BETHE HOUSE—On the laptop of sophomore Katie Maxwell ’29, a frantic scene emerged. Last Thursday, she had been assigned a random partner to work on a group assignment, but she had not yet heard from him, nary a word nor a sound.
First contact with William Hopkins ’29 was reached at 8:34 PM, approximately three and a half hours before their deadline. His first words were a curt “Should we get started on the assignment?” He then followed up ten minutes later with “I think it’s due tonight.”
Of course, Maxwell had already started the assignment, and in fact, had already completed half of it. For the rest of the night, she typed away, finishing the entire report, while Hopkins’ icon on Google Docs kept blinking every few minutes. “I’m under the impression that he was checking my progress, before telling himself ‘Nah, she got it,’ and then switching tabs,” Maxwell said.
At 11:57 PM, Hopkins reportedly claimed that he’d make some edits and then submitted. His attributed contributions included changing the font to Arial and fixing a spelling mistake. “It’s actually spelled ‘a lot’, not ‘alot’,” he explained.
