because without even thinking, I bring out my phone to record something that I saw.  My intention is never to hurt anyone but subconsciously I think it’s okay because everyone else does it.  It’s just what you do, for lack of better words.   That certain example can be interpreted many ways.  For example, the Geneseo Code of Conduct states that “when such a recording is likely to cause injury or distress.” But what does that said injury or distress qualify as?  How do I know if the person will be distressed?  That definition of “distress or injury” is very open to interpretation.

Another one of my classmates, Roisin shared that she had an experience with Code of Conduct violations and she specified that as someone discusses their punishment and the severity of said punishment differs between which faculty member you talk to.  Personally, I don’t think that makes any sense because if two people perform the same violation and one person suffers a steeper consequence than another just doesn’t seem right.  I understand that one person could be more apologetic than the other, however, as faculty-especially administrators-there should be guidelines to how they judge things.  This personal story that Roisin shared is another example of how vague the Code of Conduct could be and an example of how many different things could be interpreted in so many ways.