Louisiana State University biology professor Dominique Homberger was dismissed from teaching her introductory biology course because 75 percent of students were failing, 8 percent had a grade of C or better, and a quarter of the students had dropped the class, according to The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student newspaper.
Following her dismissal from teaching the course, Homberger said the school was doing its students a disservice by dismissing her because it teaches them “to complain” rather than to study more, according to an article by Scott Jaschik on InsideHigherEd.com
The tests that Homberger gave were multiple-choice, but instead of having four choices there were 10. There was no curve — that is, until her replacement teacher arrived.
Professors at LSU have begun to worry about how their grade book will affect their job security.
“If you are a non-tenured professor at this university, you have to think very seriously about whether you are going to fail too many students for the administration to tolerate,” LSU professor Brooks Ellwood said according to Jaschik.
So is this a case of students being too lazy, or is it a case of a professor not teaching well enough?
Neither. The decision was not made by a thoughtful assessment of her teaching skills (the dean had never sat in on the course, nor had anyone else who might have represented the dean).
Instead, as Jaschik wrote, the decision was made by simply looking at her students’ first exam scores.
In the comments section below the online story, hundreds of people have voiced their opinion regarding the matter. Far and away, the most expressed viewpoint on this issue goes something like this: “Back in the old days, we used to have tests everyday and write 40 page papers every night. There’s no reason why these kids can’t suck it up …”
While I do agree with them, this decision was completely based on what the bottom line of the school’s income statement looked like. It is impractical from a business perspective for LSU to hold their freshmen to that kind of standard. The university has a plan to increase enrollment by 5,000 students every year for the next three years, according to documents found on LSU’s Web site.
I’m all for Homberger making the class hard. It’s college. It should be challenging, but think about it this way: Homberger would be getting paid regardless of whether she passed 20 students or 200 students, and the school recognized that having her teach a course like this was not in the best interest of the school’s goals.
So how can professors be assured their academic freedoms if there are enrollment quotas? I couldn’t tell you, but as one commenter put it: “It’s ‘McLearning,’ plain and simple.”
Cullen is a journalism junior. He can be reached at cmwheatl@asu.edu
