Long ranty post ahead...

I don't remember if I mentioned this previously, but I had an issue with a group assignment this semester. Actually, I always have issues with group assignments (I'm always saddled with the slackers, for some reason), but this time I actually petitioned to have the problem member removed from the group.

So, for a brief history, it was a group of 4, including two international students that had landed in Australia in February (read: very little command of the English language). I was already worried, because as everyone knows, I'm a complete nazi when it comes to written reports (grammar, spelling, etc). I elected to be the proof reader straight up to ensure we at least submitted something coherent (which essentially increased my workload x 3, because I basically had to rewrite the ISs contributions from scratch - lovely girls, but what they wrote was not English). The other student was a young girl, about 19, who honestly thought she was top shit and knew more than the rest of us, and wanted to take control of the group.

The assessment consisted of two pieces - an oral and a report. D (the young girl) decided to choose the first topic, which meant the oral was due the next week, and we would have only that weekend to work on it. The rest of us agreed because she was just so adamant about it (and to be honest, I do like to get group assignments out of the way as soon as possible). We agreed to meet that weekend. Myself and the ISs prepared before the meeting and brought various analysis models and other notes with us. D did not appear to have done anything, but battled me for control of the group, and then started delegating tasks. Funnily enough, she delegated herself a section which I and another girl (K) had already covered in our notes, so she didn't have to do any research. She also gave herself another part to do which we hadn't covered yet.

Over the next few days, D was sending the group emails about the work, asking everyone to send through their contributions, and generally making it seem like she was on top of the work. I was putting the written report together from everyone's notes, and also doing the Powerpoint presentation. I kept asking her for her notes for the slides and for the report, but she only sent through some vague dot points, which I really didn't think were correct, but she just kept arguing with me about it, so I let it go.

5 minutes before the presentation, she decides to scrap the part she was supposed to research herself, leaving only the part that K and I had done. So in essence, she had done no work on the oral.

We then had 7 weeks to hand in the written report. The two ISs and myself worked on it steadily over those weeks, and D kept sending emails asking for everyone's contribution, so it made it seem like she was up with the work. Whenever I asked her for her contribution to put in the report, however, she'd make some vague excuses and tell me she'd send it in a couple of days.

By the day the report was due, I still didn't have her contribution, and I was very sceptical that what she had told the rest of us to write was correct. I'd said as much to the ISs, but they didn't want to go against her, because she was a bit scary to them. I wasn't happy, but I went along with it anyway. 2 hours before it's due, and I call her, because I still don't have her part. She tells me she's just about to send it. I tell her I'll be leaving work at 4.40 to go up to the uni to hand it in by 5. 4.30 - no report. 4.40 - no report. I call her - no answer. 4.45 - she finally sends something through. It's 50 words. In dot points. And it's complete rubbish that makes absolutely no sense. I put it in the report anyway and walk up to uni.

I speak to K and W, and they agree we should speak to the tutor (although to be honest, I'm not exactly sure they understood what I was talking about). I show the tutor the report, and show him D's contribution. He looks at it, says it's all wrong, and then says the rest of the report is all wrong as well, just as I thought. He gives us that night and the next to redo the entire report and hand it in again (which I thought was quite nice of him).

I make the executive decision not to include D in the rewrite. As far as I'm concerned, my responsibility to her ended at 5pm. She didn't even show up to hand in the report, and having sent through such rubbish 15 minutes before the due time said to me that she didn't care about the assignment, or the consequences for the rest of the group members. I suspect she sent it through so late so I couldn't ask her to redo it. 15 minutes beforehand means no time for review/correction.

Anyway, the rest of us rewrote the assignment over the next two nights, even though I had two other assignments to finish and two exams on the weekend to study for. We got it in on the Friday, and received 80% for it (which is decidedly less than I would have liked, but short of doing the ISs work for them, it was the best we could do).

I also made a decision not to speak to D about the situation. I figured she could find out from the tutor that the rest of us had filled in peer evaluation sheets saying she didn't deserve any of the marks.

I thought the tutor had discussed it with her, so I was surprised to get an sms from her yesterday asking what "our" result was for the assignment. I told her she'd have to speak to the tutor. She then sent an email to us today that basically said she was disappointed about it, and that she was going to appeal the result. I wrote back and said if she could prove she'd done the work, I was happy for her to get the same mark as the rest of the group. I told her why we'd decided to do what we did - she didn't do any work for the oral, save for show up and talk about the analyses that K and I had done, and that she had done very little for the report, and what she had done was completely wrong, and had been sent in with no time for review or correction. I told her the final report that was handed in had none of her work in it.

She then wrote back and said we should have discussed it with her, and that our actions were underhanded, and that she wasn't a slacker and was really upset about it, because she'd had glandular fever for the last 2 months.

I replied that if that was the case, she'd have a doctor's certificate to show to the unit co-ordinator to get her mark reviewed. I also said it was her responsibility to let us know if she'd been having problems, and didn't think she could get the work done. I told her she'd had 7 weeks to let us know. If she'd let us know she wasn't well, we could have worked something out. I also said if what she'd sent through had been correct, we might not have kicked her off the report. It was a combination of it being completely wrong, inadequate, and sent in 15 minutes before the deadline.

She then wrote back that her doctor's certificate only started the week after the report was due, and that she wasn't going to contest the decision because she was too upset about it.

Um, what? You're so upset about it you're not going to contest it? After you said at first you were going to appeal it? Riiight. I wrote back and told her she really should speak to the unit co-ordinator and if she'd had glandular fever for 2 months, she could probably get a report from the doctor to say so, which would help her. I even offered to contact the unit co-ordinator for her to help her cause (I was trying to be nice, but I'm not entirely sure why).

She then said, "Well, i was unaware that you had a problem with my work, and considering that my illness occured after the report was submitted, i didnt think it to be any consequence. Furthermore, if my part was wrong, its not like i did it intentially and i would have been grateful to be able to re do my part. It would have not only benefitted the group, but also myself and my personal knowledge in relation to the exam. Due to the fact that it's so late in the term, i am unable to find anyone to explain my misunderstandings to me, and thus am at a disadvantage for the exam.

I just wish that i was aware of the situation sooner, say perhaps during the 7 weeks we worked together, or even after you had issues with my contribution to the presentation.

I dont want to persue the issue any further due to the fact that it is making me extremely upset, as i have never been accused of this before, and i have much more assessment to complete and this issue is hindering my ability to think coherently.

Thank you anyway, but the damage is done."

I'm sorry, but hang on here. So you weren't sick during the weeks the report was due? So what was your excuse then? Yes, you could have redone your part if you'd sent it to me earlier! Sending it to me 15 minutes before it's due means none of us has a chance to review it and correct any mistakes! We took you off the report after we were given a chance to rewrite it because we were given a chance to rewrite because your contribution was both inadequate and wrong! Why would we then ask you to contribute to the final report when all you would do is say you'd send something else through and then not follow through, as you'd done the 7 weeks previously? Not to mention you'd been saying the whole time how the report should be written, telling me I was wrong, when in actual fact it was you that was wrong, and me that was correct. Why would we want you to contribute again when we'd had nothing but problems with you?

Also, you never show up to tutorials or lectures, so it's hardly our fault that you haven't been able to work out why your thinking is wrong. Perhaps if you showed up to class you might actually learn something!

As for letting you know about this situation during the 7 weeks we were doing the report - what the fuck?! We didn't know there was a problem until 15 minutes before the deadline, because you didn't tell us you were having problems and weren't going to be sending anything through until the last minute! How the fuck were we supposed to discuss it with you when you made it appear you were up with the work, sending emails to the other group members asking for their contributions?! As far as I'm concerned, that was part of your whole deception. Try to make it look as if you were working the whole time, when you really were just slacking off, and thinking you could get away with it because you'd kept up the emails.

As far as I'm concerned my responsibility to you ended on the deadline. If you want to send through substandard work with no time for review, making it clear you don't care about the assessment or the consequences for the rest of the group members, than I'm not going to discuss the matter with you any further. So no, I don't think I should have discussed it with you after the deadline. As far as I was concerned, you were dead to me after that. I don't suffer fools gladly.

So you think you were hard done by, but you don't want to pursue the matter further? That says more to me than anything else. If I was part of a group that kicked me out, and I honestly thought I'd contributed equally, I'd certainly be pursuing it further, showing copies of notes and anything else I had. The fact that you're not going to bother disputing a zero grade tells me you have nothing to back your claims up, because you really didn't do any work, and thought you could just get away with it.

Yes, the damage is done. You did it to yourself. Don't come crying to me. Unfortunately for you, I've had 7 years of shitty group assignments, and I will not tolerate slack students joining groups and not contributing anything, and then expecting to receive full marks. You can just fuck right off.

I didn't send that response. I didn't send any response. I ignored her after that.

God, I am so grateful I only have 2 more subjects of this degree left, and that I have no more group assignments in my second degree, and no group assignments at all in the third, because I study that one externally. I love external study! No stupid bogan teenagers, no group assignments, no classes to attend! Bliss.

Anyway, do you think I was harsh? Were we justified in kicking her out?