Yes, I understand that in the past the trip to London was over a 3 day period. Doesn’t change any of my concerns. In fact, I applaud the director for allowing the kids to recover from the long trip & enjoy the enriching experience of exploring London.
It would be easier to accept a complaint based on the brevity of a 3 day trip from rural Maine to London, England.
With respect to missing classes, just borrow a classmates’ notes and/or meet with the professors regarding questions.
Students involved in extracurricular activities miss classes during their “season”. This is nothing new. If the student cannot handle the EC, then quit. I do not see any benefit of sending a weary, jet-lagged student to class, but I do see the benefit of exploring London for a couple of extra days.
So what do you think of Rippetoe canceling competitions?
Rippetoe exercised her newfound responsibility for making all decisions for the team by canceling a trip to a Fordham tournament hosted by the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) just one week before it took place. She stated in an email to members of the organizations on Nov. 10 that “no students will attend any tournament representing Bates College without the explicit approval of the director of debate.”
In fact it appears she withdrew from all APDA competitions in favor of on-line competitions which are much less prestigious. And from what I can gather APDA is a forte of the group.
It’s not ridiculous if it siphons resources from other debate activities and tournaments. Obviously London is a great place to visit, but the students on the debate team appeared not to expect the college to blow them to a vacation.
It sounds like this is how the debate team has approached these trips in the past - minimal time spent on non-debate activities to save money for more debate opportunities. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
Perhaps you should allow the students to make these decisions for themselves, as a team, based on the demands of their schoolwork and previous expectations of the debate team.
But this is your opinion about what you personally think about how long a trip to London should be and how easy it is for students at Bates to make up classes. You are not the Bates debate team, and they clearly felt otherwise. Your personal opinion is irrelevant - and the leader of the team should have taken the team’s preferences, and historical precedent, into account.
College debater here (I’ve actually debated Bates students!). Most of what the advisor did is terrible, but this is particularly egregious:
At a Dec. 15 meeting, Rippetoe and the RFSS department announced official changes to BQDC operations, including the suspension of program participation in American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) tournaments.
APDA is one of the most common forms of collegiate debate in the USA, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more popular than BP, the other common format, here; my own school’s team, for instance, nearly exclusively competes in APDA. Also, APDA is much more fun than BP because you can be much more creative with motions; I’ve debated joining hypothetical cults, destroying shovels, and artistic merits of paintings, among other things. Taking away the opportunity for these students to compete in a significant chunk of this country’s collegiate debate scene is absolutely unforgivable.
The Bates College website lists this professor as a ‘visiting professor.’ Her LinkedIn profile still shows her working at DePauw University. Something tells me that her time as a visiting professor at Bates will soon come to a close.
I read the write-up that was listed in the article posted above. Some of the allegations are pretty horrible. Really unprofessional and in some instances, flat out bullying.
That is an unverified allegation to which no response has been received according to the information shared in this thread.
Again, there are at least two sides to every story. Why not postpone conclusions until the accused responds or until the school investigates ?
P.S. Just reread the complaint letter (resignation letter) in the initial post in this thread. The administration’s response is interesting; it seems to support the accused and is dismissive of the students’ complaints.
The resignation letter is not convincing of anything beyond the students’ dissatisfaction over some real and some possibly imagined transgressions.
Not convinced that anything wrong occurred and would like to hear the other side. (The administration’s response as stated by the resigning students was to question whether the complaints were really based on the students’ loss of power over the debate team.)
The administration’s response–according to the resigning students in the letter of resignation–was “…is your issue with Sammi or with the fact that you have less power than last year ?”
I do not see any need to make a rush in judgment without hearing from the other side. And the complaints contained in the letter of resignation appear to be unsubstantiated. The students deserve an explanation as to why any cancellations occurred; not sure about the husband’s plane fare and neither are the complaining students. The complaining students speculate or guess or assume that the debate society funds were used, but they do not know.
P.P.S. Didn’t the students know that the trip to London would be for 6 days prior to leaving ?
I am a bit more pragmatic. The entire team has resigned based on the advisor. The school has a choice between having a debate team or a dedicated advisor to a team that no longer exists.
Debate teams are intended to enrich the students experience. To fulfill this purpose the visiting professor has to be removed from her role or the team will cease to exist. In some leadership roles failure to have the support of your team is the only measure that counts.
Hard to deal with change. Seems like Bates administration is supporting the Professor. Raises the question as to whether the changes were directed from the top at Bates College ?
Losing control / losing power is tough and often leads to discontent & turmoil.
Lots of complaints, but not much substance.
P.S. Found this review of Professor Rippetoe who taught while earning her PhD at the University of Georgia (has 2 years experience with a great debate team/program at Wake Forest University while earning a master’s degree):
I can say that BQDC is/was great at debate. This is a real shame, but it’s pretty damning if it’s all true. I’ll be interested in how this plays out. The biggest loss will be if the BQDC is unable to recover after this. It was formed in 1854 and has performed consistently well.
I guarantee Bates admin will have to address this.
The comments may be unsubstantiated but looking at some of her “rate my professor” comments from students at other colleges makes me tend to believe them.
I’m sure they did. However she was in total charge of the finances. The students simply don’t trust her so asked administration to see the financial records and were denied (but told someone would look into it.)
Rippetoe canceled APDA tournaments which are necessary to gain points for national titles. Two of her members were close to national recognition–and she canceled the already planned trip just one week prior. The two students attended as independent contestants. It sounds like quite a few students have continued to APDA debates but not as part of Bates.
Yes, when “change” is “becoming forbidden from attending tournaments hosted by the biggest collegiate debate league in the Northeastern USA,” it is indeed difficult to deal with. Please read up a bit more on collegiate debate before you make assumptions like this.