Student thefts during class drove one ISU professor to threaten to deduct points from every student in the class if belongings weren’t returned.

And, although the faculty member has said she will not follow through with the threat, Vice Provost Howard Shapiro said such action is not necessarily impossible.

“There’s not going to be a policy that’s that specific. I believe it would be possible [to deduct points from an entire class], but subject to serious review,” he said.

Shapiro said a decision on the action would have to pass through upper management before points could have been deducted from the entire class.

“Classroom issues start with the professor and go to the department head. If it is not resolved it will go to the dean and then to the provost,” he said. “Very seldom do I get an issue that comes this high without being resolved. Students [with complaints] need to work up that line.”

Cinzia Cervato, assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, said possessions of students in her Geology 100 class were being stolen during class sessions.

“[This was a] case in which students have had backpacks, calculators, jackets, textbooks, etc., stolen,” she said.

The situation escalated when Cervato said she would deduct points from the entire class if a stolen sweater belonging to the Cervato’s teaching assistant was not returned. The message was sent via WebCT to around 250 students. It was then brought to the attention of faculty and staff via an e-mail listserv used for voicing faculty concerns, facultyval [email protected]. The message was also copied to an e-mail listserv for faculty members in the English Department.

Carl Jacobson, professor and chairman of geological and atmospheric sciences, said deducting points from students wasn’t the main problem in Cervato’s situation.

“This was the culmination of trying to deal with a real issue,” he said. “The real issue is stealing.”

Cervato later wrote to the two e-mail listservs to clarify the incident.

She wrote the deduction of points from students if the sweater was not returned was an “empty threat.”

“In [the e-mail to my students], I indicated that I would deduct points from everyone in the class if the sweater was not returned,” Cervato wrote to the lists. “I had no intention of following through with my threat.”

She also wrote that she “was striving for some way to get across that taking other people’s belongings is just not acceptable.”

Dan Cramer, graduate assistant in English, fielded a student complaint about the situation.

“The problem right now is that she has only made a threat, which is unethical but not illegal,” Cramer wrote.

He advised the student to take further action if the threat was carried out.

Virginia Allen, associate professor of English, was uncertain about whether Cervato handled the situation appropriately.

“Without clear guidelines, I guess people just do the best they can,” she said. “It’s hard to know and certainly hard to judge. [Thievery] is a frustrating thing.”