Hate Your Grade? Take Your School to Court!

June 26, 2007 7:57 am     Posted in News  Jess - NYU g+ page

student.jpgI remember that one exam I bombed.


By Jess

Sauntering into the huge lecture room with confidence, I grabbed myself a blue book and 15-page questionnaire and found a seat. I had only spent a few hours studying the night before, but it was fine, because I was taking the class Pass/Fail, and had already secured enough good grades to keep me in the Pass range, no matter how I did on the final. Plus, it was Ancient Greek. Who does well on the final exam (which reviewed the entire year) in Ancient Greek? The coolness factor of learning a dead language wore off after the first couple of weeks, and by this exam, I was happy if I never say another Gamma or Delta in my life.

I proceeded to fail the final for three hours, and when finally satisfied with my poor memory and congregation skills, I passed the test in and walked out of the door. Who cares? I thought, practically skipping back to my dorm. No more Greek for the rest of my life!

The numbers came back, and I did indeed fail. Miserably. But as soon as I looked at my final grade, my nonchalance immediately disappeared. The Registrar didn’t have me down as P/F in Ancient Greek, they had me with a letter grade! A very horrible letter grade.

I was pissed, I was embarrassed, and most importantly, my workaholic status had been blemished. But what could I do? I had been an idiot. Twice. Once for never checking if the Registrar had my records in order, and twice for sitting in the back of the library and laughing with a friend instead of reviewing “Kronos and His Family”.

Little did I know, I could have sued.

This week, a 27-year-old guy filed a compliant against Columbia University for an F he received on a final exam. The nursing student claims he told professors he needed to miss the test to care for a sick relative, but when he came back, found that he had failed (in absentia, I’m guessing), and was cut from his program.

Nicholas Perrino claims the school ignored his appeals in the matter, and is now suing to get the F erased from his record, reinstated into his program, and have part of his tuition reimbursed.

If things really happened the way they did, I can understand the guy’s case. Real life should always come before school. But if he’s just BSing because he doesn’t want an F, he should cry me a river.

Nobody likes bad grades, dude. Even when they’re in Ancient Greek.

2 Comments on "Hate Your Grade? Take Your School to Court!"

  1. Nicholas M. Perrino says:
    Wed, 27th Jun 20074:58 pm 

    Thanks for the interest in this case. I’m actually the student who filed suit against the University’s School of Nursing.

    I did in fact inform the instructor of the clinical course in advance of my family emergency (5-6 days in advance…as soon as I knew why and when I would need to be out of town). Originally there was some confusion as to why I would not be present for the skills exam, however, after further clarification and discussions with the program director, it was agreed upon that a) I had a serious family emergency and that the precedent at the school was to allow students excused absenses due to these rare and infrequent situations and b) that a make-up skills test and date would be arranged for me.

    Such arrangements–that were to be made by the school–were verified via an email from the program director within a few days of my return to New York City. However, the school never followed through with its word and decided to simply fail me in the course nine days later…essentially stating that I did not complete the skills test.

    Moreover, another student in the class failed at least one part of the skills test. As per the course syllabus, she was allowed to re-take the appropriate testing. This took place the next week. The school could have easily informed me of this date and had me perform the skills at that time. In my estimation, the six skills on the exam would have taken one student approximately 20-25 minutes to perform. The preparatory set-up is also minimal and I even offered to set up myself because of the inconvenience.

    I attempted to appeal this decision to fail me in the course via a procedure known as an Academic Grievance. I was told in the summer of 2006 (immediately after being informed of this grade) that assembling such a faculty panel for a grievance proceeding was not possible in the summer–this is a direct violation of student policy at the university. All students are entitled to having a grievance hearing within 5-10 days of request. I later submitted another formal Academic Grievance via email (which was deamed an appropriate route)…but the school essentially ignored it.

    Any student who receives an “F” in a clinical course at Columbia University School of Nursing must be reviewed by the Committee on Admissions. This committee is supposed to review the entire academic record of the student, the circumstances behind the poor grade, and determine if the student should be allowed to re-take the course the following year. For some unknown and unexplained reason, this committee decided I should NOT be allowed to re-attempt this course.

    My GPA at the School of Nursing was 3.7. My GPA at the School of Public Health (where I was a dual degree student) was around 3.9.

    I appealed these decisions to the dean of the school and then to the provost/president of the University…both of which upheld such decisions.

    The skills test of the clinical course itself wasn’t even graded. I was essentially prevented from continuing on into the graded part of the course. This suggests per the student handbook that I should have been given an INC (incomplete) rather than an “F” since I didn’t actually fail any of the graded material.

    And lastly, had I known that my family emergency wouldn’t be deemed excusable (like everyone elses at the school in the past had been) and then unexcusable, and had I known that the school would lie about making “arrangements” for a make-up test for me and simply fail me instead…I would have withdrawn from the course. This would have given me a “W” on my transcript instead of an “F”, and it wouldn’t have counted against my graduate GPA. In that case, since I wouldn’t have received an “F”, the Committee on Admissions wouldn’t have to review my standing at the school and would not have been able to dismiss me for any reason.

    Ultimately, getting an “F” is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things (although is noting I failed a course for missing one 25 min. exam for a family emergency an accurate representation of my ability?)–but, I was then withdrawn from my institution. I was in school to earn my MS in nursing a practice as a nurse practitioner…now I can’t do that (and I was nearly half finished with that particular degree). The school and its officials have not listened to how ridiculous these decisions have been…I hope the court will.

  2. Lynda says:
    Tue, 24th Jun 20084:24 pm 

    Nicholas, after reading your summary of the events I have to side with you. Your case seems valid and Columbia University has committed a heinous error of judgement. I wish you the best with the outcome. Keep fighting for justice.

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