Does it work?
I got completely shafted in one of my classes, and can prove that I did not deserve that grade. I got a C when, at the very least, I should have received a B+.
It was an architecture class, so its not based upon points, rather its based upon my professors opinion; the opinion of a professor who flat out hated me.
Am I fighting a lost cause?
I don’t think you will get very far with that, especially based on opinion.
it almost seems like it would something like a traffic violation where its your word against the cops and the cops always win unless you have physical proof. so ya its your word against his and you dont have any physical proof that he hated you, just your gut feeling. unless you do have proof then i would try to do something
I have a ton of evidence showing his inability as a professor. And I have a file with over 90 CAD drawings from this semester, which is a TON. Im going to talk with the department chair about it.
lol um, goodluck, but i don’t see this happening. like layzie said, its gonna be your word against his, afterall the grade was based on his “opinion” you can’t really contest that…
Yeah. I doubt the gradw will be changed, I just want to make a big stink…
i was in a similar situation two semesters ago too carl…for fucking “communications” my TA was a super-dick and i went to mehrdad about it and he reveiwed my drawings with the TA and got back to me saying he understood where i was coming from but the grades would stand and wouldnt disclose why.
so goodluck
What hurt can it cause to question it? Students at UB seem to permeate authority as well as a toddler trying to force the square cube through the oval slot. I’m not suggesting to throw a rally and storm The Bastille, but the students have this defeatist attitude that causes renegade professors that can’t teach to continually blame the students for being inadequate. Regardless of if he didn’t like you or not, basing your grade on his judgement of character is not what taxpayers are paying him to do.
Potentially a lot if he intends to stay in that particular major and he loses. Architechture only has so many professors. In some of the more specialized majors it’s not uncommon to have the same professor again for a later class, not to mention professors do communicate with each other, and the potential for problems to spread.
Take also into consideration that architechture (and most other majors dealing with “art”) are always based on opinion. So the professor’s “opinion” is a valid bullet in handing out a grade, whether or not you agree with it. That’s just the way it is in architechture.
He could fight it, but the odds are not in his favor, unless something ethically blatant happened.
My roommate had nothing less than an A- on all tests, went to every class, got perfects on all homeworks. Got a B in the class.
Emailed the teacher telling him he made an error, the teacher told him that was his grading policy he gets a B in the class
emailed again asking how he graded, teacher told him he gets a B and thats final
emailed the chair of the department, said its not his choice is the teacher gives a B then he gets a B
emailed someone higher idk who it was, and they said the same thing.
remember UB fucks you in the ass regardless if you do well or not…
Personally, I got fucked too. Handed in a paper, walked with the TA back to his office saw him put it on his desk. Went home, when the grades came back i didn’t get a paper, I talked to him, and asked him where my paper was, said he never got it.
emailed him after class i was furious, saying that i handed my paper back to him walked with him to his office and put it on his desk. He said he never received it, emailed the professor, never got a response. went to the professors office hours talk to him about it he told me he would look into it and email me by the next day, never got a response… blah blah blah more emailing
basically took an A and turned it into a B-, Turns out the TA lived on campus and his jack wasn’t working, such a shame “we were booked” to check his jack. and he had to wait 2 weeks 
I thought Carl was graduating anyway?
I fought an policy at USF about test taking while taking an online class, in the end I failed the class because of the stink I made, got a b and 2 c’s on the only three tests.
i’ve contested a grade before and won (got a B instead of a C) @ UB, give it a shot. doesn’t sound like there’s much to lose.
Well, Im too lazy to explain the situation, so ill post a draft of what I sent our department co-ordinator a while ago. it more or less sums up the issues I had this semester. (Brad = my teacher, Annette = department co-ordinator)
Myself and many of my peers had great difficulty with Brad this semester, namely the lack of attention he gave certain students. At the beginning of the semester I told Brad that I needed continual help to fully develop my ideas. Beginning that day, I did not talk to Brad for nearly four weeks, almost until the mid term review. I was in studio every day until at least 4:30, so it was not a lack of attendance on my part which caused this, rather it was nearly 2 hour long conversations with certain students during studio time.
Many times throughout the semester, Brad told me I had not produced enough work since previous discussions. This is because he never took the time to look at the work I had done. I have a file with over 80 individual CAD drawings, and numerous sketch models to show that I did in fact produce a good amount of work.
I understand that now is not the time to bring up these issues, I should have discussed this with you during the semester. What caused this apprehension was the fact that during one particular studio, Brad alluded to the fact that someone had raised issue with him to someone else in the department, and proceeded to more or less yell at us for nearly an hour.
Overall, I was very disappointed at this semester as a whole. We had a wonderful project, that I was not allowed to design. Rather Brad designed my building. He never let me explain my design ideas, rather forcing his own upon me. In one particular instance, he gave me some criticism on a model I made. I made changes to my design to reflect this, and then proceeded to expand further on his ideas. When he saw that I had gone further with the design instead of doing exactly what he told me, he said “If this was a firm, you would be fired for not listening to me”. This is school, this is not a firm. As far as I know, this is the place we, as students, get to explore our own ideas of designs, instead of being forced into someone else’s.
I apologize for sending you such a long winded commentary, but these are issues that I never got to address. Brad is a very talented designer, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for his ideas, but I think the way he conducts himself in the studio is completely inappropriate. The reason I share all of this with you Annette, is that you have always presented yourself as very open to us students.
Again, I am very displeased as I truly believe that the work I did this semester is not C work. I believe firmly that my grade is a result of a total and complete lack of communication between myself and Brad. I can honestly say that this semester, I did more work then I ever have before. I made every attempt to put forth my best effort, in fact in most reviews, I was usually one of a very few students who had completed all the requirements in terms of drawings and models, and received comments about this from Brad himself.
I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to read all of this, and again, I apologize for not bringing up these issues with you earlier in the semester.
Thank you
I dont know exactly how the class runs or how your projects were conducted, but the only thing i can add is that if you are writing a paper and your teacher tells you what to do, and you go off trying to be “creative” and not doing what the teacher asked, then you didnt do what you were suppose to and thus get a bad grade. Just looking at it from a different angle :gotme:
Why is it that when someone gets a grade they don’t feel is good enough they say the professor hates them?
PROFESSOR > YOU…at a large school especially UB they could careless about the Individual…that is y I transfered after my freshman year
I would have called to make an appointment to see this Annette lady. you won’t get much by just emailing a person. they need to see what kind of person you really are and they need to see the evidence that you say you have. before writing all that stuff to her…you should have asked to see her in person first. Makes a huge difference. at this point, you are nothing more to her than a junk email complaint. I think it is possible to get your grade changed if you do it right. Good Luck
I know Annette very well, and she knows Im not the type to make a big stink over nothing. It is a very small department, and everyone knows everyone.
I did however make an appt with her, and will be talking to her this week about this.
Studio works completely different. The administration was pretty pissed off to hear about this…
And FWIW, I really dont go to UB. I go to UB School of Architecture. Believe it or not, its pretty different. We have our own admistration, and never go beyond that…