Report Professor Misconduct: Seeking Justice for Unfair Grading

[Walrusaaa]

I took a grad class last semester. The syllabus states that there will be hw+exam and they count 40% of our final grade. The other 60% of final grade are just discussion+presentation. We had 3 exams and 1 homework in total. The professor never returned them back to the students nor told us our scores. At the end of the semester I received a B from the professor. I believe there is some academic misconduct based on the facts:
1. The professor's grad student (my friend) told me that he had never graded our exams or hw. The first exam even got stolen before he had a chance to look at it but he never mentioned this to us in class.
2. He gave 4 A and 8 B in total. There were 3 Americans and 9 Asians in the class. All Americans and 1 lucky Asian dog got A. I guess his grading strategy was giving Americans A so they can keep quiet, Asians can simply suck everything. BTW, the professor is Asian.
I want to report him to the department. The problem is nobody will probably stand out to accuse him except myself. Most students who get B are his grad students (I am not) meaning they get paid from him. My only chance to win this case is to proof that he didn't follow his syllabus by failing to grade any work. 60% of the grade is subjective so there is no way to prove I did better than the A students. I want to simply ask him for all my homework and exams back to prove he didn't grade them but I think he would just say he left them at home and would bring them back to me later. Then he will get time to make up things according to the grades he already gave.
What should I do to make sure he get punished?

 

[Vanadium 50]

What should I do to make sure he get punished?

Get some evidence. You've made a lot of accusations without any.

 

[Choppy]

It sounds like you're basing this on hearsay and circumstantial evidence. To an outside observer it looks like you got a B and you're upset.

• What did the professor say when you asked him to return your homework during the course?
• What did the professor say when you asked him for your exam marks?
• Did you ask for clarification on the discussion or presentation marking scheme?
• Ultimately did you learn what you needed to learn in the class?

A goal to punish someone is usually not going to go very far. You'll get further if you focus on fairness and improving the quality of the course.

 

[micromass]

Are you a grad student?

 

[Ngineer]

The practice of foreign professors grading local students favorably and screwing the others is common in my school. In at least two instances I had pretty solid evidence of this.

Unfortunately, what can be done also depends on your school as well. They could be aware of serious misconduct and choose to not do something about it.

 

[DrSteve]

What should I do to make sure he get punished?

Please disabuse yourself that someone's going to get punished. You seem to be conflating (perhaps) poor classroom management skills with (unlikely) racist practices. Even if it were true there is no "victory" for you. The best you could do is to nonchalantly ask him for your homework and exam, stating that you like to keep them for future reference. If he does not produce them I would let the whole thing go.

 

[Jody]

The entire class got A's and B's? That's insane. Some of my coursework has an average grade distribution of a D+, and 20 ~ 30% students receiving a failing grade is not unusual at my institution. Even our GE coursework can be a pain in the ass.

I honestly don't think your professor would get in trouble. Pulling the racism card would be difficult to prove, and especially if it's a discrimination against his own culture, nationality, ethnicity, etc. It's also way too subjective.

Like others said above: You're going to need a lot of objective evidence. His lack of documentation is not very good on his end (I agree to this extent), but whether or not he'll get in trouble will likely be based on the school's policies should any exist; also, I don't think he would get in much trouble even if they did have something on it. I have a family member who is a professor and they've told me that their institution requires them to keep 5 years worth of documentation, but I've seen other professors with empty offices who inferred to me that they could pretty much do whatever they'd like, and they often seek their department's approval or support before making more gray area decisions. I think another thing to note, like others, is seeking a way to be punitive upon a professor is a donkey thing to do. Based on what I am seeing inside of this thread, I am thinking this is definitely not worth yours or anyone's time and efforts, and it's best to brush it off and move on.

Honestly, I feel being upset over a B grade is a tad bit stubborn and over reactive.

 

[micromass]

The entire class got A's and B's? That's insane.

This is a grad class.

 

[Andy Resnick]

The entire class got A's and B's? That's insane. Some of my coursework has an average grade distribution of a D+, and 20 ~ 30% students receiving a failing grade is not unusual at my institution. Even our GE coursework can be a pain in the ass.

<snip>

I just want to make sure I understand what you are showing here- are these the grade distributions for the quarter you took the course, or for some other quarter? Who provides this information, and how did you access this? Can you obtain the grade distributions for any class, or only those sections you enrolled in?