Experience with Triangle Arragements
When reflecting on my own experiences, I can come up with an example that exemplifies a triangle arrangement. During my time at the University of Illinois, one job that I have had is an Academic Tutor for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. In this role, I believe I had two principals for whom I acted, and thus was a part of a triangle relationship. One principal was the student with whom I was working at a given time. The student had reserved a section of time in which to use my assistance to complete homework assignments, review course topics, and prepare for exams and it was my job to assist them in the best way that I could. Yet, I had a second principal - my supervisor, the tutor coordinator, and the Academic Arm of the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics that he represented. In this relationship, I had to conform to certain time constraints to maintain the budget for tutoring services, as well as abide by various NCAA and school regulations.
Fortunately, there weren't too many discrepancies in what these two principals considered "good performance." The greater goal for both the student and the administrator was the same - help students succeed in their courses and ultimately earn their degree. One point of tension that did arise was the depth of help that I could provide to a student. Many students sought tutoring for direct help on homework, and sometimes even quizzes or projects. While I was able to help answer homework problems, the method for assistance as prescribed by my boss was the teach students how to be independent learners (i.e. don't just give them the answers). There was some tension that resulted from this direction because some students would put little effort into finding an answer themselves and would just wait for me to provide the answer to them. This caused tension internally for me because I wanted to help the students, but also wanted to follow the guidelines set by my supervisor.
Another point of tension that arose from the tutoring arrangement was caused by regulations set by the supervisor (by way of the NCAA). One of these rules stipulated that a student may not contact his or her tutor or receive academic assistance in any place other than the Irwin Academic Services Center on campus. Included in that was digital communication between a student and tutor. This caused a problem a few times for me when a student would contact me via text message to ask a quick question that they had forgotten to ask during our tutoring session. It would have been a quick and easy thing for me to answer, but I had to let the student know that I couldn't provide academic assistance to them outside of our sessions. While I think that the student knew of the rule, it may have lowered my performance in his eyes.
Triangle arrangements in the principal-agent relationship can cause a variety of tensions as principals have different rules and expectations. In my situation, I felt I was able to reduce a good amount of this tension by leaning on the idea that the supervisor as a principal had more power over me than the individual students. I would tell students that it was the policy of the academic services wing of the Athletics Department that I was unable to do something for them and for the most part this was met with agreement. Ultimately, I don't think that my performance suffered greatly from the view of either one of these principals. However, I can imagine a situation in which a triangle arrangement could affect performance more. For example, if each principal was equally powerful over the agent, the agent may find it difficult to appease both parties equally. Also, the most equitable allocation of his time and effort may be less than ideal for each principal.
Furthermore, in my example it was definitely possible for me to fail if I had tried to satisfy one principal over the other. For example, I could have satisfied only the individual students by providing all of the academic support that I could including completing quizzes and projects for them, meeting with them outside of the academic services building, and answering questions via text or email. However, if my supervisor found out about this I would have been fired immediately for participating in these illegal actions. On the flip side, if I satisfied only my supervisor, the students may not have felt I was assisting them enough and then would not request future tutoring sessions with me. In reality, I leaned much more towards this second option because the supervisor as a principal had a much stronger influence on my actions than the individual students, but for this question I considered the idea that each principal had equal influence on my actions.
Fortunately, there weren't too many discrepancies in what these two principals considered "good performance." The greater goal for both the student and the administrator was the same - help students succeed in their courses and ultimately earn their degree. One point of tension that did arise was the depth of help that I could provide to a student. Many students sought tutoring for direct help on homework, and sometimes even quizzes or projects. While I was able to help answer homework problems, the method for assistance as prescribed by my boss was the teach students how to be independent learners (i.e. don't just give them the answers). There was some tension that resulted from this direction because some students would put little effort into finding an answer themselves and would just wait for me to provide the answer to them. This caused tension internally for me because I wanted to help the students, but also wanted to follow the guidelines set by my supervisor.
Another point of tension that arose from the tutoring arrangement was caused by regulations set by the supervisor (by way of the NCAA). One of these rules stipulated that a student may not contact his or her tutor or receive academic assistance in any place other than the Irwin Academic Services Center on campus. Included in that was digital communication between a student and tutor. This caused a problem a few times for me when a student would contact me via text message to ask a quick question that they had forgotten to ask during our tutoring session. It would have been a quick and easy thing for me to answer, but I had to let the student know that I couldn't provide academic assistance to them outside of our sessions. While I think that the student knew of the rule, it may have lowered my performance in his eyes.
Triangle arrangements in the principal-agent relationship can cause a variety of tensions as principals have different rules and expectations. In my situation, I felt I was able to reduce a good amount of this tension by leaning on the idea that the supervisor as a principal had more power over me than the individual students. I would tell students that it was the policy of the academic services wing of the Athletics Department that I was unable to do something for them and for the most part this was met with agreement. Ultimately, I don't think that my performance suffered greatly from the view of either one of these principals. However, I can imagine a situation in which a triangle arrangement could affect performance more. For example, if each principal was equally powerful over the agent, the agent may find it difficult to appease both parties equally. Also, the most equitable allocation of his time and effort may be less than ideal for each principal.
Furthermore, in my example it was definitely possible for me to fail if I had tried to satisfy one principal over the other. For example, I could have satisfied only the individual students by providing all of the academic support that I could including completing quizzes and projects for them, meeting with them outside of the academic services building, and answering questions via text or email. However, if my supervisor found out about this I would have been fired immediately for participating in these illegal actions. On the flip side, if I satisfied only my supervisor, the students may not have felt I was assisting them enough and then would not request future tutoring sessions with me. In reality, I leaned much more towards this second option because the supervisor as a principal had a much stronger influence on my actions than the individual students, but for this question I considered the idea that each principal had equal influence on my actions.
You are the first student I have had who has reported being a tutor for DIAA. Before getting to the substance of your post, I wonder, how did you get that job? What qualifications do they want in their tutors? And then I wonder, which athletes get tutors and how are they matched? Last year I did have a member of the tennis team in my class. I was under the impression that he just did his school work without the assistance of a tutor.
ReplyDeleteThe regulation you mentioned about meetings only at Irwin and no online communication - there are a couple of issues from our class that you might consider specifically. The first is about monitoring. Does DIA have access to athletes electronic devices? (I really hope not, because it would be very intrusive.) I can imagine that regulating the face to face contact is easier than the online stuff. Also, could you communicate with the athlete online if it wasn't about academic stuff but something else? Then there is the issue of punishment if detected and who bears the costs. Just to give a parallel thought, I did mention FERPA in class and that students have a right to keep their course information private. Our public blogging pushes that some, with the use of an alias supposedly a safeguard. But if some student's privacy was compromised and then a complaint was filed as a consequence, it would be the University who would have to pay. You can be sure I would be disciplined in that case - either not allowed to teach or told I must use Moodle for everything. But it would be the university who pays. Likewise, if the NCAA did punish DIA for a tutoring violation you committed, my guess is that the worst they could do to you is fire you as a tutor, as long as it was NCCA rules only that were violated, not U of I Academic Integrity statutes. For example, if you wrote a term paper for an athlete and that got discovered, then you might face grave consequences. I don't envision much punishment at all from exchanging innocent text messages. That's something everyone does.
An issue you didn't mention but that is also relevant to our class is how much time athletes can devote to their courses (think of that time as a proxy for our variable e, for effort) and how well prepared the athletes were coming into the university perhaps as measured by their standardized test scores (think of the test scores as a proxy for our variable a, for ability). While I am sympathetic with your supervisor wanting to make the athletes independent learners, a noble goal, no doubt, I am skeptical about it happening if there isn't sufficient inputs to achieve the goal. It's when those inputs are lacking that the shenanigans occur.
Finally, because we have not be very good as of late in the revenue producing sports, you might expect that the shenanigans to be less then (the upside from cheating is not as great). But if we had highly ranked teams, would the same mechanism you are exposed to continue to work effectively? It is something you might reflect on.
The job was something that I knew existed because I am involved with the DIA in other capacities, but I didn't know how to become a tutor until I saw the job posted on the U of I virtual job board during the spring of my sophomore year. The process consisted of a short written application, followed by an interview. In the interview I was asked general behavioral questions that would apply to the act of tutoring. It helped that I had some tutoring experience during high school. I also had to provide an academic transcript, which they used to prove my aptitude and ability to tutor specific courses. Basically, you had to receive a grade of at least "A-" in a course taken at UIUC to be qualified to tutor a course. I still have reservations about this part of the criteria because I think it's fair to assume that a student could receive an A- in a course but not actually know the material deeply enough to be able to explain that information to another student. However, they leave it up to the tutors to select which courses they would feel comfortable tutoring in, and I think they trust that a good student knows his or her aptitude for a specific course. In terms of matching students with a tutor, the DIA uses a software called "GradesFirst" that assist them in matching students up with tutors who are able to tutor a course. The coordination of meetings is ultimately handled by the student athlete's academic counselor or the tutor coordinator. I think that many student athletes actually do all of their work on their own, especially those of the sports which do not award full academic scholarships because those students would have had the ability to gain admission to the university regardless of receiving an athletic scholarship. Then, there are students who were required to meet with tutors if they were struggling academically. I worked primarily with football and basketball athletes, but also some tennis and gymnastics athletes as well. Hope that provides some insight into the position and the process.
DeleteThe rule I mentioned, as with many NCAA rules, is very difficult for anyone to monitor or control. Yet, it was stressed to me that I not assist any athlete in committing academic fraud or communicate with them outside of our tutoring sessions. Like you said, the worst thing that could happen to me if I had was relief of my duties, but the penalties facing the DIA could be much worse.
The time and effort input was something that the athletes were expected to control on their own, with the guidance of their counselor. However, in my experiences the input of that effort wasn't always there on behalf of the athletes.