Liberties for Students Under a Wrongful Professor

According to the Student Handbook, there are a number of routes students can pursue if a professor isn’t doing what’s been laid out in curriculum. Beyond the curriculum, a professor who misses class too much abuses their duty to steadily educate and have a presence in the classroom, and have fair and balanced grading which all students are evaluated under and are entitled to.

The Student Handbook states, “Fair and equitable grading reflects values to which all members of the Plymouth State College community commit themselves.” If a student believes a professor is not living up to that statement, “students have the right to challenge evaluations of their work.”

Fair Grading’s sub-section, Grade Appeals, advises students who challenge a grade to “begin talking with the instructor of the course involved. If the situation cannot be resolved by that means, or if the nature of the problem precludes discussion with the instructor, students may bring the matter to the attention of the chair of the individual’s department.” Bypassing the instructor right to the chair is possible, but not recommended anywhere in the handbook.

The chair will then touch base with the instructor alone, or with the student included. “If these meetings do not provide a solution satisfactory to all parties, the question may be taken to the Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Studies where the matter will be reviewed.”

After this process, “regardless of the outcome, only the instructor of a course, using his/her professional judgment, can change a student’s grade.” This does not necessarily mean the matter is over. If the Associate Vice President is not satisfied with how the matter played out, he/she can ask the Academic Standards Committee to hear the matter.

Some examples of violations of the fair grading policy are as follows:

1.Allowing alternate work to substitute for coursework assignments, for a particular student or group of students, when that option has not been stated in the syllabus as available to all students.

2.Allowing a student to perform extra work, over and above that described in the syllabus, to influence her or his grade, when that same opportunity has not been made available to all students.

3.Allowing any student to perform extra work after final grades have been submitted to improve their grade.

The only exceptions pertaining to the above examples can be allowed, “where there are documented serious extenuating circumstances,” or if a student has a documented learning disability and alternate testing arrangements have been made through Plymouth Academic Support Services (PASS).