Professor Grant Muny in his 17 years of teaching has always lived by the principle that “there are no stupid questions.” As a teacher of primarily freshmen, Dr. Muny understands the transition to college can be difficult and encourages students to ask any questions, no matter how silly they may seem. However, student Barry Dumm has caused Dr. Muny to abandon his principle.
Barry Dumm asked innocently enough on his class Piazza board when the midterm was being held. A question that could be answered by a quick look at the syllabus or even a glance at the previously answered questions on the board, but still nothing out of the ordinary for Piazza. What caught Dr. Muny’s attention was when he received the notification that a new question was posted in Piazza when he was proctoring the midterm. Dr. Muny was very confused as no student had signed up for an alternative exam time and all his students were sitting in front of him with their faces buried in the exam with no electronic devices in sight. Dr. Muny quickly pulled out his phone to check Piazza and was dumbfounded as he read Barry’s question. Dr. Muny stood there for a moment, just staring at the question. In order to keep the average response time low, Dr. Muny quickly typed out “Now,” hit send and put his phone away, still in shock.
Dr. Muny soon got another question on Piazza asking about the policy on make-up exams.