A New York University professor who was fired after students complained that his classes were too difficult says the university needs to “show a little tough love” to its students.
Maitland Jones Jr., 84, a former New York University chemistry professor, was fired from the university in August after students complained that his course was too difficult.
According to The New York Times, the petition said, “We are very concerned about our scores and have found that they do not accurately reflect the time and effort put into this class.
“With such high dropout rates and low grades, it is very important to recognize that this failure to prioritize student learning and well-being is having a negative impact not only on the chemistry sector, but on the institution as a whole.” recommended,” the petition said.
NYU fires chemistry professor
In comments to The New York Times, Jones said he saw a decline in attention from students nearly a decade ago, which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They weren’t coming to class because they could count houses,” Jones said.
In a Boston Globe op-ed on Thursday, Jones said university deans need to learn how to “pamper their students.”
“Significantly, there is a growing number of administrators, large and small, who often lack expertise in a particular subject matter, so they need to learn to support faculty away from purely academic matters.” “Deans must learn to pamper their students for tuition and apply a little bit of tough love. They need to be part of the community in times of conflict.” and create those educable moments.”
In an op-ed, Jones said he saw signs of “trouble” before COVID-19.
The professor found that most students could not distinguish between the U.S. and Russian constitutions
“Even before COVID-19 disrupted the classroom,, There were signs of trouble. I came to New York University in 2007 After 43 years of teaching and research at Princeton University, where I had both a tenure and a donated chair,” Jones said. I was able to solve the problem with a small group and transfer to another university. ”
“All was well at first, as students were thriving in the problem-solving environment and young faculty started adopting it. ‘he added, saying COVID-19 then struck. .
“Exams that were supposed to be B-average dropped to C- or lower. Single-digit scores became commonplace, and even zero on exams that hadn’t been there before.” , Malesic speculates about the causes (screen time, COVID-induced remote ‘learning’) and suggests that by continuing to downplay the course we’re doing no one any favors. I totally agree, but I have to admit I was guilty of some grade inflation.
Jones said that not only had he been “wrongfully treated”, but that he had “not been seriously damaged in reputation as a chemist and educator”.
A spokesperson for New York University disagreed with the assessment, saying his class had “extremely high student dropout rates” and “by far the worst assessment scores” among undergraduate science courses at the university. .
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“In short, he was hired to teach, but was unsuccessful,” the spokesperson said. “NYU has a lot of difficult courses, and there are a lot of tough graders among the faculty. Nothing like this class that calls into question the quality and effectiveness of teaching.”
Jones also taught at Princeton University for 40 years.
Fox News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.