ANU accuses student of plagerism for publish essay on Indymedia

the Letter

Dear Pr McIntyre,

I am writing to you to register a formal complaint about my treatment at the hands of teh Strategic defence Studies Centre at ANU.

This matter started durign a winter unit STST 8027 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in an Age of terror offered through the Strategic Defence Studies Centre.

Durign the cklass in Winter 2010 the lecturers behaved in a manner that I believed was inappropiate to which I confronted them with. They locked students in class the yeeled, belittled and swore at students incluidng cuttign off a Indoneasian Army Officer durign a assesment presentation with the words 'just shut the fuck up and learn to speak English properly'.

I procedded to confornt these lecturers with the ways I beleived they were acting in a non professional manner and as a result I believe I was deliberately down marked.

I made a compalint to the Dr Brendan taylor about there behavior in class and tehre deliberate downmarking of my assesments and he offered to have my assesments marked by an indopendant marker.

As a result of this Dr Taylor got back to me and accused me of 100% plagerising my assignemnt by publsihing it online after I had submiited it for marking . This paper I wrote for my assesment was then sydicated in over 40 online and inpront publications.

I responded to Dr Taylor by showing him that it was published online after the submission date and pointing out the rules from ANU Polices and Procedures that does not mention publishing academic work afetr its submission.

Dr Taylor then indicated that I then must be responsible for some other non specified academic malpractcied and demanded taht I provide him with details of how and through whom I had published my academic work and if I didnt provide these details he would refuse to release my grade for which he has doen for over four months now.

I beleive thsi was in repsonse to my complaint about the treatment of both my self and other students durign the course and I believe this to be an attept at Academic Intimidation by Dr Taylor.

I subsequently attempted to bring theis matter up with Pr Hugh White and have asked him to formalise the matter from teh SDSC if they have an issue with the publication online of my academic work opnline but have recieved no response.

I attempted to bring up this matter with the Dean of Students and to make several attempts of formal complaint through her but only recieved abusive emails in repsonse and was told that I needed to fronmally respond to dr Taylor non-specified issues and that she believes Dr Taylors attempt to deal with this matter in an informal manner is both appropiate and in line with ANU Policies and Procedures. I however do not.

I am of the opinon that Dr Taylor's informal response to my formal complaint abotu the treatemnt at the hands of teh Lectuers from the STST 8027 not only breaches both the leeter and the spirit of ANU Polices and Procedures Guidlines and are a refsual to take academic bullying seriously and his refusal to state a formal reason for refusing to release a grade after four months are an attemptign to bully myslef into making these matters go away wiothotu a ny attempt to address the issues in my formal complaint to him abotu the misconduct of those under his supervision.

I have since ceased to study at the ANU due to a result of Dr Taylors attemopt to silence my complaint as I do not beleive that the ANU has an effective complaints polices and procedures measure in place to stop academics hiding behind informal techniques of bullying and have commenced study at another instution that values stduents and beleives in academic intergrity.

Kind Regards

Former Student

The Responses

Dear STUDENT,

I have been making inquiries into your grievance. I am aware of communications between you and various officeholders at the University, in particular the course co-convenor (Dr Bredon Taylor), the Director of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (Professor Hugh White) and the Dean of Students (Dr Paula Newitt). I am satisfied that proper University processes are being reasonably applied. For the issues of concern to you to be considered further and brought to a resolution, you will need to resume communication with the University. The most constructive way for this take place will be for you to meet with Professor White, who will be writing to you again very shortly to this effect. I strongly encourage you to take up Professor White’s invitation once it reaches you.

Sincerely,

Andrew MacIntyre

Professor Andrew MacIntyre

Dean, College of Asia and the Pacific

& Director, Research School of Asia and the Pacific

HC Coombs Building #9

The Australian National University

Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

URL: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/

Tel: +61 2 61252221

Fax: +61 2 61254214

CRICOS Provider #00120C

Hi STUDNET

Thanks for coming along this afternoon. It was good to catch up and discuss the concerns you've raised about issues relating to STST 8027 last year. I really appreciated your willingness to talk things over.

In the light of our discussion about the cirumstances that led to concern about academic misconduct in relation to your essay for STST8027, I am entirely satisfied that there was no academic misconduct involved on your part at all. I have therefore asked that your marks should be finalised as soon as possible.

In view of all the circumstances I have decided that I will myself review the marking on all your assessments for this course - not just the essay but the others as well. This will take me a day or two. Once that is done I will make sure the marks are sent to you directly, and we will take steps to have them formally entered in the ANU system as soon as possible.

I have also looked into the question of process you raised. You are indeed right that the procedure requires that the student be informed of the nature of concerns about academic misconduct at the time when the initial meeting is set up, and I accept that this was not done in your case. I am satisfied that the reason it was not done was that my colleagues hoped that the issue could be resolved by a clarification that you had yourself posted the essay on the net, in which case no question of academic misconduct need have arisen. This was intended to minimise concern and anxiety for you. On the other hand I can see that you interpreted their motives differently and that this contributed to your anxiety about the whole issue. I hope this explanation helps to alleviate that.

Well thanks again for coming to see me.

cheers

Hugh White

SDSC

Note: The name of the srudnet has been edited to protect the inocent