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Newsflash O-Chem is hard. College professors are not your friend and yes can be condescending.
These kids are upset about not getting "Extra Credit". Yes, we are seeing the results of the "Everyone gets a Trophy" mentality.
It wasn't even a majority of his class, it was about 1/3 who signed the petition. I'd say this Professor has a very good unlawful termination lawsuit on his hands.
Not really. If you knew anything about academia you would know that adjuncts can be let go easily. Remember this is not his previous tenured job, it's a contract.
Not really. If you knew anything about academia you would know that adjuncts can be let go easily. Remember this is not his previous tenured job, it's a contract.
He may not have been tenured, but he can take his book and go home. Since he literally wrote the book used in the course, I would think previous classes that had no issues with him could be sited if he chose to sue. It's not like this was his first time teaching that course.
Silly relevant question:
What is his grade distribution compared to others teaching the same course there?
I had a prof who failed more of the class than passed. He was evil. He deliberately had the first test the first day PAST the free drop date so people could not drop. I still remember the class average on the first test was 44 and the highest grade was 82. No As. 1 B, several Cs. A dozenish Ds and a heap of Fs. There were about 50 students in the class.
I passed because the final was departmental and 40% of the grade. I aced it. I also did the 2 hour final in 40 minutes. My friends told me the final was hard and some did not finish. I told them, they had no idea what hard was.
This was the 80s.
Sometimes it is the prof. I have no idea if this is the case.
So some day in future we or our relatives will be seeing doctors that were among the petitioners.....
For all I know, similar things happen in many schools and universities.
My ex was teaching assistant for a well-known economist---err, well-known to his peers in the field at least. He published a LOT. My understanding was that universities often hire big time expert guys like him to bring the school prestige. What people don't realize is that quite often, big time expert guys don't teach the classes. They're too busy doing research, writing papers, all that. No, that duty gets handed off to the TA, who already has a bachelor's or possibly a master's. What was interesting about him: he did both. He taught AND he published. He could have dumped it in her lap but he didn't.
That sounds like professor Maitland Jones. At age 84, seeing what he's seen and his long career filled with experiences...he's a treasure they threw away with both hands.
Truth, as always, somewhere in the less sensational middle.
84 years old and on a single year contract that NYU didn't feel like renewing. Pretty common outcome for adjunct contract professors.
Bunch of students complained about how hard the class was. Yet another thing that happens all the time, every day, at every campus in America. My favorite professor got bad reviews, because Calculus based Physics is hard and she didn't give away free 'A's. I got an 'A' both semesters of her class, as did about a half dozen other students who did the ALL the work she assigned, showed up for ALL the pretest study sessions she would volunteer to hold on Saturday mornings before tests, and went to EVERY SINGLE class except the one I missed in 2nd semester because of strep throat. She gave enough extra credit that if you actually did it all, you could have enough points to not take the final. In both semesters, both I and the other folks who got 'A's never took a final. And all you had to do was the work she assigned.
Every "hard" professor I ever had that students all loved to whine about were the EXACT same way. If you did the work they assigned, showed up to every class, and paid even the faintest bit of attention, you'd fall backwards into at least a B+.
So students whining is same old same old, and universities not renewing contracts for 84 year olds is as well.
I took organic chemistry at NYU about 25 years ago. Got a 22 on the first test - realized that pre-med wasn't for me, so I did what college kids did back in that day - drank a ton of Jim Beam and passed out and then changed majors soon after.
I like organic chemistry. Our orgo teacher was also the most notorious for being "hard." A lot of people struggled. I actually thought it was much easier than physical chemistry. I guess it just depends on how you think.
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