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I think these two sections speak for themselves: > "NYU had in Professor Maitland Jones a faculty member with a one-year appointment specifically to teach orga
by Y-bar 4y ago
I think these two sections speak for themselves:
> "NYU had in Professor Maitland Jones a faculty member with a one-year appointment specifically to teach organic chemistry," wrote John Beckman, a spokesperson for NYU, in a statement to Reason. "In one of his organic chemistry classes in the spring 2022 there were, among other troubling indicators, a very high rate of student withdrawals, a student petition signed by 82 students, course evaluations scores that were by far the worst not only among members of the Chemistry Department but among all the University's undergraduate science courses, and multiple student complaints about his dismissiveness, unresponsiveness, condescension, and opacity about grading."
> Beckman continued: So, what exactly would be the argument for renewal of this appointment? NYU has lots of hard courses and lots of tough graders among the faculty - they don't end up with outcomes like this. Surely, among the many things a university should stand up for - including academic freedom, academic rigor, and a robust research enterprise - one of them should be good teaching. Good teaching shouldn't be pitted against rigor as an excuse for poor teaching; good teaching and rigor are perfectly compatible, and the latter is not a threat to the former at NYU.
- rahimnathwani 4y ago"NYU had in Professor Maitland Jones a faculty member with a one-year appointment specifically to teach organic chemistry," wrote John Beckman The statement is factually correct but misleading. He's been at NYU since 2007. Given he's on a one year appointment, I guess he's been re-hired 14 times.
- mcguire 4y agoThat seems to be the case, yes.
- glofish 4y agoWhen a professor gets the worst course evaluation scores among all courses at a university - just about always it means that there is a problem with the lecturer.
- generationP 4y agoCourse evaluation scores are always significantly worse for courses that students have to take than for courses that students take on their own volition. Service courses (i.e., courses that are prerequisites for a different department) get the worst ratings. Any good department knows to account for this skew when it judges lecturers.
- whimsicalism 4y ago100% this. This was by far the most valuable lesson I learned in college when picking courses - you have to consider who is taking the course when thinking about evaluation. This "service courses" effect is, in my experience, by far the most strong for premed students as well.