The dismissal of two professors at South Carolina's Benedict College due to conflict over freshman grading policies has sparked debate about the extent of academic leeway colleges should allow incoming freshmen.
The two faculty members, Milwood Motley and Larry Williams, refused to follow the college's policy of basing 60 percent of grades in their freshman science classes on effort, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Benedict College, originally established to educate former slaves, adopted the policy because of its open enrollment policy, which allows students to begin attending the school without the prerequisite of a strong academic background.
The college has received censure from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
"We objected to the dismissal of the professors," said John Kurland, associate general secretary of AAUP. "Under our standards of professional ethics, professors are expected to follow established rules unless the particular rule violates academic freedom," which, according to AAUP, this policy did indeed breach.
"Academic freedom is of crucial importance to society as a whole because without it, research and knowledge do not go forward," Kurland said. "There has to be academic freedom in order to move the world and move society ahead."
Kurland noted that the policy was implemented by the administration, and not by the faculty who teach courses and interact with the students. "The faculty did not have the opportunity to review or vote on the policy - it was imposed by the president, and never accepted by the faculty as acceptable for an institution of higher learning."
Tufts' Dean of First-Year Students Jean Herbert said a student's class year should not influence grading, and Tufts has no policy that aims to do so. "I agree with our policy of maintaining high standards for students in all years, knowing that we provide many ways to ensure that our students can achieve those standards," she said.
According to Herbert, Tufts has several other measures to help students ease into their freshman year. "We try to introduce the new students to professors and administrators so they will feel comfortable accessing the resources," she said.
Resources for freshmen also include small advising groups, peer tutoring, study skills workshops, and a drop period extended almost to the end of the semester, allowing students to remove the class if it proves too difficult without any record on their transcript.
Herbert also cited communication between herself and professors as helpful to identifying students who may be sinking under their workloads. "Professors let me know about first-year students [having] difficulty and I contact these students to discuss new strategies to succeed," Herbert said.
And widespread administrative regulation of grades generally does not produce the desired outcome anyway, according to chemistry lecturer Christopher Morse. "If you start making mandates to have a certain number of grades of a certain type, you make more people unhappy across the board," Morse said.
Rather, Morse noted that the "policing of grades is done in individual departments by department chairs."
Class year is also not always indicative of the quality of the student. "It really depends on the individual," history professor Ayesha Jalal said. "In some instances, freshmen perform better than sophomores and juniors," she said. "Generally speaking, seniors have an edge over them, but in exceptional cases a freshman can trump a senior as well."
But the work a student puts into a class is still valuable when in comes to relationships with professors as well as students' academic futures.
Morse pointed out that effort, though it does not necessarily translate into higher grades, did influence interaction with the student after the completion of the class, which is of special importance when it comes to post-graduate and internship opportunities.
"Faculty members end up having to write recommendation letters, and that is where those efforts seem to be reflected," Morse said.
"I've put in amazing letters for students who are pulling C's in my class [because of their effort and work ethic]," he said. I've also had A students who I told to ask another professor because I had nothing interesting to say about them."
According to Kurland, higher standards are necessary for maintaining the integrity of a college degree, and these standards can be reached by providing "various programs to bring them up to a certain speed."
"Universities won't turn out good students if they don't get a certain rigor of training. Lower standards for freshmen and sophomores will not miraculously produce students who, at the end of four years, have the training one expects of a bachelors' degree," he said
