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Since most college students are either in college because
01 Their parents donated money to them to go
02 They recieved donated money in the form of federal pell grants and financial aid
or
03 Are using donated money to secure low interest, federally back student
"loans".
I say go ahead and require some of them to "donate" some money since their entire college experience is already being financed by money that might as well be considered donated.
It's not so much the money donation I take issue with so much as her crossing stuff out and the whole class voting on one organization.
I'd object to being forced to donate money to anything that I didn't care for, or being forced to donate money for anything at all. You're basically paying for a grade here, and that's *probably* against the rules.
I'd do the assignment but not donate any money (if it was an organization I didn't care for, or if it is money that I needed for myself) and explain why afterwards. If it's really that big of an issue, you could probably find someone in administration to talk about.
DO you think it will affect your grade if you don't donate? If so then yes it is unethical.
I'm not sure if it will. If it's to click on a site and donate from the site, I can secretly not donate and my grade will not be affected, and she'll have no way of checking. If we're expected to cough up money in class then I feel like my grade will suffer. I don't know yet. I guess I should wait till we get to that step.
I just feel like if we are donating money, we should have a direct say in where it goes. Not a class vote. I get why she might have crossed out organizations she viewed as anti-deaf, because it's a class about Deaf culture, but hearing aids aren't necessarily mutually exclusive from Deaf culture. You can be culturally Deaf and wear a hearing aid. I am all for Deaf culture but when I was deaf I wore a hearing aid. She went on a huge rant about how people who included organizations that were for hearing aids were "missing the point" of Deaf culture. I would relate more to her if she was talking about organizations that forced speech therapy and cochlear implants on children, but hearing aids? Honestly, I know more Deaf people that wear hearing aids than I do Deaf people that don't. That's not the organization I want to donate to anyway, but it's the principle of the thing. And I am concerned about whatever minority of the class will be forced to donate to an organization they didn't vote for.
I know it's not that black and white, which is why I didn't just jump into doing something major about it. Apart from mentioning on the evaluations it made me uncomfortable, I haven't done anything. I'm not necessarily counting on doing something either. I posted the thread cause I wanted to get a feel for what other people think.
I once took a class where the teacher would give extra credit points to those who donated time, money, etc. But it was a choice and did not effect one's grade negatively if they chose not to participate.
A long time ago when I was in college I was taking Japanese for my foreign language requirement. At the end of one semester we were required to go to a particular Japanese restaurant and practice ordering food, etc. While it would definitely help in the aspect of practicing the language, I did take note that the owner of the restaurant was friends with the Japanese teacher, etc. Was it part of buying a grade to pass. Yes and no. Yes, it was a requirement that costs money, but so are so many other things that are part of the "educational" experience. How often are students required to buy crappy books that are authored by the professor, or one of his (or her) friends, or even required by the department, but not used, etc. The time has basically passed where one is going to college to learn, but many of us, it's a stamp to some requirement for a degree to get us past future HR personnel marking it on a check-box. Unfortunately, that's the current reality.
What is the dollar amount of this "donation"? If we are talking about one dollar, perhaps it is worth it to get the lesson point proven (although I don't have a clue what exactly that lesson could be). And it would definitely matter to me if this was a suggestion as opposed to a demand.
I don't think it's right to coerce people to donate money to an organization they may not wish to donate to, especially if the teacher is 'guiding' the choices by marking a bunch of them off the list.
Exactly We don't know all the details of the situation but I don't like the teacher guiding the donations. And "mandatory" donations? I've met people barely making it to the end of the month, eating with really low amounts of money, so donating may not be the best option considering the current economy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by manderly6
What is the dollar amount of this "donation"? If we are talking about one dollar, perhaps it is worth it to get the lesson point proven.
True. On the other hand, I can understand these "didactic examples" with kids but not with adults (I'm assuming the OP is an adult). Is the activity so vital to understand a concept or idea? Not sure.
Without knowing the entire situation, I'd say you should probably contact the right authority or simply bypass the "correct" authority figure and simply go to the President of the University.
True story: When I was in college I had a professor who espoused his political beliefs every class period and blatantly criticized any student who disagreed with him. I went to the "correct" authority figure, the department chair but he did nothing except tell me what an *excellent* professor so-and-so was. What did I do? Requested a meeting with the President of the University to which I was denied repeatedly (basically it was not worth his time to meet with me).
Just so happened, I was very good friends with the editor of the school newspaper and had him publish a little letter to the editor I had written about my professor to which I attached my name in big BOLD letters. In my letter, I compared my professor to Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's Minister of Propaganda). Well this QUICKLY made it to the desk of the President and I was phoned at 8 a.m. after the paper had been distributed across campus and the President DEMANDED to see me. Of course I happily went to his office and he was absolutely red in the face and even threatened my expulsion (hmm...freedom of the press?). In the course of our meeting, I told him about the professor but he simply gave me the same story about how professor so-and-so had been with the University X number of years and was a well respected member of the faculty. Blah blah blah. At the end, he DEMANDED I write an apology letter for all the student body to see.
Next week the paper came out and it had my apology letter on the FRONT page. It was one line with my name attached at the bottom:
"I would like to deeply and sincerely apologize to Joseph Goebbels for befouling and disgracing his good name by comparing him to Professor X"
I never heard from the President of the University again in the rest of my years there. He understood me.
Moral of my story: Don't EVER be afraid to challenge a professor. Never back down from your beliefs, if you see something funny about a situation, call them on it! Go to a higher authority and if they don't listen...take matters into your own hands (nothing illegal though).
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