Follow Up to: “Students required to buy into more than textbooks”
Dearest Stateman,
Nice job on the article–other than my name being misspelled and a quotation of “50%” rather than “30%”–but that’s okay. However, I do regret that there weren’t some things emphasized and clear.
First of all is that this is a victory for the students! The main issue was that the teacher was docking our grade because we didn’t join the club. She wasn’t docking our grade because we didn’t know the information on the web site, therefore we wouldn’t do well on a test, therefore we wouldn’t get questions right, therefore our grade hurts. She was directly docking our grade to a “C” because we didn’t fill out a membership form and pay $50.00.
Docking a grade directly because we don’t purchase club membership is illegal, just as docking a grade directly because a student doesn’t buy a book. Christine Hult was correct in saying that, “…there is nothing illegal about requiring a club membership…” however it is illegal to make a percentage of a students grade directly impingent on whether they meet that requirement (though indirect grade effects may occur because students don’t know that information).
So, the instructor can make requirements to join a club, but can’t enforce that requirement by directly docking grades. Hence, Hult said to me in an email, “We have both spoken to Ms. O’Rourke and she agrees that she “mis-spoke” when she mentioned the impact of not joining STC on your grade. She retracts that statement completely. It is not directly related to your grade at all, as the grading scale indicates.”
So in answer to the question, “Can professors force students into joining clubs?” the answer is “NO!” The administration agrees with this and teachers who attempt to thwart it are reprimanded as happened in this case.
Even though Scott Lee agreed, “the membership was justified because there wasn’t a required text,” requirements to join clubs or buy books can’t be enforced by assigning them a grade percentage. Lee’s last comment leaves room for ambiguity that readers may get the wrong impression about, “it is a requirement, and if students fail to meet it they should receive a grade that reflects it.” Students shouldn’t receive a grade that directly reflects their failure to join a club. Students, administrators, and the instructor now agree with this. The instructor now must renounce the in class statement that “Student’s will receive no higher than a “C” if they don’t join STC.”
This is one rare situation when students challenged a teacher on their grading policies and students won! I wanted to write you about it because the article didn’t seem to convey this message as it could have. The article rather sent a message that students may not like joining clubs that their instructor’s require, but tough luck kiddo, you have to join anyway–suck it up.
I have recently been informed that students in this same instructor’s English 3400 class have been required to join STC as well. I’ve already taken this entry-level class. It is for students who are investigating the Technical writing program to see what it is all about. It has nothing to do with salary surveying, job searching, or peer-to-peer networking. It deals mostly with writing memos and using white space in page layout. In their best judgment, these students might not decide to join STC, unless the teacher has threatened in this case as well that their grade can be directly dropped to a “C.” What I want those students to know, and other students in that same situation is that it is illegal to grade them in that manner. They can challenge their instructor on this issue and talk the administration if they have to. They have the right to take the chance of not joining a club like many students do with not buying textbooks each semester. In my case, and in the case of those in my class, we haven’t had to utilize STC at all and not joining is in our best interest. We are free to make that decision for ourselves.
Feel free to use this or publish it in the opinion section as a response to articles published like you guys sometimes do. Also take liberty to edit or condense it. I just want others to know the real gist of what happened in this situation. Again thanks for taking on this issue.
Seriously Sincere,Aaron Stapleystap@cc.usu.edu