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Update on grade strike

news.ucsc.edu

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Re: Update on grade strike

#31

Post by mrep »

swiley wrote: post #12
jlg23 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a student not hurt when given an incorrect assessment of their academic abilities?

Undergrad students? If it’s a CS class and not one of the intro to programming/algorithms ones you’re probably mostly checking if they read the book they were forced to buy (thanks ACM) so I would say it doesn’t really hurt them.

Depends on the school. All of my math classes and most of my CS classes at purdue were bell curved around like a C+/B- and you had to get a C to pass the class. Thus, a portion of each class would not pass and be effectively forced to retake the class to learn it better or switch to an easier major.

What schools do you have experience with? Also, never heard of ACM so I have no idea if that was used whatsoever for our classes.

Re: Update on grade strike

#32

Post by heligate229 »

acuster wrote: post #7

One of the better ways that occurred to me when we Cal grad students were protesting a couple of decades ago was, rather than withhold the grades, simply to give everyone an 'A'. That form of protest most directly targeted the institution since it simply affected its reputation. The students were not hurt, the grad students could comply with their obligations and move on. I am surprised that such an approach never to…

grade inflation at its finest...

Re: Update on grade strike

#33

Post by saagarjha »

mrep wrote: post #31
swiley wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Undergrad students? If it’s a CS class and not one of the intro to programming/algorithms ones you’re probably mostly checking if they read the book they were forced to buy (thanks ACM) so I would say it doesn’t really hurt them.

Depends on the school. All of my math classes and most of my CS classes at purdue were bell curved around like a C+/B- and you had to get a C to pass the class. Thus, a portion of each class would not pass and be effectively forced to retake the class to learn it better or switch to an easier major. What schools do you have experience with? Also, never heard of ACM so I have no idea if that was used whatsoever for ou…

> never heard of ACM

ACM is the Association for Computing Machinery. Hopefully someone mentioned it to you before you graduated…

Re: Update on grade strike

#34

Post by SilasX »

pmoriarty wrote: post #2

Some background: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxe45b/graduate-student-s...

Semi-OT, but I did a double take at this:

>Like the UC Santa Cruz strike, the UC Santa Barbara work stoppage is a “wildcat” strike, meaning that graduate students are acting separately from the United Auto Worker (UAW) 2865, the union which represents more than 19,000 workers across the UC system.

I thought that was a mistake somehow, but it turns out that, yes, the UC students are organized as a branch of UAW despite not being auto workers.

Re: Update on grade strike

#35

Post by ryandrake »

chongli wrote: post #30
pjc50 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Administrators, buildings, and sports usually.

Yes. A lot of donations to schools are earmarked for specific things like libraries and sports complexes bearing the donor’s name. The university is then forced to hire all kinds of staff to run and maintain these buildings, lest they ruin their reputation by allowing the fancy buildings to fall into disrepair. Donations that are earmarked to help students are in the form of scholarships and bursaries. To be honest,…

Can’t a school refuse a donation if it comes with undesirable conditions like earmarks for unneeded buildings?

Re: Update on grade strike

#37

Post by froindt »

chongli wrote: post #30
pjc50 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Administrators, buildings, and sports usually.

Yes. A lot of donations to schools are earmarked for specific things like libraries and sports complexes bearing the donor’s name. The university is then forced to hire all kinds of staff to run and maintain these buildings, lest they ruin their reputation by allowing the fancy buildings to fall into disrepair. Donations that are earmarked to help students are in the form of scholarships and bursaries. To be honest,…

>The university is then forced to hire all kinds of staff to run and maintain these buildings, lest they ruin their reputation by allowing the fancy buildings to fall into disrepair.

I talked with one of my professors at Iowa State about this topic. He said back in the day, donors only needed to pay the cost of the building and then the university would get hit with tons of maintenance and utility expenses.

For some time now, they have to donate the cost of the building and money for an endowment for expected maintenance costs and operating costs.

Re: Update on grade strike

#38

Post by tantalor »

acuster wrote: post #7

One of the better ways that occurred to me when we Cal grad students were protesting a couple of decades ago was, rather than withhold the grades, simply to give everyone an 'A'. That form of protest most directly targeted the institution since it simply affected its reputation. The students were not hurt, the grad students could comply with their obligations and move on. I am surprised that such an approach never to…

> comply with their obligations

It's a dereliction, not compliance. Your job is to sincerely, fairly, and justifiably assign grades, and not arbitrarily.

Re: Update on grade strike

#39

Post by cowmoo728 »

swiley wrote: post #14
praptak wrote: post #5

Students pay through the nose, grads can barely make ends meet. Where does the tuition money go?

The modern American university is extremely broken isn’t it?

Yale and Harvard seem to have hit upon a successful model. The university is actually a hedge fund that educates young people on the side in order to cultivate a lifelong client base of alumni and donors. It's ironic that the Mormon church seems to function the same way Harvard does but without the education component, just the social club system.

Re: Update on grade strike

#40

Post by dmd »

SilasX wrote: post #34
pmoriarty wrote: post #2

Some background: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxe45b/graduate-student-s...

Semi-OT, but I did a double take at this: >Like the UC Santa Cruz strike, the UC Santa Barbara work stoppage is a “wildcat” strike, meaning that graduate students are acting separately from the United Auto Worker (UAW) 2865, the union which represents more than 19,000 workers across the UC system. I thought that was a mistake somehow, but it turns out that, yes, the UC students are organized as a branch of UAW despit…

Union names these days are almost entirely historical.
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