FERPA, anyone??
Apparently, a pregnant student's grade at UC Davis Veterinary School was put up to a class vote.
This is so wrong on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin trying to dissect all those layers. Fortunately, I don't have to. Or rather, I shouldn't have to. We have legislation in place for this shit. This is precisely the sort of thing that FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) - the clue is in the name, folks - is meant to prohibit. It does what it says on the tin. It protects student privacy. ALL students have a right to this privacy, and to fair grading, not a class vote, regardless of whether or not they have a fetus in their uterus. Her grade should not be in question, and neither the grade nor her pregnancy is a matter of her classmates' concern. Period.
The prof who put that out there to her classmates fucked up. Big time.
I hope that the student who has been subjected to this extreme violation of her rights and privacy gets a speedy and satisfactory resolution and I hope it is made clear to the prof in no uncertain terms just how badly he cocked this up.
h/t Isis
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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17 comments:
noo.... I hope this is nothing bad (go figure) but...
hope it gets better. and that it has nothing to do with paper.
Sorry for the confusion - Blogger got a little over-eager and published without the text at first - it's been corrected.
ahh... I see now.
well, I'm not sure what to say that I didn't say over at Isis... but something about "how he can be a professor and make deciscions by emailing the fellow class mates to decide over one girl" springs to mind.
Quite amazing. To even think that this would be a good way of "solving" it.
[I'm avoiding the whole locking in discussion since I know what they talk about but nothing can't be solved if you really want it to - but the main concern is "how you deal with stuff you don't want to deal with" - toss it to others...]
I made the mistake of reading the comments on Isis's post. This is why I don't read many of her comment threads: she gets too many trolls of the type that infuriate me. I don't need that kind of blood pressure.
Dude, I read FERPA. FERPA is a pretty damn clear prohibition of the publicizing of any student's grade by instructors or institutions. It doesn't give a shit whether you're male or female. It does not make allowances for grades that do not appear or have not yet appeared on transcripts. It makes no allowances for surveys of "class atmosphere" or "other students' feelings", either. People who argue that it does merely because they dislike Dr. Isis or have their authoritarian heads up their asses are morons of the first order.
If this is the level of fucked up bullshit that he felt comfortable and unperturbed sending into internet immortality, who wants to bet how horrible an environment the class was? Ridiculous
Yeah, I've taken courses on FERPA policies. It's really not a particularly complicated piece of legislation. Student records (including grades not yet assigned, and including health records - pregnancy falls here too) cannot be shared with anyone other than those on a need-to-know basis.
Those needing to know is a tiny tiny segment of university admin involved with those specific records, usually the course prof, and the registrar in the case of grades, and virtually no one in the case of medical history.
Those needing to know NEVER include classmates. Never.
This is truely dreadful. The environment of this classroom, indeed, school is appalling!
You can't even talk grades or records with PARENTS! I had to deal directly with a medical doctor about a student's issues, and the doc had to fill out FERPA paperwork from a dean before we could talk. This is why I hated it when helicopters called about their kids - no amount of I CAN NOT TALK TO YOU would sink in. Once the stu turns 18, info is off limits unless the stu signs their privacy away.
The concern by an Isis troller about "the patients" had me in stitches. Maybe the asshat should have polled the calves, kittehs, and goggies that would be the future patients?
Yo Buttercup, do you think the slutty slut slut who dared to give birth should get an A or C?
MOOOOOOOOO.
I only hope that someone with some chutzpah connects with the student to help her through this shit. I have written to a few people at Davis. I hope someone steps up.
jc
I just got a response to my letter from the Chancellor. She seems to be getting quite a lot of email about it, which she should be, and is talking as if this will be taken seriously. I really hope it is.
You've taken a course in FERPA, I haven't.
I have a question.
According to the original email:
For some period of the course, a woman in her 8th-9th month of pregnancy was taking courses. This is a woman in her 3rd year of a relatively small veterinary program with a small number in her cohort that have been with this woman since for the past 3 years, and all of her pregnancy, and presumably the time in her pregnancy (month 5 or later) that she was "showing".
These are veterinary students, most likely subject to advanced courses on animal reproduction, incuding, ... pregnancy.
Suddenly!
She is gone from class. The professor by some unknown process, available to unknown people learns she has given birth.
Here's my question:
What part of her being pregnant, being absent from class, having given birth was private information protected by FERPA?
Thanks! Love your blog!
Hey, by the way, more seriously,
The wiki on FERPA is inadequate by any stretch of the imagination. If you have any time whatsoever (and don't mind seeing your edits wiki-nazied by some ignorant "editor" somewhere), then you may wish to add to the wiki page on FERPA.
It doesn't matter that the pregnancy was obvious. Jesus Christ, there was no legitimate reason for this professor to have written this email at all.
Juniper, the professor didn't send the email. He asked the class presidents to poll the class by email. Bottom line: it's none of the other student's dogdamn business.
jc
Oops! Sorry. Will be more careful in the future.
While I dont entirely agree with the way the prof handled this there are a few things to point out. Once he has given a class a set of grading standards that class deserves to know if someone might be getting special treatment. If you can't adhere to the grading standards don't take the class. Furthermore, is the 3rd year of vet school the best time to get pregnant? Probably not.
Anon 5:02
Who made you judge and jury for when's the BEST TIME FOR A WOMAN TO GET PREGNANT?
jc
If she couldn't handle being pregnant and vet school one has to go. She knew going into a four year program that the number of students in each graduating class is strictly set to ensure a proper education. Falling behind by a quarter in vet school is simply not an option. If she needed special treatment due to her pregnancy she should have dropped out or sucked it up and taken the grade she earned. It's not fair to her classmates for her to revieve a special grading scheme for a CHOICE SHE MADE. So in my opinion she should have: not gotten pregnant taken whatever grade she earned or dropped out
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