The controversy continues over the decision to pull biology professor Dominique Homberger from instruction of a BIOL 1001 class suffering from low grades and a high course drop rate. After the American Association of University Professors filed a complaint against the administrators responsible claiming infringement on Homberger’s academic freedom, debate has raged over whether the removal was justified.The best place to see a snapshot of the debate is our Web site, lsureveille.com. The story detailing the origins of the debacle has dozens of comments from all sides of the issue, while the story describing Homberger’s response has dozens more.Students in the class argue the tests were confusing and far too difficult for an introductory, non-major class. Homberger and the AAUP argue the first test counted for barely a quarter of the overall grade and she was removed before giving students the chance to recover — which, given dramatically increased scores on the second test, is a chance she very possibly could have given.Both sides have persuasive arguments. It’s difficult to judge exactly who’s right, given the obvious vested interest of all parties involved and the murkiness of several of the fundamental issues the case brings to light.Should grades be a measure of instructor performance? From a purely utilitarian standpoint they should, given the practical career ramifications of student GPAs. Anything less than an A could potentially wreck an entire career for a student considering med school or a prestigious graduate school. And, while instructors obviously shouldn’t be expected to hand these students passing grades, it is perhaps too demanding to endanger GPAs with classes not central to the major. Besides, grades are supposed to reflect grasp of the material.That said, grades are only supposed to be means to an end — students don’t deserve grades they don’t earn. If professors are judged by the average grades in their class alone without investigation into student effort, grades become the end themselves, and classes are merely taught to meet a bell curve. And given the well-documented trend of grade inflation, those marks are becoming increasingly arbitrary anyway. Finally, the argument that a class should not be difficult because it isn’t part of a student’s major is questionable — if the faculty deems a class necessary for a well-rounded education, it seems necessary that class should be intellectually demanding and rigorous even if it isn’t necessarily vital to the student’s career path.The more one delves into the conflict over this removal, the clearer it becomes that the issues at stake here are central to what academia is all about. This debate is, at its core, a question of just how much a professor should expect from his or her students — and how the fulfillment of those expectations is to be judged.This is a complicated issue based on subjective values. And all of the parties involved have a vested interest in their argument prevailing. Professors naturally want the ability to teach whatever way they see fit, while students naturally want classes to be easy and low-maintenance.  For their part, administrators face — or thought they would face — more pressure from the students that pay their bills than the professors whose bills they pay. Judging by their outright silence in the face of pressure from the AAUP, it appears they remain convinced that is the right course of action. At least for now, it appears student voices have triumphed — for better or for worse.Matthew Albright is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_malbright.
 
 
 
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