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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35401 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022

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Students get renowned NYU professor fired for giving low grades

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/nyu-organic-chemistry-petition.html

A quarter of students signed a petition that an organic chemistry class was too hard, and the professor teaching it was fired. The professor, Maitland Jones, had taught organic chemistry for decades, at NYU and Princeton before it. He had also written a widely used textbook on it. Causes cited include MJ being an asshole; COVID educational policies; and a general downward trend in student quality preceding COVID. One thing that isn't mentioned is that NYU adopted an SAT-optional test policy for the class entering in 2020.

This is why educational policies matter at every level. As a cohort degrades in quality, downstream institutions face pressure to adapt curricula and policies to satisfy those students. The next downstream organization then faces the same pressure. If the student was good enough to graduate high school, shouldn't they be good enough to go to college? If a student got into a university, shouldn't they be good enough to pass all their classes? If a student graduated from undergrad, shouldn't they have a shot at doctoral and professional degrees? If they got into med school, shouldn't they be able to graduate? If they got an MD, shouldn't they able to be a practicing surgeon?

Better question, after reading the archived article:

What educational policy are you blaming for this firing?

The professor in question identifies a decline starting “ten years ago,” followed by a bigger spike with COVID. And given that this is a junior class from Spring ‘22, those students would have applied back in Fall ‘19, before the change in SAT policy. Correction: if it's this class, then yeah, it's a 200-level.

Why do you think people took this third year? Weed-out classes are often done first year or second year, to give students time to switch away. (One student quoted in the article who had already taken it is described as a current junior.)

I am trying to find their course catalog online but apparently NYU has lent its brand name to more things than Trump has.

Perhaps I’m mistaken, then. My EE degree had its closest equivalents in junior year, even if there were lesser weed outs in sophomore.

Yeah, this one was taught by Jones.

Your link does not work for me, mostly because their IT systems sucks and not through any fault of yours.

I took Organic Chemistry I my Sophomore year and I vaguely remember I was taking it late. (I passed after a rough start because I needed to figure out what to study, which should not have been as hard as it was to figure out, but whatever.)

It was showing CHEM-UA 225 as taught by the professor in question back in 2019. Pretty good evidence that it is sophomore level.

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