I'm Depressed, Not a Good Start

[innen_oda]

I'm in an ASU EA course right now (FSE100) that has gone off the rails. Grading for a major project is broken, and the TA decided to "solve" the problem by giving everyone zeros on part of it with a vague comment. There also was absolutely no communication to us about it. Predictably, this resulted in many angry people. The discussion boards have broken out in revolt. The poor TA is belatedly trying to clean up their mess, but they still don't understand why everyone is upset. I'm abandoning the course, as this is far too much drama and effort for a two credit class that I don't need.

That sounds horrific. When you say broken grading, do you mean students can't submit assignments through the system? And so they received zeros? Eesh. I had been thinking about taking that course next time it's on offer, although 15 weeks of work and 425USD for 2 credits isn't super appealing. But if students can't even submit work, I'll definitely be spending my money elsewhere.

I was in one of the Intro to Sociology offerings at ASU last year. One week's discussion involved sharing our opinions on gay marriage (or something like that). Unsurprisingly, there were a few students who opposed gay marriage due to their religious views. I can't say I hold the same views, but they weren't rude, so who cares, right? We're not in North Korea, people are allowed to have their own opinions. Sociology is all about being able to understand human societies, and the people that comprise them, and so I would have thought an open discussion would be welcome.

Silly me.

One student took it upon herself (theirself?) to mark all of those posts as 'off topic' and reported them to the TA, along with leaving sneering comments underneath each of those 'wrongthink' students' comments. Amazingly, the TA reacted by pinning a post admonishing those religious students for sharing their offensive views and to be mindful of the need to be kind to all the myriad gay and transgender students who were in the class, reminded us all that she was non-binary or somesuch and so was also personally offended by their opinions, and that if those students couldn't be kind (I think she meant 'compliant'), they may find themselves removed from the course.

It was such a shocking and - frankly - egregious overreach of power, in a situation that genuinely did not require it. Combined with the condescension offered to those poor students who dared to hold a different view, really made me reconsider what kind of tertiary institution ASU was.