February 20, 2001

I am truly exhausted, but I have to share this letter I just wrote and e-mailed to my class:

>>Professor M:

I am enrolled in Prof. H's Media and Society class on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and I have a complaint.

Prof. H gave our class an exam two weeks ago. When the test was over, almost every student who left the classroom was grumbling about how ridiculous they thought the test was, how it was not based on her teachings, and how we were all sure we would fail. Sure enough, today we received our grades and more than half the class failed.

I personally got a 54. My sister receieved a 45. Another girl, notorious for knowing all of the answers Prof. H asks in class, received a score below 60.

This is ridiculous.

What is even more ridiculous is the fact that the professor actually accused the class of "not studying enough", and "not reading the chapters". Far be it from her to take blame for the test scores. When so many students fail, it is usually the teachers' fault, not the students'.

I was personally insulted. How dare she assume that a class of 100 college students didn't study? This isn't high school-- we pay to be here, and we pay to learn. Making the assumption that we "just didn't study enough" is truly a slap in the face.

I would've said this to her in class, but the professor wouldn't even entertain our comments-- she refused to let us talk about the test, yet she talked about how she felt. The class was livid. She said we could discuss this after class, but quite frankly, I couldn't see her changing her mind about this matter-- she had a real lack of compassion for the students' situation.

Furthermore, the professor mentioned that she spoke to her colleagues about the content of the test, and they said the test was fair. Therefore, she was convinced the test was fair, and that the students were at fault for failing, not her.

I have a problem with this because her colleagues only saw the test-- they did not see how she taught. They did not see that she failed as a teacher, they only saw the content of the test. Perhaps if another teacher had taught our class, the test would've indeed been fair.

I am requesting your consideration for allowing the professor to curve the scores, or give a fair re-test. What happened was not fair, and I will not let this matter go so easily.<<