Hey all. My university’s grievance policy is stupid vague (basically “if you think you were wronged let us know”) so I figured I’d cast a line here and get some public opinion.
I’m currently taking Organic Chemistry at my university. However, my professor has been utterly atrocious throughout the entire year. Below is a list of just *some* of the things that she has subjected me (and other classmates/lab partners) to over the course of the semester.
* This professor frequently placed material on exams that we either **never went over** during lecture OR that she *explicitly stated* would not be present on the exam. I have lost some major points to this; we had a 12 point alkyne reaction problem on a 40-point exam on **alkanes and alkenes**. We didn’t start the alkynes unit for another week. I can understand putting new material on as extra credit or as a challenge problem, but this problem was over a fourth of our total exam grade for something we hadn’t even heard of.
* This professor is atrociously organized. It’s not unheard of that she has given both me and my lab partners “missing” grades for lab reports that we had turned in because she lost them and refused to take a copy under her “no late submissions” policy. I already plan to take this up with the dean as I’ve lost nearly two lab letter grades to this kind of thing. I have timestamps on all my documents to back up my case.
* When individuals had questions on things in class that confused them, her #1 and #2 answers were “You tell me” with no additional info and “Go on Google if you need more help with it.”
* She published basically zero practice material beyond a single homework set per unit. For our most recent exam, she did post practice problems and an answer key, however the answer key was for the wrong practice exam and some of the answers on the key were just straight-up wrong, as confirmed by a biochemist friend who helped tutor me through this class.
I am considering filing a grievance against her. She has a history of this, too; two years ago she was placed on probation by the University because they took a look at just how many people were failing or barely passing her classes and agreed that she needed to get her shit together.