NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) — A graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oklahoma, who gave a failing grade to a student’s assignment, will no longer be allowed to teach at the university.
The student, Samantha Fulnecky, claimed religious discrimination after receiving a zero on her psychology graduate paper, saying she received the bad grade due to her referencing the Bible.
The assignment was to write an essay in response to an article. The article is research-based and called “Relations among gender typicality, peer relations, and mental health during early adolescence.” It’s authored by Jewell, J. A., and Brown, C. S. (2014).
It dove into “gender stereotypes regarding what it means to be a ‘typical boy’ or a ‘typical girl’ in American society.”
The essay has received considerable criticism from around the nation, as many have pointed out mistakes in the paper.
Fulnecky didn’t mention the title of the article; there were grammatical and punctuation mistakes, among other issues. She instead leaned heavily on the Bible and God, but didn’t reference specific verses. She also didn’t cite back to the article for the discussion too often.
The teaching assistant who graded Fulnecky’s paper mentioned at the beginning that the zero grade wasn’t due to her personal beliefs, but rather to the numerous errors made.
“I think I should’ve gotten a 100. I’ve gotten a 100 on every single essay I’ve written in that class,” said Fulnecky.
Included with the claim of religious discrimination, Fulnecky had filed a grade appeal following the situation, which was granted, removing the assignment from her total point value of the class.
During an investigation, the Provost and the academic Dean reviewed the case. They determined that the graduate teaching assistant’s grading was inconsistent with prior standards and patterns, according to a statement by the University.
Based on an examination of the graduate teaching assistant’s prior grading standards and patterns, as well as the graduate teaching assistant’s own statements related to this matter, it was determined that the graduate teaching assistant was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper. The graduate teaching assistant will no longer have instructional duties at the University.
The University of Oklahoma
Because this matter involves both student and faculty rights, the University has engaged in repeated and detailed conversations with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to ensure there is an understanding of the facts, the process, and the actions being taken.
The University of Oklahoma believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards. We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think. The University will continue to review best practices to ensure that its instructors have the comprehensive training necessary to objectively assess their students’ work without limiting their ability to teach, inspire, and elevate our next generation.
NewsNation local affiliate KFOR reached out to OU AAUP on Monday evening for comment, and they provided the following statement.
Essentially, nothing is new here. OU claims without providing any supporting or specific reasons why Mel Curth was removed. They have claimed in the past in press releases that this was due to supposed and disturbing claims of “religious discrimination” that clash with academic freedom. Is it now? Instead, they hide behind vague statements and essentially assertions of “trust us”. At this point, they need to show us and not tell us. And once again, OU is making an employment decision public, which is inflaming the situation.
Spokesperson for OU AAUP