Professors must follow school grading policies

By Dena Elbayoumy
Daily Bruin Contributor

Professors may lose their jobs for refusing to change a
student’s grade. In a case currently under appeal, a
third-circuit appeals court ruled in April in favor of a public
university that fired a professor who did not comply with the
grade-change policies of the university.

The court concluded that “a professor does not have a
First Amendment right to expression via the school’s
grade-assignment procedure.”

UCLA falls under the jurisdiction of the ninth circuit court,
and while this decision is restricted to those districts bound by
the third circuit, it could be affected by “persuasive
authority,” according to law professors.

Professors are acting as the “university’s
proxy,” the court wrote and are therefore bound by the
university’s policies.

“It wouldn’t be technically binding to a university
like UCLA,” said Law Professor Daniel Bussel. “They
would probably take it into account in establishing
policy.”

The Office of the Dean of Students at UCLA has said it is
university policy for students to first appeal to their instructor,
followed by the chair of the department, where it will be decided
whether the grounds for the grade change are legitimate.

“My experience has been that the university has
established general guidelines while also assigning the professor
individual rights,” said communications Professor Timothy
Ketelaar. “Professors have a lot of leeway,” he
continued.

Ketelaar recently denied a student a grade change and was
investigated by the department upon the student’s request.
The department, who concluded that the grade given to the student
was accurate, had “no reason to believe that there was an
error made.”

This decision may bring academic freedom into the crossfire
because the court asserted “the assignment of the grade is
subsumed under the university’s freedom to determine how a
course is to be taught.” This means that students are
essentially obligated to comply with the university’s, not a
professor’s, grading policy.

This new court decision is hard to swallow for the American
Association of University Professors.

“This decision runs contrary to accepted academic practice
and AAUP policy, where faculty members evaluate student course work
and assign grades,” said Donna Euben, counsel to the
association.

The ruling conflicted with previous court decisions that have
recognized the right of professors to assign grades as a part of
their academic freedom, she added.