Good point in general. In this particular case, however, Iowa requires too semesters of rhetoric for everyone. That means that they have something like 200 sections of rhetoric per year, so if the classes has even the same percentage of student complaints as normal undergraduate classes the department would be swamed with complaints. Of course in an environment in which the students had to make a real case for their complaints instead of the instructors having to "disprove" the complaints much of the cost of complaints would be shifted to the students. Complaints without a solid prima facie basis would get dismissed out of hand.
David Levenstam In a message dated 1/14/03 5:35:18 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >Also consider the possibility that many departments get budgets based on >enrollments - and tough grades scare students away! Fabio > >On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> In the Rhetoric Department at Iowa instructors who tried to actually >teach >> writing and therefore generated many student complaints were offered >out of >> their contracts--that is, forced out--because the chair and assistant >chair >> didn't want to deal with student complaints. >> >> In a message dated 1/14/03 2:17:30 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >> >> > >> >Has anybody tested the hypothesis that professors assign easy grades >> >because it sucks up too much time? >> > >> >Consider the costs of tough grading - spending more time correcting >> >papers, extra time spent arguing grades with students and the extra >effort >> >it takes to design challenging tests and assignments. >> > >> >Fabio >> >
