Things got better in the course. Ian was improving in his knowledge and lecturing. There was excellent cooperation between him and Trenchant. That is, until Randy Fecesi was brought in.
Randy came with perhaps even less ability in radiology than Ian, but where the students were sympathetic toward Ian, they were pissed off by Randy. The SmurFFs they wrote concerning him were not kind. Many reprimanded him for things he had said in lectures which were contrary to what the students read in textbooks. Hurt, angry and unable to get at the students, he turned on Trenchant. At first, Ian tried to stay neutral but eventually, Randy convinced him that the course must be reorganized and they had to start by redoing the laboratory manual.
His solution was to change the only part of the course that really worked!
Chapter 7
"Now what did you do with these SmurFFs that Dr Fecesi brought you?" questioned Henry.
"At first, I just thought about them. Then I took them to Jimbo Jones who was chair of the department before me.
"I thought he might have some idea of what should be done and he, of course, knew Trenchant since she had been in the department during his tenure as chair."
Lyle continued, shifting in his chair so he appeared taller. "Jimbo immediately took them to Mark Rogers who is the university attorney and Mark sent them out for analysis.
"I looked through other SmurFFs and picked out a couple that seemed strange, that didn't seem to me to be what students would write, and Jimbo found a couple in the nursing course and all those were sent out to the examiner.