I read this article with great interest, as it touches on a lot of the reasons I’m not teaching anymore: a highly respected professor of organic chemistry, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject, was fired by NYU because students felt he was grading too hard. (archive link) His students got together and petitioned the university and their response, instead of upholding the academic standards of the institution, was to end his contract.

“I think this petition was written more out of unhappiness with exam scores than an actual feeling of being treated unfairly,” wrote Mr. Benslimane, now a Ph.D. student at Harvard. “I have noticed that many of the students who consistently complained about the class did not use the resources we afforded to them.”

My experience felt very similar in the last two semesters I taught design: there was no desire to learn, just to get a passing grade to continue on to the next class. I’m terrified what kind of doctors this program will produce.