Alumni co-write film about the Cubs’ David Ross
Volume 52, Issue 26
ColumbiaChronicle.com
Into the mind of the confined: inmates speak on isolation
PAGE 20
Tipping the scale Adjuncts accuse administration of demanding ‘unethical’ grade changes
AFTER A STUDENT missed 10 of the 15 class sessions for a course, adjunct professor in the Creative Writing Department Marcia Brenner gave the student a failing grade. Soon after, she said college administrators asked her to change the grade to a pass. The college’s faculty manual states that Columbia does not have a collegewide attendance policy, but most departments include in syllabuses that students cannot miss more than three classes before failing or facing an automatic grade decrease. Brenner’s syllabus stated that students could not miss more than three classes without automatically failing, she said. Apart from nonattendance, she said there were also coursework requirements assigned in the syllabus that the student did not fulfill to receive a passing grade. She said Creative Writing Department Interim Chair Tony Trigilio told her via email that the student had gone to speak with Senior Vice President and Provost Stan Wearden, who wanted to speak with Trigilio about the grade. Brenner said Trigilio then sent her another
email stating Senior Associate Provost Suzanne Blum Malley had presented an alternative method to resolving the grade grievance. Because of privacy laws protecting student information, Brenner was not able to share copies of the emails with The Chronicle. Trigilio could not be reached for comment as of press time. Brenner said she was then asked to give the student a new grade based solely on the five weeks of work the student turned in, which she refused. “To do anything else would be a violation of the syllabus and also, I felt, unethical,” Brenner said. “[Trigilio] assured me he completely understood my decision, but he had been told they will find another instructor to read the work and give the student a new, I assume, passing grade.” According to a March 14 email sent to members of Columbia’s part-time faculty union, Brenner’s situation is just one example of a concerning pattern of faculty members being asked to change failing grades. In the March 14 email, P-Fac advised faculty to not accept demands for grade changes, citing four separate occasions in which the college demanded grade changes, including one involving the Office of the Provost.
SEE GRADE, PAGE 10
» ARIANA PORTALATIN CAMPUS EDITOR
April
PAGE 4
10 2017
» PHOTO ILLUSTRATION ZOË HAWORTH/CHRONICLE