Can a college professor make their class as easy as they want?

I have a class right now thats easier than most middle school classes. Most people have an A, there are a few Bs, and many grades above 100%. Are colleges okay with a teacher doing this. Im just wondering if she would get fired if they found out what she was doing. Its a 3 unit general ed class at a community college that transfers to UC, and CSU, so its not like its a no unit class that doesn’t transfer. Just to give you an idea of how easy it is, i’m going to end up with over a 105% percent and i just show up.

Colleges don’t care. That’s the professor’s prerogative.

Departmental chairs and curriculum review committees might beg to differ.

Colleges may care, but they have many goals. And some classes are designed to just be a intro, give you enough to form a basis. Most teachers are periodically reviewed in depth. There have always been easy classes and kids who drift toward them, even back when we were in college. What you actually do with your own education is up to you.

Presumably, you or your parents are paying for the class you are taking. If you are not getting appropriate value for your money, you ought to complain to the administration.

Oh please, on the idea of the professor being a hired servant of the student and family.

There are easy subjects, enjoy the easy A. It will help you maintain your GPA when you encounter a difficult class or unreasonable professor.

^^ Right, there might also be other classes where few students get an A.

At some point the department head might become concerned after reading the teaching evaluations and might make some changes to the teaching assignments. So it would be great if you clearly communicated your concerns in the evaluations and perhaps speak to your advisor about it.

I spent two part-time and two full-time years at community college, so I have a bit of experience with a variety of professors. I think it is quite true that the professor can make the class “easy” by being very forgiving in their grading. For example, I took an introductory Java class and the professor offered so much extra credit, it was insane. On our midterm, my score was 150/100 and I thought it was a mistake! I didn’t have the guts to tell her. It just so happens, another student also got a score over 100 and informed the professor; the professor said she just likes to hand out extra credit. My final grade was something like 136%; so crazy. On the other hand, I took an introductory C++ course that had 20 students over capacity (students were standing up with laptops) and by finals, eesh, only 7 of us remained. I barely earned my A in that class. So yeah, some professors really can sometimes be a little too forgiving in my opinion.

Also remember that CCs have a broad range of students, and some contradictory goals. You - and others- in the class may be finding it at your middle-school level - but there may also be students for whom it is much harder, either because they aren’t as clever as you, or because whatever schooling they have had before has been so bad.

Especially in an intro level class teachers may be trying to build their students confidence, and/or most of the material may just not be that hard. You can be sure that at least at some nominal level a review panel has seen the course content and allowed that the material covered met the requirements for a GenEd course.

I had a professor once (at a 4-year university) whose class was known for being an easy A. He was regularly admonished by the department for giving too many A’s and eventually stopped teaching the class. So to some departments and universities, yes, it does matter.

It is likely different at every school, however, and may be different on the community college level.