Bill Gardner / Associate Director page
[ Faculty pages on Moodle ] (contact me for "enrolment key")
The Associate Director offloads some interface functions from the Director. This makes me the first point of contact for undergraduate students in the cases described below:
Ombudsperson for undergraduates
If you have run into a problem that you couldn't solve using the obvious ways--talking with your prof, consulting your program counsellor, going to the undergraduate secretary on the 1st floor of Reynolds--so that you are inclined to bring the problem to the Director, please come to me first. I will listen to you and attempt to solve the problem. If it is out of my scope, I will get the Director involved. Mediation with your profs is definitely in scope.
When can you see the Associate Director? I have an "open door policy," so just drop into Reynolds 105, phone x52696, or e-mail me at wgardner@socs.uoguelph.ca. Please include enough specifics, such as full name, student number, course and semester, if applicable. Please e-mail from your @uoguelph.ca account, since that serves to authenticate you as a UG student. Complaints from hotmail, gmail, and such accounts are likely to be ignored.
Graduate students. Please see the Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. Fangju Wang.
Conflict of interest. What if you want to complain about "moi"?! Hopefully not, but it could happen. In that case, please go directly to Reynolds 222 and make an appointment to see the Director.
If you are representing a student group and want to contact the School about something, you have a few avenues available:
When instructors discover an apparent case of academic misconduct (e.g., plagiarized software), they initially send the report to me. I have been delegated by the Director to handle these cases for the school. My role is to review the evidence, and if I agree that wrongdoing is likely, I forward the case to the Associate Dean of CPES for investigation. I do not conduct an investigation myself, and there is no point coming to me to "explain." I am anxious to see all such cases prosecuted in order to (a) turn back students who have strayed into the path of cheating, and (b) encourage the honest students that we do take such cases seriously. The Dean's investigation will simply have to take its course.
A little known fact is that if someone drops a course and then are investigated for academic misconduct, they will be automatically re-registered in the course. In the end, if they are found guilty, they have to finish the course and pay the penalty. If found innocent, they are re-dropped from the course. This policy means that dropping to avoid prosecution for cheating will not work.