Ex-Duke Lacrosse Player Sues Feminist Prof Over Failing Grade

[Triana]

Ex-Lacrosse Player Sues Duke, Instructor Over Failing Grade

Posted: Jan. 4 8:12 p.m.
Updated: Today at 8:13 a.m.
Durham — A former Duke University lacrosse player sued the university and a former instructor Thursday, alleging that she unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the team.

Kyle Dowd graduated in May 2006, two months after a woman said she was raped at a lacrosse team party.

The allegations set off a tumultuous few weeks in Durham, with almost daily protests by people who criticized lacrosse team members for a pattern of rowdy behavior.

Dowd's lawsuit alleges that visiting professor Kim Curtis gave him an F in a politics and literature class that nearly prevented him from graduating, even though he had earned passing grades on his assignments to that point.

Dowd and his parents, Patricia and Benjamin Dowd, are asking for a total of $60,000 in punitive and compensatory damages.

MORE...

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1126808/

[Lerkfish]

1. noone whines like pampered rich kids.

what's the big deal? take the class over if graduating is all that important to you....sheesh.

[Kagemusha]

3. Um excuse me but, what makes you think they'd have allowed him to?

This is one of the Duke students accused of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault for goodness sakes. The university invited the other two back and not this one (Edit: After the collapse of the rape charge, and the expectation that the kidnapping charge would collapse, so the better to get out of a major lawsuit against Duke) only because this one actually graduated, no thanks to this teacher.

I've never heard of a teacher marking you down in class for being accused of rape, myself, though I'm not exactly sorry to have missed such details in life.

[struggle4progress]

11. No: "... Kyle Dowd .. was not charged in the case ..."

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/SPT/701050331/1013

[Kagemusha]

12. Ok, thanks for clearing up my mistake but...

Why'd he miss time due to the criminal investigation then? Because the university didn't want him around or what?

If he wasn't even charged and he got stiffed by the teacher just for being on the team, that's pretty sad too

[struggle4progress]

18. Here's the lawsuit: he says he was meeting with attorneys

http://www.wral.com/news/local/flash/1126864/

[Lance_Boyle]

13. I don't think this student was a suspect.

n/t

[Kagemusha]

14. It seems he wasn't charged, but they were all suspects (nt)

nt

[superconnected]

26. I guess I missed where the proof that the teacher did this, is

But then, I don't think you personally need proof, in your supposedly criticle thinking mind.

[Kagemusha]

29. I missed the part where I said I was certain the teacher did it.

Perhaps your "criticle" thinking mind can come up with that.

Having said that, I mistook the student for one of the 3 charged with rape. As the ample responses elsewhere in this thread demonstrate, the facts are too thin at this time to have a complete understanding of the allegations.

[superconnected]

32. Actually, my college educated brain looks at,

"only because this one actually graduated, no thanks to this teacher", and interprets it as sounding like you are holding the teacher as having done what the article says. She may or may not have. We don't know.

And yes, not enough information here. Just another article that may or may not be true.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. My college educated brain says...

that if a student got an F and he claims the teacher was unfair, then 99 times out of ten the student is full of shit.

Not that I couldn't be wrong.

[Kagemusha]

36. Clearly the teacher did the student no favors.

That much doesn't appear to be in dispute.

I've already apologized many times over for getting the identity of the individual wrong (he's not who I assumed he was - he met with lawyers but was never actually charged in the case).

[DavidDvorkin]

4. If his complaint is valid, why should he have to take it over?

I don't know if his complaint is valid, but if it is, then he's been treated unfairly.

[wtmusic]

5. I'd be pissed too

if I put a semester's worth of work into a class and was failed unfairly.

[Alexander]

6. Ah yes, it's all the "rich kids" fault.

Since when is a baseless accusation of rape grounds for failing a kid out of a class?

I thought grades were earned on merit. And from the article, his work was decent enough to pass the class.

But don't let facts get in the way of your argument; apparently some DUers want to stick it to anyone with money, even if they never hurt anybody.

[superconnected]

27. oh gawd, you actually believe you have *fact*

:eyes:

this is a newspaper article. Nobody here knows what the facts are. They'll probably surface, but to claim you have them from this one article... gawd.

Another so called "critical thinker". :eyes:

[Alexander]

37. Oh God, you actually believe you're clever!

"Dowd appealed the grade, and the university changed it to a D, citing a calculation error. He and his parents ask in the lawsuit for the grade to be changed to a "P" for passing."

Here's some critical thinking for you. It's called "reading" and "absorbing" information. Try it sometime.

Obviously the university felt he did passing work, else they wouldn't have changed the grade. Unless you, like the person I was responding to, assumes they only changed the grade because he's a privileged rich kid.

The headline of this article is misleading - credit is usually given for a D, meaning it does not constitute "failing" - and you would do well to try some reading and thinking before you verbally bash me.

BTW - you might want to take some more college classes; "you have fact" and "criticle" are both rather glaring English mistakes for a poster who likes to insult other people's intelligence.

:rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

39. Hey, Alex.

Unless Duke's on some weird University system, a "D" is still a failing grade, just like it is in most other colleges.

"BTW - you might want to take some more college classes; "you have fact" and "criticle" are both rather glaring English mistakes for a poster who likes to insult other people's intelligence."

What college did you go too? Because a "D" is failing in most.

[Alexander]

40. I make no secret of my alma mater.

Arizona State University. And from my understanding, at least here, even a "D" is passing. A shitty grade, yes, but passing nonetheless. Maybe ASU is the exception, or maybe it's based on the departments here, but I heard it discussed as if it were commonplace, which I found surprising.

My main point is that superconnected's attitude and remarks were totally uncalled for, and she seems to be doing a fine job of pissing various posters off and making herself look silly by being so insulting.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wakeme2008]

8. Do not ASSUME if you are going to Duke you are rich...

My nephew will be going there with 80% of his tuition paid for by Duke Hospital where my brother has worked for many years.

[Triana]

True. Many Dukies are not rich...

...Duke never refuses a student due to inability to pay. They subsidize, issue scholarships, whatever. Many students there are NOT rich. I know nothing of lacrosse players, but in general, they're not all rich.

[Marrah_G]

10. I'm curious to know how you know he is rich?

I didn't see anything in that story that tells the income of the player.

People assume if you are a white male at an ivy league school that you automatically come from money. My boyfriends son is at college on a Lacrosse scholarship (if you want to go to college on an athetic scholarship and are male, Lacrosse is the sport to play). Without that scholarship they could never afford college. Both his parents are working class people, just getting by.

[rinsd]

21. Pampered rich kid?

His lawsuit states he was on partial scholarship at Duke for lacrosse and had a 3.4 GPA prior to this class. It also states he received grades of C & C- on 2 out of 3 papers submitted and that Duke University later changed his grade in this class from an F to a D citing calculation errors.

There are alot of details missing right now but I think the kid may have a beef.

[superconnected]

30. gotta wonder how accurate the article is if he's a 3.4 student

but was getting 2.0's in the class before they lowered him to a 0 then up to a 1. Maybe he was just bad at the class or at least not up to the par of even a B. C is low imo but then A's were easy for me in college.

[mongo]

73. You should have had one professor I did

A good friend of my in college had a 4.0 average, the only one in the whole Junior class. This prof was a dick anyway, but no matter how hard she worked at anything he gave her a B. She would turn in papers that would blow the rest of us away, and many of us received A's, but he never gave her anything higher than a B.

He was just a blowhard determined to bring her down a notch. I would imagine there's one in every school.

[fishwax]

57. two Cs and 6 absences yielding a failing grade isn't much of a stretch

in many of my undergrad classes, it was pretty standard to have a one letter-grade penalty for each unexcused absence beyond three. If one of the absences was excused for a lacrosse trip, that still leaves a two letter-grade penalty. The third paper is apparently the one he did poorly on? If the prof has an attendance policy and he failed to meet it, the grade doesn't seem out of line to me, even if he did get Cs on a couple of assignments.

[Miss Chybil]

22. Your statement is extremely bigoted

- in more ways than one. Spend four to six years of your life working towards a degree. Then let somebody try to take it from you - or force you to spend more money (thousands of dollars) and four more months of your life trying to get what you've already earned. Tell us then how you feel about it. You have some gaul.

Oh, but I suppose for you it would be different because your bank account is smaller than you assume this kid's is. Right?

Think of the phrase "justice for all." It really does mean what it says.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Passing grades on his assignments... but it doesn't say anything about tests.

Being out of a classroom for reasons of a criminal investigation should result in an undetermined grade until the time is made up in some way, I'd think.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. I noticed that, too

I've taken plenty of classes where I did well on the assignments, only to choke up on tests. I've taken plenty of classes where all assignments are worth only half a letter grade and, at best, make the difference only between a B and a B+; in those classes, attendance and/or tests make up the bulk of the semester's grade.

So the relevant question that the defense will have to ask is: What was your attendance and what were your test scores? I will bet cash money that both are below where they should have been for a passing grade.

[struggle4progress]

20. Course was graded on several papers and class participation

His lawsuit says he got C's on the first two papers and an F on the last paper.

[libnnc]

44. I guess it all depends on how the class grade is weighted

Most professors weight class participation heavily in the final grade. If you screw that up, you'd have to at least make all B's on your papers to pass. Pretty hard to squeeze a passing grade from two C's and an F if the class part. grade is low.

[struggle4progress]

55. There's a link to the lawsuit in #18, which allegedly describes the grading:

each paper had equal weight and class participation counted the same as a paper.

[alarimer]

61. Perhaps class participation is the issue then

And it might mean something more than just showing up. I've had professors not give a shit if you never showed up at all, just as long as you did the work. They wouldn't take attendance or anything.

But in some classes, participation meant actually asking or answering questions and participating in the debate. And some professors were very strict about that. I don't know if that's the case here or not but I guess it could have been a factor, especially with a number of unexplained absences. Many professors will work with you if you have a good excuse for being absent or if you worked it out ahead of time. With others, there is not much you can do. I can't tell from this if the professor is just one of those assholes who seem to rule their classes like a little kingdom or if the student is whining because he didn't get the grade he thought (wrongly) the he deserved.

[raebrek]

64. One professor in mind

I had one professor that would repeatedly say that her class room was not a democracy, it was a dictatorship. This professor was also my advisor.

[struggle4progress]

9. I had students miss a class or two because they'd been arrested or had ..

.. to show up for their trial for an earlier offense. But at most universities, undergrad classes only meet MWF or TR, so it's hard for me to understand how a criminal investigation could keep a non-suspect student out of class for two weeks or more, though I suppose it's possible.

[Kagemusha]

15. I hope that is cleared up in future reports.

It's not a small issue when it comes to understanding what the hell happened here. You corrected my earlier mistake assuming this was the individual who was charged a couple of days after graduating because.. I couldn't imagine, if it was anyone else, how this situation occured to begin with.

[struggle4progress]

19. I think this is the ad -- but it's been pulled from the Duke website

and I found this on a blog:

We are listening to our students. We’re also listening to the Durham community, to Duke staff, and to each other. Regardless of the results of the police investigation, what is apparent everyday now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism, who see illuminated in this moment’s extraordinary spotlight what they live with everyday. They know that it isn’t just Duke, it isn’t everybody, and it isn’t just individuals making this disaster.

But it is a disaster nonetheless.

These students are shouting and whispering about what happened to this young woman and to themselves.

. . .We want the absence of terror. But we don’t really know what that means . . . We can’t think. That’s why we’re so silent; we can’t think about what’s on the other side of this. Terror robs you of language and you need language for the healing to begin. 1

This is not a different experience for us here at Duke University. We go to class with racist classmates, we go to gym with people who are racists....It’s part of the experience. 2


If it turns out that these students are guilty, I want them expelled. But their expulsion will only bring resolution to this case and not the bigger problem. This is much bigger than them and throwing them out will not solve the problem. I want the administration to acknowledge what is going on and how bad it is. 3

Being a big, black man, it’s hard to walk anywhere at night,
and not have a campus police car slowly drive by me. 4

Everything seems up for grabs--I am only comfortable talking about this event
in my room with close friends. I am actually afraid to even bring it up in public.
But worse, I wonder now about everything. . . . If something like this happens to
me . . . What would be used against me--my clothing? Where I was? 5

I was talking to a white woman student who was asking me “Why do people --
and she meant black people -- make race such a big issue?”
They don’t see race. They just don’t see it. 6

What Does A Social Disaster Sound Like

You go to a party, you get grabbed, you get propositioned, and then you start to question yourself. 7

. . . all you heard was "Black students just complain all the time, all you do is complain and self-segregate." And whenever we try to explain why we’re offended, it’s pushed back on us. Just the phrase "self-segregation": the blame is always put on us. 8

. . . no one is really talking about how to keep the young woman herself central
to this conversation, how to keep her humanity before us . . . she doesn’t seem
to be visible in this. Not for the university, not for us 9


I can’t help but think about the different attention given to what has happened from what it would have been if the guys had been not just black but participating in a different sport, like football, something that’s not so upscale. 10

And this is what I’m thinking right now – Duke isn’t really responding to this. Not really. And this, what has happened, is a disaster. This is a social disaster. 11

The students know that the disaster didn’t begin on March 13th and won’t end with what the police say or the court decides. Like all disasters, this one has a history. And what lies beneath what we’re hearing from our students are questions about the future. This ad, printed in the most easily seen venue on campus, is just one way for us to say that we’re hearing what our students are saying. Some of these things were said by a mixed (in every way possible) group of students on Wednesday, March 29th at an African & African American Studies Program forum, some were printed in an issue of the Independent that came out that same day, and some were said to us inside and outside of the classroom. We’re turning up the volume in a moment when some of the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down while we wait. To the students speaking individually and to the protestors making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourselves heard.

We thank the following departments and programs for signing onto this ad with African & African American Studies: Romance Studies; Psychology: Social and Health Sciences; Franklin Humanities Institute; Critical U.S. Studies; Art, Art History, and Visual Studies; Classical Studies; Asian & African Languages and Literature; Women’s Studies; Latino/a Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; European Studies; Program in Education; and the Center for Documentary Studies ...

http://www.beggingtodiffer.com/forum/index.php?act=Print&client=printer&f=2&t=3298

[Orangepeel]

16. One important lesson from the whole Duke case was "don't jump to conclusions"

When this case first hit the news, my sympathies were firmly with the woman who claimed to be raped. When the first "inconclusive" DNA results came to light several weeks later, I started to think, "wait a minute" and had to remind myself that accusations don't equal guilt. Now, I think Nfong ought to be, at least, disbarred.

The same lesson could, and I think should, be applied here. This might be a case of a biased professor handing out an unfair grade. Or, it could be a case of a whiny student and his helicopter parents refusing to believe that he didn't deserve a passing grade just for paying the tuition bill. Best not to judge based on a single news article.

[salin]

23. agreed - on all points.

:hi:

[superconnected]

31. Exactly!

You nailed it.

[Dutch]

63. Well said. Jumping to conclusions at this point is idiotic.

[slackmaster]

17. There is not enough information to tell whether the F was justified or not

Any speculation here as to who is right and who is wrong has no merit IMO.

Let the justice system run its course.

[alcibiades_mystery]

49. Wisest post in the thread

Thanks.

I have no doubt that the professor will either have a reasonable explanation for the grade, or will concoct one. The students, similarly, has already apparently concocted his narrative for why he received the grade, or perhaps his narrative is fairly accurate. Usually, these sorts of things are not adjudicated in court, and I worry about the precedent of judges (or juries! eek!) deciding whether a grade given in a course renders a teacher financially liable. No doubt the Chronicle of Higher Ed will have extensive coverage...

[marshall]

77. The professor's rationale is already weakened

I find it alarming that the administration for some reason saw fit to alter the grade weeks after the class was over because of some vague calculation error by the instructor. That does not bode well for any argument she might make because it has already been more or less acknowledged that she either didn't keep accurate records or she did not take care to compute grades accurately.

[mbperrin]

24. He has no beef. He graduated.

End of story.

[Xithras]

35. Not necessarily.

If he plans to pursue any higher degrees, that grade will come back to haunt him. I know plenty of people who didn't even start on their Ph D's until decades after completing their baccalaureate or masters degrees. Heck, I'm 33 and am STILL slowly working my way toward that degree. That failing grade (even the D) will be a red flag when he applies to another program.

[mbperrin]

72. I went through an ugly divorce my senior year.

Ran my GPA from 3.97 to 2.01. Graduated by skin of teeth, Accepted to and finished MAEd in 17 months with a 3.94, now in process of finishing EdD with 4.00. A 20 minute personal interview got me entry on a provisional basis, and my ability to do the work in the first semester finalized my admission. Kid really does not have a problem with a single grade. Love to see the rest of his transcript.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

25. ugh... been there, done that.

I had an absolutely bizzare situation with a feminist professor who shit my grades after she discovered I was friends with a girl that she hated.

Grade on midterm: A
Grade on first essay: A
Grade on second essay: B+
Grade on final exam: A-

Final Grade: C-

I made the mistake of trying to work things out with the crazy bitch, and as a result ran out the clock on the time in which I had to appeal the grade. It was the fall semester and I at first assumed it was a mistake and could wait till the new years. The deadline for appeals was one week into the following semester. Although I would learn that more than a dozen other people had sucessfully appealed grade against this lunatic.

Her explaination was "associating with mysoginists has its consequences" uhh... the alledged "mysoginist" was a young woman who would be considered a feminist by almost any standard and was well liked by most of the faculty. She she made the mistake of calling bullshit on the wrong person.

The department chair (this was a history professor) suggested that I make a formal greivence to the dean and academic council. I made the complaint, but graduated before anything came of it.

[superconnected]

34. I had one teacher where every assignment I handed in was an A

and I got a B for the class. I was livid because "I" just don't get B's. Mathmatically it didn't work out. I went to the teacher and he gave me some weakly plausible explanation that he graded on more than just the written assignments.. I went away ticked, never got over it because "I" really don't accept b's as being okay or something that reflects my preformance, ever. But I didn't declare him a 'bastard, who was out to get me.' I realized it can/will happen. I don't think I needed to sue the guy for 60 grand, even though I have to go through life with that B, that still ticks me off, on my transcripts.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

41. what floored me

What floored me was that even though this woman freely aknowledged why she had given me the C-, there was no sort of academic habius corpus to protect students from professors abusing their power. My grades for the course were in the computer, calculate the correct final grade and give it to me!

[alcibiades_mystery]

45. But there was a grievance procedure, as you outlined above

And you should have pursued it fully.

No profession is without its occasional lunatics. Usually, there are checksa in place.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

51. I gave her the benefit of the doubt,

at the time it appeared to be an obvious mistake and I didn't see a need to bother someone over Christmas. In light of the fact she was obviously absuing her power the administration should have been able to cancel out her grade. She should have been fired on the spot.

[alcibiades_mystery]

54. You said you never followed up with the Dean

Let me explain something about academic institutions.

1) Teachers HATE grade appeals in the same way that judges hate appeals: being overruled on a grade appeal has the same effect on teachers. Grade appeals are rare. Rare. In a composition program with 3600 students a semester, I ran ONE grade appeal for a Fall semester student. It was unsuccessful. If one instructor had 2, 3, or 4 successful grade appeals, that instructor would be called to the office immediately and questioned as to ALL his or her grades.

SO,

2) Department heads/chairs hate grade appeals, because they then have to have a face to face with said instructor and figure out what the hell is going on. They hate that. Trust me. But, if there were several successful grade appeals for one instructor, then she would definitely have been on the department radar, and it's likely that even a gentle push would have caused the chair to bend the (utterly arbitrary) appeal deadline (I've never heard of a deadline before winter break in any department anywhere, but I suppose it's possible).

MOREOVER

3) The last thing on the Dean's mind in January and February is a student complaining about a grade - and for good reason: if it were the first thing on the Dean's mind, the Dean would get nothing done during those months. The Dean, in January and February of an academic year, is concerned with hiring, tenure, and promotion; strategic plans; various educational initiatives and fund-raising imperatives handed down from the President; budgets; staffing.

THAT SAID

4) Constantly bothering the Dean about a grade will cause the Dean to angrily phone the department chair/head, who will in turn angrily summon the instructor and demand an explanation about why little Suzy is bothering the Dean, and therefore why the Dean is bothering the department chair/head. To grease the wheels of this mighty machine of checks and balances, in other words, you need a monumental capacity for nagging, showing up, knocking on the door, reminding, cajoling, annoying, and otherwise irritating.

POINT BEING: There are checks in place. But they do not come to you.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

60. I did follow up!

A system by which persistant harrasment is required to get a result is not accountability, that is the DMV.

and I did follow up, but by the time I crossed the stage it was still "pending business" for the academic council, and even then the absolute worst thing the academic council could have done because she had tenure was censure her, which basically ment they would have sent her a three paragraph form letter expressing concern as to the professors adherence to the schools principles of academic freedom.

Which she would have just seen as a result of the imaginary mysoginists she saw in everything trying to hold down a women academic. She was as crazy as Joe McCarthy. I doubt there are more than 2 or 3 women on this entire website that would be met with her approval.

[Alexander]

42. Many classes count participation as part of the grade.

In fact, I would hope most professors would grade on more than just written assignments. The opposite happened to me, I got an A when I didn't really feel it was warranted; after calculating my final grade I expected a B+. Yet my transcript showed an A in all its glory, and after re-reading the syllabus I realized that she must've really liked my contributions to the in-class discussion for me to get such a grade.

What sounds "weakly plausible" may have been the teacher's attempt to get his students talking. Just as you wouldn't assume innocence or guilt with the Duke lacrosse student, I wouldn't assume your teacher was in the wrong to give you a B.

[brentspeak]

43. Well, of course, YOU couldn't assume his professor was wrong to give him a B

because you have absolutely no knowledge of or connection to the incident. But who's asking you, anyway? I'll take the other poster's word for it that the B was undeserved, thanks.

[alcibiades_mystery]

47. Huh?

:shrug:

I will never understand the indignation met by those who ask innocuous questions about another poster's claims. It's not clear that we should take anyone's woprd for anything, and it's perfectly reasonable and civil to politiely point that out. Why the hostility, brent?

[brentspeak]

71. The other poster has a history of patronizing posts

Your posts, AM, I respect. But the other guy's...

[Alexander]

50. I don't assume anything. BTW, it's "her" professor.

You apparently assume superconnected is male. Pot, meet kettle.

Professors have their reasons for giving grades. Some are valid, some are not.

Since superconnected was chiding ("chiding" is too nice a word) me for "assuming" the professor was in the wrong (which I didn't), I in turn replied that she could not assume her previous professor didn't have a good reason for giving her a B. What she saw as a weak excuse could've been something entirely valid, or maybe it really was a weak excuse.

The lesson, as another poster pointed out, is that jumping to conclusions is a bad idea - however it seems posters like superconnected and you would rather hypocritically preach the lesson to others than learn it for yourselves.

Nobody's asking you to chew me out, either. If you don't like what I'm saying you can ignore me or go away, both of which I invite you to do.

[alcibiades_mystery]

46. The correlation between students who do well on papers

And students who do well in class participation is really remarkable. I've had a few who slinked back down to an A- on the basis of saying nothing in class, but usually it's a way to move the grade up. After all, a students who participates regularly is not only reinforcing his or her own grasp of the material, but helping others in the class reinforce theirs. That's to be commended and rewarded. (It's also a Zone of Proximal Development thing...:-))

[Alexander]

53. It's amazing what participation can do for one's grade.

Another class I was taking at the same time was heavily based on participation. Unfortunately a lot of students took this to mean "say anything just to be heard, so your grade will go up".

The first several weeks I was mute the whole time. But I did observe who else was talking, and quickly differentiated between those who had something meaningful to contribute and those who just blathered on endlessly for the participation points.

Well, about halfway through the class I started participating. But I didn't do it excessively; I was careful to speak up only when I really had something to say.

Towards the end, one of the in-class discussion points I made was challenged by another student. He clearly hadn't read the material, was not carefully watching the film in question and probably didn't even pay attention to what I said. He disagreed but didn't really have a coherent, well-thought out reason for it. The professor chimed in and openly agreed with my statement, repeating facts I had just stated 2 minutes ago as the reason why.

I didn't say much in that class, even though participation was a whopping 30% of the grade, but I ended up with an A regardless. Participation works both ways.

[alcibiades_mystery]

56. As I always say

It's quality, not quantity (but - big proviso - quantity has a tendency to improve quality: making points in public teaches you how to better make points in public, which is almost axiomatic).

[AngryAmish]

65. I hated talking in class

I'm pretty shy so it was very hard. Plus those who do "participate" tend to blather on endlessly without making a lot of sense just to hear themselves talk. Blowhards can make a "participation" based grading system an exquisite torture for those forced to listen to them.

I much preferred the courses where if one read the course material and attended the lectures then one is tested. I find classroom debate mostly worthless in a technical field. Debating ideas in a philosophy class (for example) would be ok but it is not for me.

[alcibiades_mystery]

66. I agree about field specification

I wouldn't say worthless in technical fields, but worth less.

Yes, some students are shy, and it's something to be taken into account. I also use online discussions - where shy students tend to excel (like yourself, there, Angry). Of course, shy students can also add their resentment into their perception of other students, and tend to represent participation as "endless blather" - sometimes because they can't do it themselves. That's what I've found: shy students rolling their eyes at well-articulated, cogent points made by students who participate a lot. So, I take with a grain of salt the proclamations from non-participaters that the participating students have nothing of interest to say. It often says more about the accuser than the accused. That said, there are certainly students who blather on for the participation grade, but good teachers know how to manage classroom dynamics on that, and even the most senseless blatherer can be brought into productive dialogue.

[AngryAmish]

68. On-line discussion a good idea

We did not have those back in the 80s (but we did have big hair and Miami Vice!)

Most of the eye rolling is because of even a well thought out point and or question means the class goes longer. I would much rather leave class early then listen to a classmate (again my undergraduate work was mostly in a technical field so questions and opinions from a classmate was very often not useful). One could get a feel after a few classes if the discussion was worthwhile. If the lecture was over and the class devolved into a worthless discussion I would just leave. Rude, yes. But those discussions were torture.

[alcibiades_mystery]

69. Perhaps that was the eye-rolling in your specific case

I've watched this from the lectern for a number of years.

Then again, I'm in the humanities. The mode of inquiry IS the course content, to some extent. It's not a question of depositing "technical knowledge" into the open brains of the students (the banking model). I've done enough interdisciplinary work with my friends in engineering, information science, and biology to know that the mode of inquiry is also crucial in upper level courses in those fields (yes, lower level courses generally work - and probably must work - on a banking model of education).

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. Riiiiight.

[alcibiades_mystery]

48. She's a FEMINIST professor, doncha know!

I wonder how many "non-feminist" female professors you'd find in any humanities department at Duke University...or anywhere else for that matter. :rofl:

[DumpDavisHogg]

52. Athletes are privileged...

Student athletes are coddled at almost every school in America, from grade school up through the college level. I've personally witnessed numerous instances where special accommodations were made for athletes, often at the expense of other students. And now, when an athlete gets treated the same as everyone else, they go crying like a big baby.

In most cases, the non-athletes should be the ones suing for being held to a higher standard than athletes.

[fishwax]

58. Looks to me like his assignment grades were marginal and he missed 20% of the classes

A failing grade seems pretty reasonable to me.

[HuffleClaw]

59. boy howdy, if this guy had been complaining about a RIGHT WING

prof you'd be singing a different tune.

[piesRsquare]

62. I wouldn't be chiming a different tune...

Sixty grand because he got a "D"? Give me a fucking break! He graduated---time for him to grow up and get a life!

[fishwax]

74. welccome to DU piesRsquare

:hi:

[cap]

67. I'm wondering how much of this is being pushed as part of a RW attack

on affirmative action. I am not sure whether the student has a complaint or not but I am getting a definitive chill in the air.

[entanglement]

70. I predict his F will remain an F

n/t

[struggle4progress]

76. The university changed F to D, citing miscalculation.

[SayWhatYo]

79. That makes me think....

that makes me think that someone else reviewed the guys class work, and decided he deserved a FAIL, but they wanted to try to make it go away... Maybe I'm wrong though...

[nealmhughes]

75. When I was grading for a 101 and 102 class, I graded the essays blind.

I had no idea who I was grading, nor even what section they were in in the class. The scantron machine was "blind" too for the matching/multiple guess portion the professor loved so much. The only correlation to name was attendance (which counted at both lecture and sections) and an up or sideways or down arrow at discussion time in sections.
The discussion was basicly only about 5% of the grade overall, so only that part was subjective. For the essays, I actually graded them by use of the indicated source documents, arugumet, proper format, correct formal English structure, etc. So they were a bit subjective, but I had a formula and always told the essay writer why they got what they did. Obviously, correct use of the sources and argument counted more than the grammar and format. In fact, the first essay was graded very harshly, then I told them all to rewrite it using my suggestions and then graded them again and that there would be no more second chances.
I loved to grade blind -- that dull blank hungover stare with baseball cap down over the forehead dude might just be going thru a rough long weekend with his new pals Bud and Miller -- and much to my surprise, not a dullard at all.
One of my "worst" students was in reality one of the nicest guys I ever met out of all 15,000 undergrads on the campus. He was NOT "college material" and was on an athletic scholarship. I hated to fail him, but he could not grasp the use of source material and argument. In fact, I didn't fail him. I encouraged him to take the class at the local community college and to drop mine. His father came to see me after he passed with a C in my class 2 semesters later and drove his big rig minus the trailer onto campus! He wanted to thank me in person for my taking an interest in his son's education, and that he was not doing well with the athletic program and studies combined. I told him I realized that, as I had kept tabs on him since he dropped my class, and he had improved markedly, but that he might be happier not in school, rather in a technical field, as he looked absolutely miserable and a cohort of his on his team told me he had an ulcer from worrying over both. We went out for coffee and the son joined us. He went back to the community college and is now a very successful CAD guy who loves his job and plays his sport with other local guys not under any pressure, but for the love.
The moral of all of this: most college students are only 18 when they enter school. They go thru a ton of image changes from Deadhead to athlete to rocker to artist in a few months! It is fun to watch them finally settle down into a young independent adult. But one has to be fair and caring -- even college seniors and juniors need a bit of advice and understanding now and again, and one can never be too fair when grading.

[SayWhatYo]

78. If he can prove it then so be it...

However, the article doesn't say exactly why he feels he was targeted by her... If she can justify the grade then "waaaaah"...

My first instinct is that he's just trying to get out of the failing grade, but I may be wrong.