The Campus Trilogy Read Free Page B

longer. There’s just two years left before the RAE deadline.”
    I passed my drawing to Magnus who giggled and handed it back. I then gave it to Agnes who was sitting nearby. She looked quizzical and hid it under her papers. “You’d better not show it to Pilks,” Magnus cautioned.
    After a lengthy discussion of other items on the agenda, Magnus and I left the building. Together we walked to the Old College. Magnus was on his way to the corner shop to buy food for the rest of the week. “I say,” he said, as we crossed the street, “isn’t that the girl who was in your room yesterday?” Lisa was standing on the steps smoking a cigarette. She smiled as she saw us.
    “Hi, Professor,” she said. “Can you spare a minute?” Magnus waved as he left us and walked in the direction of the shop.
    Lisa followed me up the steps, and we went by the chapel where volunteers from the town were arranging flowers. When we reached my office, I hung up Lisa’s jacket on my door. She sat on my sofa. I placed myself opposite her in a wing armchair.
    “So?” she asked.
    “I’m sorry, Lisa,” I said. “Your essay was very good. Really excellent. But it would set a precedent. If you had taken the exam, then you could have credit for the course. But since you didn’t, I’m afraid I can’t give you an exemption. You’ll have to fulfil the requirements here. But if you choose an essay dealing with the same subject, then you can adapt and rewrite what you’ve already written…’
    “Come on, Professor,” Lisa said, leaning forward and exposing her cleavage, “I said I’d make it worth your while.”
    I stood up and handed back the essay. “Anyway,” I spoke more severely than I felt, “although it was very good, I do have to say that your paper was very similar to one I read last term. You are aware, aren’t you, that all essays submitted for formal assessment have to be gone through by the departmental secretary? They are checked against anti-plagiarism software to make sure that no one had copied material directly off the internet or anything like that. I’m sure you wouldn’t think of doing such a thing, but…”
    Lisa turned bright red. She interrupted me, “How dare you suggest I would copy an essay!” She snatched the paper out of my hand, grabbed her jacket and turned on her heel, “You’ll hear more about this!” she said and she flounced out of the room.
    I was disturbed by this encounter. Had I done the wrong thing to warn my student of the dangers of plagiarism? Was she upset that I had rejected her advances? Or was she just a spoilt child used to getting her own way? I picked up the telephone and rang Magnus’s mobile.
    “Look,” I said, “something very upsetting has happened! I think I may be in trouble!”
    “What have you done?” Magnus was interested. “Did you hit Wanda? Or even better, the VC?”
    “No … Nothing like that. I’ve just had the most extraordinary encounter with that student.”
    “I thought she might be a problem. What did she do? Try to seduce you?”
    “Well actually, yes. She wanted to get credit for my course on the basis of a single essay she wrote at her last university.And she said she would make it worth my while if I agreed. I had to admit it was a very good essay, but the problem was that there was no proof she had written it and it was very similar to an essay another student wrote for me last year.”
    “So you said no?”
    “Yes. And I warned her about the dangers of plagiarism from the internet.”
    “I wonder what she meant about making it worth your while.” Magnus’s voice took on a faraway expression. “She really didn’t have many clothes to take off.”
    “Don’t be absurd, Magnus. I don’t know what she meant and I don’t care. What matters is she bounced out of the room slamming the door and she gave me to understand that I hadn’t heard the last of it.”
    “Why don’t I come round and you can make me a cup of coffee? I’ve just