I’m in college and we had a group project due last week. We had to build an architectural model of a house. Group limit was 3, so me and two friends (A and B) teamed up.
The next day, a classmate who’s usually absent asked to join. He’d missed the induction day, but the teacher allowed it anyway. That’s when things went downhill.
Friend A went out of his way and spent nearly $200 on materials and tools. We made a clear plan and posted it in our WhatsApp group. Despite this, the new guy ignored the plan and decided to cut half the wooden planks himself. He cut them wrong, then had the nerve to ask us to buy more wood when he realised he messed up.
About $100 worth of materials was wasted. We were all upset but tried to stay respectful. With only one week left, we had to spend another $100 and restart the project. After that incident, the guy never showed up again and stopped replying, even though we could see he was still reading our messages.
When the project was finished, we took photos and submitted them. Friend B then uploaded the photos to the group chat so the guy could submit them too. I told him to delete the photos and stop giving him access.
Friend B called me an asshole and said I’d make him fail.
Results came out today. Luckily, grading was individual. The guy didn’t submit anything and failed.
AITA?
NTA. Guy deserved to fail.
Nope, but it isn’t worth the drama if you do something like this (coming from someone who had to deal with the fallout). Generally, its just less of a headache to submit it and let the dude get carried. People like that end up eating it harder later on when they can no longer coast on the effort of others anyway.
You do you though, NTA
That said, what fuckass project requires that you spend $300 of your own money, that stuff is usually required to be announced in advance so people who get help (loans,grants, etc.) can plan accordingly. Alot of college students don’t just have $300 to drop on hand.
This is just the reality for design/art degrees. We have to pay for our own supplies, just like we have to buy our own textbooks. Architecture students can go through thousands of dollars of carboard and materials for their models.
NTA – So he wasted hundreds of dollars of supplies, didnt actually help, and expected to ride on your coat tails? This is college, if he doesnt want to take it seriously thats his fault
I don’t think it was even that. Random guy never showed up again, Friend B tried to proactively give the project info to Random Guy so he could turn it in.
I think Friend B is the goober here more than anyone else.
NTA – you didn’t cause the guy to fail – the guy caused himself to fail. And he recognized it himself by not submitting anything.
Think of it this eay. You are there to learn so that after you graduate, you will be able to perform your job. Helping someone pass a course without them learning the material is setting them up to fail more spectacularly later. They won’t be able to perform their job – others may have to cover for them. They could perform at a substandard level, causing their customers to waste money or perhaps have an unsafe product.
He’s just learning the real world a little sooner. Imagine if he did that at a job. NTA.
If there’s such a thing as a *good* asshole, that’s what you are. YATGA. Dude deserves to fail and fail, not fail and still pass.
NTA. Letting a student take credit for work they didn’t do is academic dishonesty. You could get in trouble for adding his name to the project. You’re not making him fail, he made HIMSELF fail by not contributing. What you’re doing is NOT LETTING HIM CHEAT.
NTA — I’m surprised it’s taken you so long to run into a slacker like him in a group project. You’ll find the same thing happening in the real world too when you graduate. So will he.
NTA. FAFO
NTA. The guy didn’t do the work plus sabotaged (unintentionally) the project. He deserved to fail.
NTA – if he doesn’t contribute, he doesn’t get credit. Any job he has in the future is going to expect that he actually knows how to do the work.
NTA.
When I was in college, if I had to do a group project and if I got stuck doing all the work I would just email the professor and make it very clear what I competed on my own and what my partner completed if anything.
You’re paying to be there and there is no reason to give someone else a free ride when they literally didn’t do anything.