A philosophy professor at Queen’s College in Canada has been booted from the logic course she was educating owing to a dispute between her and the college’s Exams Workplace over accommodating college students who require the usage of a pc for taking exams.
It doesn’t appear that affiliate professor of philosophy Adele Mercier refused to grant the lodging. Moderately, it looks as if she might need been, from the viewpoint of the Exams Workplace, overly accommodating, although the small print are considerably unclear.
The next is from the Queen’s College Journal:
It began when Mercier determined to modernize her examination to accommodate two college students enrolled in PHIL 260 [Introduction to Logic] requiring a pc to jot down examinations. Mercier and [her TA Tianze] Chen labored all semester to computerize the scholars’ examination, utilizing a “cheat proof” software program. College students have been utilizing the software program all through the semester to finish homework workout routines…
On Oct. 26, Mercier contacted the Exams Workplace to tell them of the brand new format for the midterm examination. Issues arose when Mercier realized insurance policies restricted the Exams Workplace from permitting college students with lodging to make use of their private computer systems to finish exams. To stick to the coverage, the Exams Workplace required all [non-accommodated] college students enrolled within the course to revert to a paper-based examination…
In response, Mercier filed an official grievance, objecting to the imposition of “para-academics” to switch the examination format, citing infringement on educational autonomy and the opposed impression on college students who have been ready to jot down a computerized midterm.
Mercier advised the Exams Workplace regardless of their advisory, she was going to supply college students the choice of a paper-based or computerized examination. She maintained college students who required the usage of their laptops for exams can be allowed to take action in her classroom.
The Examination Workplace advised Mercier this wasn’t an possibility. They reiterated all non-accommodated college students needed to write a paper-based examination. As for accommodated college students, they gave her two choices: let the Examination Workplace step in, or privately administer the computerized examination assembly all the scholars’ lodging. Mercier selected the latter.
“We’d been reserving Gordon Corridor 400 for individuals who had lodging for personal rooms or dim lights or issues like that, and so they might convey their very own laptop computer to Gordon Corridor. We organized our personal proctors so that everybody will get to jot down the examination on the pc,” Chen mentioned.
As college students ready for his or her examination the next morning, they obtained an e-mail from Haley Everson, school affiliate director (educational consideration, appeals and advising) cancelling the examination.
Two days later, college students obtained an replace, apologizing for the disruption and claiming the school was “working with Professor Mercier and the Exams Workplace to arrange exams that meet Queen’s accessibility necessities.” They claimed the choice was made because of a scheduling battle between the examination time for college students with educational lodging and their different lessons.
In her personal e-mail to college students explaining the cancellation, Mercier advised college students the “para-academics [are running] the present now, not your professors,” and he or she was “gravely disturbed by ever growing infantilization of scholars, and victimhood-fostering attitudes in the direction of individuals with disabilities.”
The administration then changed Mercier and Chen with one other school member, Mark Smith, and mentioned that it “will enable college students to drop the course after receiving their ultimate grade with a full tuition refund.”
It’s unclear why issues escalated as they did.
The Journal stories that “a scholar within the class advised Mercier they withdrew their lodging as a result of they ‘felt the options [she] gave have been simply high-quality and particularly reasonable.’” One other scholar steered that “the state of affairs is probably an infringement on [Mercier’s] educational freedom.”
There’s some extra info here.
A few years ago, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ordered Queen’s College to pay Mercier $20,000 basically damages and $5,000 in punitive damages owing to the way it handled her after she raised problems with gender discrimination in her division.
