(h/t 89th)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...nts-assessments.html

Some students suggested that the professor extends extra considerations for block students with regards to their final exams and final assignments. The professor refused (excerpt of his refusal email in the article). And here we are.

Strikes me as a great example of cancel culture. A group of students gets into high dudgeon mode and feels the power to make an example of this professor. He now has police protection, and has probably lost his job.

Could he have stated his case more felicitously. Yeah, with a bit more thought I'm sure I, or he, could have worded his response better, and less flippantly. But the substance of his argument is correct.

Professors respond to "woe is me" requests in very different ways, all of them fully justifiable. Some give no exceptions to basic class rules that are printed in the syllabus. Some professors, for instance, write that you can miss an exam for whatever reason, and just lump the value of that exam into other exams. But they won't offer blanket "no harm" exceptions for the best sob story received. The amount of relief is built in to the structure of the class, and this is consistent with university policy.

Others (waves hand) are more willing to work with students who seem to have a compelling case. For me, I want backup from the dean of students who can confirm that the student has issues that have brought them to the dean's attention. But that's done individually, not as a blanket group exception. For me, I wouldn't have granted a blanket "black exception" to taking an exam, and I would never agree to grading students of a certain race more leniently. Many of the reasons that that professor gave would have crossed my mind as well. I think I would have had the awareness to word my response much less aggressively, however.

Why is it the people who want to abolish police spend so much time policing everyone else?

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Why is it the people who want to abolish police spend so much time policing everyone else?

No one wants to abolish police, Jon.

We our police to stop maiming and killing innocent people.

Those are different things.

quote:

No one wants to abolish police

Actually, I think there are a lot of people who want exactly that...

... and they're the ones who want to police everyone else and cancel those with whom they disagree.

or is that ...

I'm very surprised that UCLA would terminate someone over this, except for the immediate political sensibilities. They may be handing this guy a very easy-to-win law suit with damages. I'm pretty sure UCLA's general grading policies are incompatible with race-based standards.

Wait are they firing him? I thought he was just suspended? (Maybe I didn't read closely enough)

I will say, there are several things wrong here, not the least of which having the entire grade for an online course be based on only the final exam.

Also, I would not have reacted in any way close to how he did. But, then again, I would not set up my class like that... Ugh.

In any case, I'm not sure it is worthy of being treated as a fire-able offense... What a mess.

On the face of it, it seems like people are saying this is about race, but I think it's equally (or maybe more?) about how some (far too many?) teachers have a confrontational or oppositional mode as their go-to response to students. You see it in the tone/ discourse when teachers complain about things students do (like complaining about emails lacking polite formalities, or asking for extensions etc.) There's a tendency to take students' behavior personally, and a readiness to jump on the idea that students are trying to take advantage of teachers and so the teacher has to treat the student almost like an enemy to make sure the teacher doesn't get taken advantage of.

That's not the right way to interact with students, but for far too many teachers, it's the default. And I think online modalities with little personal engagement between teacher and student maybe contribute to this problem.

Imagine if the teacher treated the student(s) who contacted him like collaborators. "Ok, I see you have these concerns, how can we fairly and appropriately address them." That's the beginning, and it's an opening to connect with students. This teacher missed that opportunity.

Also, you know what? Between covid and the protests, this is a sh*tty time to be a student. Don't be a dick. Give all the students an extension.

quote:

Klein asked how he was expected to implement the 'no-harm' exam, given the course was solely graded on the final exam.

His email was snarky, but this might be a legitimate question.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

quote:

Klein asked how he was expected to implement the 'no-harm' exam, given the course was solely graded on the final exam.

His email was snarky, but this might be a legitimate question.

To my mind, that's a huge problem because of how the class is set up. There may be some curricular details that justify his arrangement (one, high-stakes exam = entire course grade), but I'm hard-pressed to imagine what those might be.

I think he could have emailed all of the students and let them know he would be flexible with deadlines and ask any student who wanted an extension to contact him directly.

The students' request, from the article:

quote:

They requested a 'no-harm' final exam that could only benefit students' grades, and for shortened exams and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects.

Doesn't fit with this:

quote:

Klein asked how he was expected to implement the 'no-harm' exam, given the course was solely graded on the final exam.

Were there assignments and projects??

In any case, the guy is possibly (likely) racist and definitely a jerk (recalling the comment about his daughter etc.) but this particular situation is a big mess because of the details...

quote:

To my mind, that's a huge problem because of how the class is set up. There may be some curricular details that justify his arrangement (one, high-stakes exam = entire course grade), but I'm hard-pressed to imagine what those might be.

That's a good point. And an example of why you always have to question the starting assumptions.

That said, that choice was not likely racist. (At least, it doesn't seem so to me.)

ETA: Quirt, I may have misunderstood you, when you wrote "that choice was not likely racist," did you mean the choice of having the course grade based on one item?

In any case, to me, his comments read, at best, as racially insensitive, see the bolded below.

quote:

'Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota,' he wrote.

'Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only?

'Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?'

Klein asked the students whether any of them - black or otherwise - were from Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by police on May 25, sparking a wave of protests.

'I assume that they probably are especially devastated as well,' he wrote.

'I am thinking that a white student from there might be possibly even more devastated by this, especially because some might think that they're racist even if they are not.

'My TA (teaching assistant) is from Minneapolis, so if you don't know, I can probably ask her.'

Klein asked how he was expected to implement the 'no-harm' exam, given the course was solely graded on the final exam.

And he ended with a quote from Martin Luther King.

'One last thing strikes me: Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the "color of their skin,"' he wrote.