<p>I just received a series of very emotional phone calls from my daughter at UVA regarding a major lab report in which she received a failing grade. Her TA had significantly reduced her grade for stylistic and grammatical reasons completely unrelated to the technical content (she folowed the rubic in its entirety). Additionally, he then informed her that her failing grade would be further reduced by 50% because she had supposedly placed the hard copy in the wrong drop box (even though he sent out conflicting directions in various emails). She was in complete shock and called me looking for an appropriate course of action (the TA had refused to budge at all). I don't want to provide details of her argument. However, I believe that any reasonable person would agree that the logic behind the grade was fundamentally flawed. And to my question - what type of recourse does she have? Should she speak with her professor or someone else? Is there some kind of administrative appeal process should he assign her a bad grade as result of this? Thanks in advance for any advice that you may have.</p>
<p>This thread may be helpful to you. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1464000-recourse-bad-ta.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1464000-recourse-bad-ta.html</a></p>
<p>Hazel used to be a TA at UVa and Jingle is a professor.</p>
<p>Thanks Woosah. The link was very helpful and I will forward it to her. Almost without exception, she has had very positive experiences with her professors and TA’s. As a matter of fact, her math TA is absolutely fantastic. This situation caught her completely off-guard. I had never heard of something this outrageous and would never have guessed it could occur at UVA.</p>
<p>We used to have a regrade procedure in the class I worked in. Definitely contact the professor just asking for a regrade. It’s if that doesn’t work that she could escalate higher.</p>
<p>All my son’s science lab course experience at UVA is littered with stories like that OP. It is why the internet is filled with stories of students leaving the stem fields in droves. But the administrators in charge cannot figure out why? I guess they think students love getting grades that they do not feel are indicative of their understanding of the material but rather based on unfairly graded labs or a ranking system that pits one student against another. Hands down the reason my son has ZERO intention of using his science degree from UVA in the field upon graduation. The lab system is fundamental flawed at UVA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback Mamalumper. I have to be careful about providing too many details in a open forum. However, the TA sent out a very nasty and highly unprofessional email to his students stating that, among other things, the TA, lead TA, and professor would simply ignore any requests to discuss their graded work. Wow! this situation is rapidly deteriorating. However, I am confident that someone in the chain of command will find merit in her case (if someone will ever respond to her).</p>
<p>Sounds like someone got to the head TA and prof first. If a group of students goes to the professor and asks for a meeting regarding this TA, as suggested by Jingle (a UVa professor) I think that may make a difference. </p>
<p>I also suggest she bring a print out of the unprofessional email, for that matter all of the conflicting emails too, to her Association Dean (and the professor) and ask for advice.</p>
<p>It sounds like the department chair should be made aware of this as well. In other instances when students have stood together it has made a difference at UVa. Let your daughter know she is not alone and she should band together with her classmates. You can stand up to this type of ‘bully’ teaching style. </p>
<p>I agree Mamalumper, shame on UVa for allowing this to go on in a specific department. I get the weeding out process, but this is beyond acceptable.</p>
<p>I’m under the impression that many TAs do a great job as a TA because they want to become professors, and this is good experience for them. </p>
<p>However, in other fields, the TAs may mainly be researchers who look at being a TA or lab assistant as a major distraction from their research, and who only serve as a TA or lab assistant for the grad tuition discount. (Younger versions of Sheldon on Big Bang Theory?) </p>
<p>For those TAs, an organized set of students with a common grievance is the best approach.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights Charlie regarding the motivations of those serving as TAs. As I had stated previously, almost all of her previous experiences with them have been positive. When I went to college a million years ago, the TAs taught the labs but the professors graded all assignments thereby ensuring fairness in grading and consistency in expectations. With the decentralization of this function, the TAs have a tremendous amount of authority over their students, and with authority comes responsibility. Every student deserves to be treated fairly and to be listened to when they have legitimate grievances. This type of environment would not be allowed to continue amongst engineers and scientists in the work force.</p>