Page 4
The Behrend Beacon
Professor believes stand on grades
nearly cost him tenure
by Philip Walzer
The Virginian-Pilot
Robert H. Holden’s freshman history course "Latin
America in a World Setting” had the lowest average
grade of any liberal-arts class at Old Dominion Uni
versity last school year. It was 1.1, barely above a
“D.”
In one course section, 16 of 21 students failed.
That's much higher than his usual failure rate, but
Holden said he had no choice. “The students were
just not prepared for this course," he said. “If 75 per
cent earned an F, they had to get an F. It would have
been dishonest to give them anything else."
But his uncompromising views on grading, Holden
believes, almost doomed his shot at tenure in 1999.
Tenure virtually guarantees lifelong job security at a
college.
A faculty committee from the College of Arts and
Letters, in a 5-4 vote, recommended against grant
ing Holden tenure, saying his “teaching style has not
meshed with student expectations.” But the
committee’s recommendation was overruled by his
dean and the university’s provost.
As Holden sees it, his experience is a cautionary
tale for professors worried that tough grading will
trigger harmful student reviews and hurt their careers.
Holden said he took a big risk. “I decided when I got
here that I would not be changed by the student evalu
ation process.”
Holden provided copies of the recommendations
from the faculty committee, dean and provost. The
committee called his “research output” impressive,
but cited “consistently low to average” student evalu
ations.
Though the panel called Holden “a devoted
teacher,” it said: “His efforts to improve do not seem
to have resulted in higher levels of student satisfac
tion ... He does not seem to have yet developed
techniques of positive reinforcement that help stu
dents achieve those high standards.”
Heavy hitters line
up for support In
affirmative action
case
by Maryanne George
Knight Ridder Newspapers
An army of educators, politicians, corporation
presidents and universities will unveil legal briefs
supporting the University of Michigan's race-con
scious admissions policies Monday in Washing
ton, D.C.
The list of supporters includes heavy hitters
such as General Motors Corp., IBM, Microsoft
Corp., Steelcase Inc., the American Bar Associa
tion, the AFL-CIO and universities such as Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia and
Cornell.
The University of Michigan also will release
its own legal brief Monday.
More than 60 briefs signed by more than 300
organizations will be filed with the U.S. Supreme
Court by midnight Tuesday.
The court will hear arguments April 1 in two
landmark cases filed in 1997 against the Univer
sity of Michigan by three white students who
claim they were denied admission in favor of less
qualified minorities. The court will issue a ruling
by June that will affect college admissions
throughout the country.
The briefs supporting the University of Michi
gan will be disclosed Monday at the American
Council on Education’s annual meeting in Wash
ington. Beforehand, university President Mary
Sue Coleman will be the keynote speaker at a lun
cheon at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
David Deßruin, a Washington attorney, said more
than 60 of the nation’s largest corporations will
file a joint brief to voice their opinion on the value
of diversity.
‘These are global companies that deal with
people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and
ideas,” Deßruin, who is preparing the brief, said
Friday. "It is very important to them to be able to
hire a diverse work force of employees trained in
an academic environment that has exposed them
to diverse cultures. They share the sense of im
portance of what U-M is trying to do."
Sheldon Steinbach, the education council's gen
eral counsel, said his group, which represents
1,800 colleges nationally, will file a brief signed
by about 40 educational organizations.
"The ability to use race as a plus factor in ad
missions is critical to achieving a diverse student
body that is vital to the educational process,"
Steinbach said. “Other solutions don't work or
succeed, because of the continuation of segregated
schools.”
Last month, President Bush criticized the Uni
versity of Michigan's policies as quotas. He said
other methods could achieve diversity, such as
those used in Texas, California and Florida that
guarantee a spot at state universities to students
who graduate in the top tiers of their class. U.S.
Solicitor General Ted Olson filed a brief on Bush's
behalf last month, bringing the total filings of
opposition groups to about 20.
The dean, Karen L. Gould, and provost, Jo Ann
Gora, voiced a different opinion in their reviews. Yes,
Holden got low scores his first year at ODU. But
since then, his average scores on student reviews
ranged from 4.2 to 5.9 on a 6-point scale.
Recent negative comments, Gould wrote, came
from students in lower-level classes complaining
about “heavy reading assignments and Dr. Holden's
high grading standards." Other underclassmen
seemed to “appreciate being challenged,” and ad
vanced undergraduates and graduate students were
“virtually unanimous in their enthusiasm.”
Gora wrote: “I applaud the rigor of his require
ments.”
Both noted that Holden’s chairman also had rec
ommended him for tenure.
Lea Lukic, a freshman from York County, took
Holden's class last fall. She said Holden made the
midterm "as hard as possible.” She got a C on it.
He's “a good teacher who knows his information,”
but “he could loosen up.”
Gould, now a dean at the University of Cincinnati,
declined to comment on Holden's case. However, she
disputed the notion that low grading usually trans
lates into low student reviews.
At least two studies, though, give credence to
Holden’s fears. In 1984, two economists found that
“easier grading is positively correlated with teach
ing evaluations." In 1998-99, Valen Johnson and his
colleagues at Duke University surveyed 1,900 stu
dents before and after their final grades.
Most who did not get the grade they expected low
ered their evaluations, said Johnson, now at the Uni
versity of Michigan. Those who got higher grades
than expected improved their reviews.
Holden, now tenured, received no flak last year
for the high failure rate of his students. Still, he be
lieves his approach poses risks. “Professors get the
message very quickly that their main job is to please
students,” Holden said.
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