Althouse: Management.

April 28, 2015

Management.

"A Texas A&M Galveston professor says he hit a 'breaking point' as he failed an entire class of students in his management course that he said required 'security guards' for him to feel safe teaching."

20 comments:

Patrick said...: I'd need to know a lot more about what efforts he made to manage the problem before he did this. Quote possibly, sone or many students deserved to fail, but all of them? There is a lot of space between "unruly class" and "everyone fails." Failing everyone implies that the students who were not misbehaving had both the ability and duty to control the others. Not sure how.; 4/28/15, 8:21 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Collective punishment is not a good way to run a college class. It's not the armed forces. The students can't control the behavior of other students.; 4/28/15, 8:28 AM
Wince said...: Strategic Management class.

"Strategery."; 4/28/15, 8:31 AM
Bob R said...: There is not a lot of detail in the reports I've read so far, but the collective F is at least one place where he screwed up. He may well have walked into a dysfunctional culture, but he hasn't handled it well.; 4/28/15, 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...: The topic sounds like a senior seminar or an MBA class. I would expect the class size to be small. I don't understand how he could not keep order or at least distinguish the performance of individuals. After all, Professor Charles Kingsfield managed :)

Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.: Mr. Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer.

James T. Hart: [pause, as he is leaving the room] You... are a son of a bitch, Kingfield!

Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.: Mr. Hart! That is the most intelligent thing you've said today. You may take your seat.; 4/28/15, 8:37 AM
Jim said...: This was a class, not a fraternity, therefore collective punishment is not appropriate.; 4/28/15, 8:41 AM
PB said...: They'll all get an A for having to endure such an action by the professor. They're entitled!; 4/28/15, 9:06 AM
madAsHell said...: The Texas A&M - Galveston.
First place ribbons for those that never stood with the 12th man.; 4/28/15, 9:09 AM
Dr.D said...: Wimpy administration is not supporting the faculty member. They will see more and worse of this sort of problems, all well deserved by this two-bit school. This is NOT the real Texas A&M (College Station), but a recent addition to the TAMU System. What a bunch of frauds!; 4/28/15, 9:21 AM
MadisonMan said...: I like that a Strategic Management Professor lost control of his class.

Leading by counter-example?

His mistake was bailing early. Why not stick it out for a couple more weeks and then fail everyone? The Professor (adjunct, I'm guessing) has a few bulbs missing from his chandelier, I'm guessing.; 4/28/15, 9:46 AM
TreeJoe said...: Sounds like the professor failed to strategically manage his class.

Seriously though, the news article is very deficient on any sort of facts. The professor's complaints are broad, but the statement that security guards had to be posted at the class is very serious and would require ongoing incidents posing security threats to the professor or students. That in and of itself represents that the class should either have students removed or that the class should be dissolved.; 4/28/15, 9:46 AM
Alan said...: Sorry, Dr. D, that's not entirely true. "Sea Aggies" have a different status. Galveston (and Qatar, for that matter) are actually branches of the College Station campus. Neither are entirely separate schools in the system, like Kingsville, Corpus Christi, Prairie View, West Texas, etc. Students from Galveston and Qatar are awarded their degrees from College Station. Students at Galveston are afforded the opportunity for full participation in non-academic life at the main campus as well (they can buy sports passes, etc.). Students from Galveston can readily transfer to the College Station campus if they wish to pursue a degree path not offered in Galveston.

Nor is Galveston a "recent" addition--it was established in 1962.

--Alan, TAMU Class of '89; 4/28/15, 9:51 AM
traditionalguy said...: The class seems more alert than the old proffesor. The lesson they demand be taught and learned is how to demand the good grades and the diploma for the high paying job, the one you don't have to work at very much.

It's the Affirmative Action Government Bureaucrat Track. But the students today are smart enough to realize that is their best hope to get a job paying over minimum wage.; 4/28/15, 10:00 AM
damikesc said...: The school already overturned his grades, but I am curious as to what the heck happened. The story didn't give great details.; 4/28/15, 10:50 AM
Fritz said...: Back in the early 70s, my Physics professor was denied tenure in the third quarter of a 4 quarter stint. For the final exam, the only question was "Tell me everything you know about quantum mechanics or, if you had to dedicate your life to something today, what would it be and why". I think I chose option 1, but I'm not really sure.

As for grading, he posted "I've decided to grade this class on a curve, and I've decided to give you all As." I was kind of gypped because I was getting one anyway, and this meant all the pre-meds I was beating got them too.

The new professor for the 4th quarter was really pissy about it, and took it out on us.; 4/28/15, 11:02 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: It's almost as though the article was written to avoid giving the information the reader would need to make an informed judgment on the professor's action. A collective F doesn't sound reasonable and I can understand why the school wouldn't let that stand, but maybe he had a good reason to pull the eject handle.; 4/28/15, 1:03 PM
paminwi said...: Way more detail than the linked article here:

He stressed that the students' failings were academic as well as behavioral. Most, he said, couldn't do a "break-even analysis" in which students were asked to consider a product and its production costs per unit, and determine the production levels needed to reach a profit. (In a Strategic Management class)

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/27/professor-fails-his-entire-class-and-his-university-intervenes; 4/28/15, 1:14 PM
retired said...: OTOH, this prof has had a lot of jobs in his short career. Having earned one myself, MBA students are not a raucous group, however they will assert themselves when aggrieved. More to this story, like all poorly reported stories than we have been told.; 4/28/15, 4:31 PM
richardsson said...: I wrote about this on my own blog. I taught community college for 22 years, and I might have kicked 5 students out of my classes for various misbehaviors during that whole time. I agree with those who say there isn't enough information here to really judge what went wrong here. But, I also find it hard to believe that the whole class was that bad. Glad to see that the college is stepping in to remedy what looks like an injustice. I once had a college instructor who caught a kid in the back row cheating. He chewed all of us out for an hour. I never forgot that bastard.; 4/28/15, 7:27 PM
SeanF said...: Since Professor Horwitz is no longer teaching this particular class, maybe he can teach an English Composition class, and Mr. Fearnow can be one of his students.

"The lengthy, fiery email to students explained to students why they would all be receiving failing grades, included is Horwitz’s claim that the students were..."

Wow.; 4/29/15, 8:23 AM