Do you report login information to the Systems People? Can people other than your classes log in?
Do you know anybody that has a successful Audacity running at home? What happens if they just wander into your office with their machine and make a recording?
Koz
Thank you, Koz! Your idea of turning off the network gave me the idea to turn off the wireless internet connection on the laptop. And it worked! How is that for crazy?? Having wireless ON makes Audacity not record for 7 seconds. Whoda thunk? Certainly not I until you mentioned it.
Unfortunately this isn’t practical for us since the groups upload the recordings to a website when done, but at least I know what to tell them if they don’t like the delay.
Oddly, the laptop running 10.14.4 has wireless ON and it still does NOT interfere with Audacity’s recording. So this seems to be an issue with 10.14.6.
Thanks again for both your and Steve’s help. And thanks again for making Audacity available for free.
Happy Holidays 
Why can’t you turn off wifi when recording, and then turn it on for uploading?
I’m not suggesting that you do this routinely, I’m just wondering why that is “not practical”.
You don’t have to dig into System Preferences. There’s a shortcut little fan symbol in the upper right of the desktop.
My field machine lives in that service when I’m traveling.
Koz
I guess that was a poor choice of words on my part. The people recording are by and large not tech or audio tech savvy. So them remembering to turn off the wireless and then turn it back on is slim. I let them know these things, but they only record every couple months and this stuff gets forgotten as a result. I’ve already got enough signs and reminders posted that are easily ignored due to their frequency/volume. But we’ll make it work.
And yes, Koz, that’s how I do it. But that’s a good reminder to let them know that. They may not be aware.
Thanks again.