A class apart

The first week at university is what we call 'shopping week'. That's when we attend classes for all available subjects and then decide which ones we want to take. Once you take or drop a class after the first week, there is no turning back. So all the classes are packed in the first week.

Every time I see a packed class, I wish for a lot of students to drop the subject so the class won't be so crowded, and we could have more class discussions. It's also very difficult to get a place in a crowded class, because the fulltime students turn up early and use their bags to reserve seats for their friends, leaving us, the poor part-timers to rush into class breathless, only to find the only empty seat is either right at the back of the class, or you have to drag in a chair from somewhere else.

Our professors take great pains to 'sell' us their subject, by making sure the first lesson is both fun and interesting. They tell us only the good stuff about the subject, and hide the ugly stuff. After all, the class size shows their popularity.

And that's why I was so surprised when I attended Prof Z's class in the first week.

A little bit of background about this Prof Z first, which you can figure from the conversation I had with a friend.

Me - Hey! Had a good break?
He - Yeah, I did. Good to see you again this semester. How many subjects are you taking?
Me - Two. X and Y. Plus my dissertation.
He - Y??? You're taking Y???
Me - Yeah.
He - Y by Prof Z??
Me - Yeah.
He - Are you crazy???
Me - Errr...
He - WHY are you taking it?? Haven't you heard the horror stories??
Me - Errr... the subject is interesting, and I've heard he's a good teacher...
He - Yes, I know. But do you know how strict he is?
Me - Yeah, I have heard things about him...

- He locks the door after 6:30 pm so those who're late can't get in.
- Yes! Imagine people rushing for class after work... travelling to the end of the island for the class, and then having to go back!
- Even if you move an inch or fidget even a bit, he will stop mid-sentence and stare at you till you have settled down in your seat.
- He fumes at the sight of mobile phones.
- He flunked someone last year because she submitted her term paper late.
- He doesn't upload his lecture so you have to furiously take notes like a schoolkid.
- He expects you to write every word that leaves his mouth.
- He treats you like a child. Like a CHILD!

"Anyway, it's just shopping week", I said to my friend. "No harm checking out the class."

So we were there in the class 15 minutes before time. He walked in at 6:30 pm, and there was sudden silence in the classroom. Apparently everyone else had heard the same stories about him.

He did not do the usual 'Everybody, introduce yourself' routine or anything, but straightaway flashed a PPT slide listing his rules. His rules about 'chronic lateness' and 'chronic absence' and mobile phones and term papers and behaviour in class, and what not.

He started elaborating on each point.

"As you must already know, the doors will automatically lock at 6:30. If you can't make it by 6:30, I suggest you don't even make your way to class. Of course, chronic absence will be penalised too."

Horrified gasps from the part-timers.

"When you submit your term papers to me, I do not want to see any fancy binding, cover, or colourful appendices. In fact, don't even staple it. Just hold the pages together with a paper clip and pass the term paper to me."

Slight murmur in the class.

"You will automatically receive a zero-grade if your work is plagiarised from ANY source."

Silence in the class

"All URLs in the References section of your term paper must be operational, I'd like to check them."

Muffled gasps heard. Who checks the e-references in a term paper?

"The deadline to submit your term papers is 1st November. ALL term papers are due no later than 6:40 pm. Papers submitted after 6:41 pm will be penalized ten marks automatically. Papers submitted after 9:31 pm but before 5 pm the next day will be penalised twenty marks. Thereafter, each day's delay will result in a ten-mark deduction from the marks you earn."

GASP. Note the precision.

"I do not like mobile phones in the class."

And just as we took out our phones to put them on silent mode, his voice boomed. "Please do not put your phones on silent mode either. I want them switched OFF... and out of your sight. I know that many of you are at senior and important positions at your workplace and may need to answer calls in the middle of the class, but I do not like my class to be disrupted."

Of course, I understand you may have some family emergency for which you need to keep your phone switched on. In such cases, please approach me BEFORE the class. And I will tell you how your family can have access to you."

No one dared to ask how we would know if an emergency was about to come up. We just assumed he was talking only about emergencies we were aware of.

"The next thing I want to talk to you about is plagiarism." He said.

He told us how strict he was about plagiarism. When he was in the US, he got a PhD student in his final year thrown out of university for plagiariam. "He will never become a professor." He told the class, which was now almost crouching in fear.

"You may not be sure what exactly constitutes plagiarism. In order to ensure that you do not use that as an excuse, I will give you the name of this book and also tell you the page numbers, so you can understand what constitutes plagiarism."

He also showed us this sheet of paper that we have to submit as the cover page of our term papers. It is a signed declaration to state that we have read the the pages he recommended and that our term paper is not plagiarised in any way. The last sentence of the declaration reads "I hereby give consent to be adequately penalised for plagiarism." I was itching to say "Sir, this seems to assume that we have already plagiarised. Shouldn't there be an 'IF I plagiarise' clause somewhere in that statement?" but Ian asked me to shut up.

And thus went the first lesson, at the end of which everyone was looking at each other with questioning eyes. It was no doubt that the subject was excellent and he was incredibly organised, but his rules and discipline were something to think about.

Ian, of course, loved it.

And I think, so did I.

I figured that I could learn a lot from this class - not just about mass communication but also about discipline. (Though friends who know me well would roll their eyes. I'm already suffering from chronic discipline, you see.)

It was therefore no surprise that I did not drop the subject.

It was also not a surprise that when I turned up for class in the second week, I discovered that a third of the students had dropped the subject.

In the third week, he was teaching us about persuasion. I learnt some very interesting theories about the different types of persuasion. Message-based persuasion attempts to change attitude with the help of messages, leading to desired behaviour. An example would be anti-smoking campaigns. Behaviour-based persuasion attempts to change attitude by changing behaviour first. Examples would include free trial samples of products. You try them first and then you may end up liking them.

"Can anyone here give me any other example of behaviour-based persuasion?" He asked.

And this is what happens when you sit in the first row. The prof looked straight at me.

Before I knew it, Ian had raised my hand.

I am SO DEAD, I thought as he nodded to me.

"Sir... your banning mobile phones in the class... would that be an example of behaviour-based persuasion?" I managed.

"Hmmm... would you like to elaborate?"

"You are attempting to change behaviour by making it a rule that all mobile phones must be switched off... with the hope that once we start following it... our attitude will change... because err... we will realise that it is a much more productive class... without ringing mobile phones...?"

He gave me his typical steely look.

I'm deader than DEAD, I thought.

And that's when he did what we never thought he could do.

He smiled.