Posted by Tamar on October 26, 2005, at 7:23:55
In reply to old habit, posted by Shortelise on October 25, 2005, at 19:31:50
Hi ShortE,
I don’t know anything about the legal stuff, but I think professionals are very cautious about writing down anything about their professional colleagues.
I keep records of meetings with students and if a student criticised one of my colleagues (even if it were a colleague in another part of the institution who I’d never met) I’d think carefully before writing it down.
If the student made a serious allegation then I’d definitely write it down because it could protect the student to have that kind of thing in writing if a colleague were behaving in a grossly unprofessional manner. (Alternatively, it might protect my colleague if the student were making lots of allegations about people that turned out to be unfounded.)
But if it were a criticism like “X’s teaching style is terrible” or “Y hasn’t given us enough information for the final exam” then I probably wouldn’t write it down, even if I suspected it were true. It’s very unlikely that anyone else would ever see my notes but I don’t think it would serve any purpose to note that kind of thing because it's not the kind of thing I can follow up. I’d probably tell the student she could pursue that kind of complaint through appropriate channels like student representation.
I don’t know what kind of criticisms you made, but if they weren’t serious allegations then I think I can understand why he didn’t write them down. Maybe it’s not about people seeing your file but rather about his professional practice.
But I do think that talking about it with him is a good idea.
I’m sorry you’re feeling vulnerable. I hope you sort it out with him.
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:571844
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051025/msgs/572008.html