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My column is dedicated to telling it like it is. I will always give you the best information available to me or the best advice I can. I will be upfront and never hide the truth from you.

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On the first day of my college theater class, the professor split us up into groups of about five or six people and told us that we were going to spend the semester working on a project together. The project was to choose a scene from any play to perform on the last day of class for our final exam. Everyone in the group had a job to do and each job was due on a different date in the semester. Other than acting, the jobs were set design, makeup design, costume design, and lights. All of those only had to be done of paper though and some people had to act and do one of these jobs.

We were all supposed to be a team and be equals, but this girl named Leslie acted like she was the group leader and started assigning us jobs when we were supposed to get to choose what we did. Most people didn't let her push them around like that, but I didn't really care much what job I did so I didn't complain when she suggested that I do the costume designs. It was kind of weird though because it was obvious that she wanted to do them, but she wanted to do the makeup designs as well and she couldn't do both or I wouldn't have had a job.

The costume designs were due in October and about a week before they were to be turned in, someone in the group asked me how they were coming. Leslie answered and said she hadn't started them yet. The other person clarified to her that the costume designs were my job and she said that she'd gotten that confused.

On the day the costume designs were due, I did them and turned them in, not knowing that Leslie had done her own and turned them in as well. Our professor didn't let us know that he had two costume designs from the same group and we never figured it out. Then in November when the makeup were due, he didn't have any designs from our group because Leslie had gotten our jobs mixed up again.

Then, after every part of the assignment was due except the acting, our professor gave us a sheet of paper with the grades we'd gotten so far on all the different parts of the project. We didn't have a grade for the makeup designs and Leslie looked at me and asked me if I'd finished them yet. I said I was in charge of the costume designs, but she argued and said she had done them. Luckily, the rest of the group took my side and insisted that the costumes WERE my job and she admitted she was wrong and said she'd due the makeup designs after class. Then just a second later, she decided that she didn't want to and asked me to do them instead since she'd already done the costume designs. I was irritated because I too had already done the costumes and I was the one who was actually supposed to do so while she was the one who screwed up. Still, being the giant push over I am, I said okay and agreed to do them.

I put my own butt on the line by doing so because makeup designs were so overdue and when I turned them in, it was going to look like I was the one in who was supposed to do them and forgot. None the less, I was willing to clean up her mess because our group was counting on that grade. Our final grade for the class was going to be our group grade for the project and a missing grade could bring us all down from say an A average to a B.

Leslie took the makeup designs from me when I brought them to class and when she handed them to the professor, I heard her say that WE had gotten confused about what jobs we each were supposed to do. WE didn't get confused about jack squat, SHE was the only one who couldn't keep straight what job she was in charge of. I'd let it slide if we didn't also get graded on how well we worked together and communicated as a group. Leslie's lie could have gotten us all docked a letter grade despite how hard I worked to save all of our butts from that very thing. That combined with the fact that the makeup designs were late probably did bring us down a lot.

My professor has given us all a chance to come to him with any complaints we have about our group members. So my question is should I tell him about Leslie? If I do, I might sound like a whiney little tattle tail and if Leslie gives him a different story, I might also sound like a liar. If I don't however, we could all get lower grades because of Leslie and her screw up, not to mention her throwing us all under the bus. I might as well have not done the makeup designs, but rather told her to do them herself as it wouldn't have hurt our grades any worse than what she's don has. So WDYT? Should I be a tattle tail and tell on her or let us all hang and do nothing about it? Also, I'm sorry about the length of this question. I really didn't think this would take this long to explain.

I agree with Razhie in that you should wait until the grades are posted. If you and the rest in your group feel that Leslie's actions have caused you all to get an unfair grade then you all as a group should approach the professor. The other alternative is to approach the professor now as a group and explain as a group what has happened if you feel once grades are posted the professor won't change them.

You must go as a group for two reason.

1. You are correct if you go alone it is your word against hers and the professor may not believe either one of you. This could affect the entire groups grade even more.

2. Again since the grade affects everyone going to the professor as a group minus Leslie does support you. It says that Leslie did not keep straight the assignments she gave out and poorly supervised the work. This may affect the grade as to how the group worked together but may offset the late submission of work which could be worse in the eyes of the professor.

Discuss this with the others a chose a course of action.

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