Professor Fails Students, Students Tell Dean, Dean Fails Professor

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Oct 27, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

As a wise man once said— "There's always a bigger fish." But despite originating from one of the greatest thinkers of our time, that concept —that idea—has prevailed throughout human existence. There's always a higher power that we need to call to, no matter who we are: Such as a king—who holds supreme executive power because some watery tart threw a sword at him. 

The idea of being beholden to something greater was something that this humanities professor had forced down their throat after they decided to fail half of their class on a machiavellian final project that, bizarrely, seems like it was inspired by the Stanford Prison Experiment. The Standford Prison Experiment isn't supposed to be an inspirational tale to teachers for their next group project; It's supposed to be textbook for what not to do for an ethical experiment. Although, the idea of likening the SPE to group projects is extremely poetic. 

Anyways: Teacher fails students, students get dean, dean steps in and sorts it out. 

Keep reading for the screenshots and reactions. For more, check out this student who reported their professor (hmm, sounds familiar.) 

 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/Star_World_8311 19 hours ago Oh, you're giving all of us a failing grade on our final project? We're going to talk with the dean of the department, then. LOC TL;DR: Humanities profs think a simulated society project can only implode and try to give half of their students failing grades. We took it to their boss and got some of the grades reversed after someone got the teacher's guide for the project from the bookstore.
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 02
    Font - The background: My humanities classes were taught by three professors (team-teaching, lectures, small groups, etc.) and that worked out most of the time. However, our final project was a classroom simulated society and they split the class in half to do this. They told us all that we had to stay in the rooms in a portable and couldn't leave. The rules for the project were that the students were split into upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class groups with each group having an irregula
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 03
    Font - In the first of the two sections of the group project, all the students stayed the whole 4 hours and the project went about how you would expect it to go, with the upper class "ruling" the other two and taxing them in tickets. That section of the project was during the school day, between lunch and dinner. Our section was directly following them, so we couldn't go to the dining hall for dinner. We also couldn't bring outside food or drinks. I had to eat on a schedule for medical reasons,
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 04
    Font - The people in our section of the project were mostly missionary kids (I'm not, though), so we were mostly an idealistic bunch to begin with. All but one of the lower-class group left the building to go eat dinner because they knew they weren't going to get fed otherwise. They weren't allowed back in and got failing grades because they didn't follow the rules for the project.
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 05
    Font - The malicious compliance: The rest of us followed the rules to the letter, but did it our own way within the confines of those rules. The tickets got spread around mostly evenly so everyone could travel, have at least one food or drink for their class to split, and have entertainment tickets. When it got to be hour 3 of 4, our class started singing, "Show me the way to go home." We then started singing all the most annoying songs we could think of for the last hour. We absolutely drove th
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 06
    Font - The fallout: On Monday afternoon, we all came into the lecture hall buzzing about the two extremes of the project. The people who ran off knew that they were going to fail, but the rest of us in both sections were sure we were going to get passing grades. We were all told that the first section, the one that imploded, would get passing grades and the second section, the one that shared more equitably, would fail. One of my friends worked at the campus bookstore and knew that each stack of
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 07
    Font - Those of us who had completed the "failed" section of the project had the professors' words on tape because we were allowed to record lectures. We took that and the manual and made an appointment as a group with the dean. The dean thought that the profs had been utterly ridiculous and we got passing grades for the project. The profs tried to argue that there was no way that the project could ever have had that outcome, but the dean didn't go along with that. His answer? "You teach at a Ch
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 08
    Font - Naige2020 +1. 15 hr. ago I find it ironic that at a Christian University the group that adhered to Christian principles are the ones that were deemed to have failed. Reply Share 782 Vote Star_World_8311 OP +1 · 14 hr. ago Unfortunately, professors at religious schools as a whole are more likely to do this than at non-religious schools. All three of these profs were pastors, too. Most of the class ended up skipping out when they preached during the daily chapels for the rest of the time we
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 09
    Font - legs_bro 18 hr. ago edited 17 hr. ago Damn it kinda bothers me that the professors even got to keep their job. They shoulda been fired for trying to make students skip meals in my opinion. Reply Share Vote SporadicTendancies +1. 11 hr. ago Medical exemptions means exempt. They could have killed someone with that attitude. Vote Reply Share Vote abeeyore It's an ADA violation. +2.8 hr. ago Reply Share
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 10
    Font - Al_DeGaulle 18 hr. ago As a university professor I can't imagine how the profs thought this was a good idea. The ethics board at my school would be out for scalps, and they'd get them. Reply Share Vote Star_World_8311 OP +1 18 hr. ago One of the profs, especially, had a "God complex," so he thought he could B.S. his way out of anything, apparently. Idk about the other two, though! I found out later that the ethics board was told to keep tenured profs as long as they could, no matter what
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 11
    Font - ThirtyMileSniper +2 19 hr. ago This sounds unreal. Holding back students from accessing food and drink sounds like a liability for staff and the administration. It's a really bizarre situation. I can't see the malicious compliance here though. No one told anyone to go to the Dean or consult this manual. Vote Reply Share Star_World_8311 OP +1. 19 hr. ago The malicious compliance was following the rules of the project but doing it in a way that we knew they obviously didn't expect. We poole
    via u/Star_World_8311
  • 12
    Font - 01 NightMgr +3 10 hr. ago I'd go with malicious medical compliance. "Professor, I think you need to call 911. Lack of eating has made me very, very sick. I'll need an ambulance. Does the university have insurance for this kind of issue or will my insurance company need to sue you directly for putting me in this position?" Vote Reply Share Star_World_8311 OP +1.8 hr. ago Believe me, I was considering that before my group said we could do it this way. There were phones that we had access to
    via u/Star_World_8311

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

pro revenge professor students malicious compliance revenge petty revenge Professors
Scroll Down For The Next Article