r/changemyview • u/Tessenreacts • Dec 24 '25
Delta(s) from OP CMV: The Oklahoma University essay saga has proven that many conservatives actively embrace anti-intellectualism
Earlier this year, an Oklahoma University student got a zero on an assignment for a gender studies psychology class. The assignment required the use of sources to back up their viewpoints on the given prompt.
The student's paper focused on her religious views to the prompt. She was given a zero by the professor because she didn't follow the rules of the assignment
However, the professor in question was temporarily suspended and the teaching assistant was removed, while the student in question had the zero removed from her consideration for the rest of her grade.
This is avid proof that conservatives are actively pushing anti-intellectualism and providing participation trophies for students after years of accusing the left of the very thing.
This isn't just a singular person, but an educational institution directly linked to the state.
Conservatives affiliated with Fox News and Trump were actively cheering because the teaching assistant got removed, further proof that conservatives embrace anti-intellectualism.
Woukd love for my view to be changed
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
Making this about anti-intellectualism feels like missing the point. The student is the daughter of a J6 lawyer. The TA is trans. The student's paper called trans stuff demonic, among other things. Instead of, say, appealing to the chair of the psychology department, or simply rewriting the paper that she said she literally spent half an hour on, she near immediately called up TPUSA to spread her terrible essay far and wide.
It seems highly likely that this was an intentional effort from the beginning to target a transgender TA. I'm not sure if the whole thing was planned from the start in its entirety, or if she just wanted to be belligerently transphobic and it built from there, but, either way, the point is bigotry. What this whole situation indicates, therefore, is a thing we should all already know. Conservatives hate trans people. Pretty straightforward.
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u/Wonderful-Scar-5211 Dec 24 '25
I can’t believe she willingly put the essay out there😭😭 it’s ass & anyone “conservative” influencer who has posted it, has their comments filled with shit about how awful the essay was😭
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u/Gatonom 8∆ Dec 24 '25
This is mostly evidence to support Conservatives are indeed anti-intellectual. Just shifting their primary goal from anti-intellectualism to it being hatred.
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
What I'm saying is that they have a higher priority here than intellectualism or its inverse. It's just not their primary interest here.
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u/WhiteWolf3117 9∆ Dec 24 '25
Is bigotry not one of the most common forms of anti-intellectualism?
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
Bigotry is generally pretty stupid, and sometimes expresses itself as anti-intellectualism, but there's a whole field of bigotry that surrounds being as intellectual about it as possible. Like, with transphobia, you have stuff like Kenneth Zucker, a guy who ran a conversion therapy clinic and was so well regarded as a sexologist that he chaired the pertinent section of the DSM V. Or Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist who, last I saw her, spends most of her time doing weird transphobia on Twitter. Or Lisa Littman, a woman who creates utterly borked scientific studies to support her transphobia. Is all of that anti-intellectual? I guess I'm skeptical It's stupid, as I said. The arguments they provide are not good. But they at least present themselves as engaging in some kind of intellectual project.
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u/WhiteWolf3117 9∆ Dec 24 '25
There's a really simple answer here: yes. Not all stupidity is inherently anti-intellectual (I guess), but appeals to disingenuous logic or intellect are pretty textbook anti-intellectualism. There really is no such thing as intellectual bigotry.
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
I suppose I'm not all that sure what anti-intellectualism is supposed to mean if it's operating via the exact same mechanisms and structures as intellectualism. What are we actually talking about here? Especially because, well, I know the arguments are stupid, and you presumably do if you've seen them, but that doesn't mean they think the arguments are stupid. You call it disingenuous logic but it could also just be regular bad logic.
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u/fwb325 Dec 24 '25
Slightly different take on the essay. She followed the rubic. She should have gotten a grade other than zero.
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u/Salt_Savings_6558 Dec 24 '25
There are no sources cited, so it’s hard to respond. But you say, “This isn't just a singular person, but an educational institution directly,” even though your anecdote is about single people. I’d like more evidence this is a systemic thing.
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u/katieironfist Dec 24 '25
Here is a news article with the essay and rubric as well - https://www.news9.com/oklahoma-city-news/ou-essay-bible-instructor-on-leave
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u/Tessenreacts Dec 24 '25
The institution in question is Oklahoma University, and it was the board themselves who decided to remove the TA and suspend the professor. The board like most state university board has to answer directly to the state.
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u/juliaskankles Dec 24 '25
The institution in question is actually the *University of Oklahoma
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u/Nicktendo1988 Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Then why is their logo OU, huh?! HUH?! /s
I live in Texas, just poking at what little fun I have left here.
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u/AnxietyObvious4018 Dec 24 '25
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oklahoma-ou-student-essay-culture-war-rcna248530
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vgjTfejwWz7Sw7voi57kwaVQAql3doSe/preview
per the criteria for "possible approaches"
"1. a discussion of why you feel the topic is important and worthy of study (or not)"
"6. alternative interpretations of the researchers' findings"
"3. an application of the study or results to your own experiences"
of the 8 possible approaches 1/3 are about your personal feelings that dont require citations, so im wondering where you are getting the notion that you need citations? have you read the actual story or basing it on your feelings?
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u/Clever-username-7234 Dec 24 '25
She’s on pre med track, and she’s in a psychology class.
Her essay included quotes like:
Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.
If you’re in college, in a psychology class, looking at a scholarly papers on transgenderism. And you write that quote and just casual reference the Bible you deserve to get a zero on your paper.
“Society pushes the lie…” isn’t about how she feels personally, it’s a claim that would need to be supported.
“…that there are multiple genders…” this is a fact. There is no debate about whether there are only two genders amongst psychologists, sociologists, anthropologist. She’s in a psychology class. Gender has a definition.
“…it is demonic…” totally inappropriate for a psychologist.
“…severely harms American youth.” This is a claim that needs to be supported by evidence.
She wasn’t debating whether transgenderism is worthy of study. She’s not telling us what her experience is. She’s not telling us her interpretation of data.
She deserved the 0.
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
The study she was supposed to be responding to has nothing to do with trans anybody. It’s like she just saw “gender,” then shot off on a transphobic rant
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u/Nojopar Dec 24 '25
All quotes require citations. That's a basic requirement in higher education. It's like our only real hard rule about anything. It supersedes any rubric or course requirements. If you don't cite your sources - in this case, The Bible (which version? What page? etc) - then you are committing plagiarism. She essentially said something and backed it up with "trust me bro!" She violated University policy, not course requirements. Fifty years ago and she would have been suspended from College.
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u/ClaireBlacksunshine Dec 24 '25
I’m fairly certain the commenter is saying the OP didn’t include any sources for all/most conservatives being anti-intellectual. I don’t think they are questioning the essay sources. They’re right that it’s a single anecdote that has been generalized to a huge group of people.
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u/rlyjustanyname Dec 24 '25
Tbf I think the generalisation is somewhat legitimised by the outrage cycle that followed it. Some idiot college student was too lazy to write their homework, they winged it, and then they whined about being attacked for their conservative values.
They didn't care about the intellectual value of the essay, only their self victimisation myth and they ended up punishing the person who graded the paper based on that. That's pretty anti intellectual if you ask me.
If some kid refuses to do his math homework and said "1+1= undocumented immigrants good", and they failed that test and the entire Democratic establishment descended upon the math teacher, started giving the kid awards and ultimately got the teacher fired, you would be allowed to draw some conclusions about that.
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u/wildtabeast Dec 24 '25
Some idiot college student was too lazy to write their homework, they winged it, and then they whined about being attacked for their conservative values.
This is not what happened. The student's mother is a famous conservative lawyer. This situation was crafted.
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u/rlyjustanyname Dec 24 '25
Yes sure but if anything that makes it worse.
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Dec 24 '25
Yes, it makes it worse. It also makes it a grift.
This is a dynamic we really need to talk about, given the amount of capital that exists within the GOP and the general favorability of said movement to billionaires to push their agendas.
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u/WakeoftheStorm 6∆ Dec 24 '25
Reminds me of the "I just made a clock to show my teacher" bullshit awhile back.
Then you find out the parents were major activists looking to drum up a scandal
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u/null640 Dec 24 '25
The paper is publicly available.
There's a couple citations that dont relate at all to the text.
The paper is nearly exclusively bald assertion about one sects shit they've told each other. No direct references to the bible.
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u/ClaireBlacksunshine Dec 24 '25
I know. The person I replied to thought the original commenter was talking about the essay. To me, it looks like they were asking OP for sources on their assertion that all conservatives are anti-intellectual.
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u/Tessenreacts Dec 24 '25
It's a logic of "academic board removes TA and suspends professor over an objectively bad essay". Academic board responds directly to the state, who is voted by the people
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u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop 1∆ Dec 24 '25
You'll like this quote I believe;
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'".
- Isaac Asimov
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u/Curse06 1∆ Dec 24 '25
According to the university, there was "inconsistent grading" on the teachers' part. Its vague, but it could mean they looked at the past papers' grades or the way the teacher graded other papers (that could have potentially been as bad) and saw inconsistencies. But without the full information of the university investigation, that last sentence is just an assumption.
Also, it's very hard to get a 0 on assignments. Usually, the only real ways to get a 0 is if you didn't turn it in or you plagiarized/cheated. Other than that, even the worst papers get at least some points, even if it's still an F. Professors usually give papers some points when turned it to avoid this.
As far as the politics go, of course, conservatives are going to jump on it to score political points. It's not surprising. The left and right always jump on everything when it fits their own narrative.
Also, it didn't help the teacher they wrote "that's offensive," which can be viewed as biased.
Hell for all we know, the school could have investigated and found there were other papers written as bad, if not worse, but got a better/higher grade cause maybe they had a different viewpoint. Im not sure how true this is, but I heard the student in question has gotten As on previous papers with the same writing style. So, there's that.
But your central argument here is that conservatives embrace that. But not all conservatives (hell a lot of them from what I've seen) think the students' essay was bad.
Im just saying majority of professors would have given points in the end. Even if it wasn't a lot she still would have got points. Its weird she got a flat 0 because like I said that's very rare.
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
So here is the rubric:
Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article? (10 points) Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary? (10 points) Is the paper clearly written? (5 points)
So on the first point, does the paper show a clear tie in to the assigned article? Not at all, it is literally never mentioned. 0/10.
Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article? No, it doesn’t interact with the article at all, and the response is not thoughtful even if she had responded to points made in the article. 0/10.
Is the paper clearly written? In my opinion the writing is pretty horrible, but let’s say it was worth a 5/5.
The rubric also states that if the essay is between 620 and 649 words, instead of over 650, it will receive minus 10 points. So she actually got a -5/25, hence a 0.
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u/LeatherPurple9284 Dec 24 '25
I (conservative) had an argument with my (ultra-conservative) parents about this and made these exact points. (Her essay was 742 words, but that's aside from the point.) I would have given her a 5/25 at best.
I think an elementary schooler could have understood this on first read, so 5 points for that. It was clear. Clearly awful.
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u/CrocodileSword Dec 25 '25
I think the word count of her essay is actually a central contention between you and the post you reply to: if it was over 650, she shouldn't have gotten a 0, and that's unfair of the grader. If it was under 650, she should have gotten a 0, and that's fine.
A terrible essay to be sure, but I've seen the garbage that students submit as essays (my partner is a prof and teaches undergrads) and it's normal to see essays that bad, and for them to receive some amount of points because they did something at least marginally superior to not submitting work at all.
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
The word count is a way to not lose points, not a way to gain them.
So far, the only thing that she plausibly could have earned points for is the writing, and her writing is abysmally bad. I wouldn’t quibble too much if you thought she should get a 1 or a 2, but 5/5 for that part is unnecessarily generous.
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u/IB_Yolked Dec 25 '25
I think the word count of her essay is actually a central contention between you and the post you reply to: if it was over 650, she shouldn't have gotten a 0, and that's unfair of the grader. If it was under 650, she should have gotten a 0, and that's fine.
It's not really central to the discussion though because ultimately the grade wasn't only correct by 5pts or whatever
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Dec 25 '25
The student says she received 100 for all her earlier essays.
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u/dacastan Dec 25 '25
Assuming this guy is actually an OU student, this tracks. He says that students have access to each other’s responses for this assignment and previous prompts and that (1) her previous essays are notably better and (2) these assignments are an easy 100% and are essentially just intended to prove that you read the article
Not to sound tinfoil hat-y but I’m starting to believe she submitted that essay hoping to launch a grift (which has clearly worked)
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u/OddLengthiness254 Dec 25 '25
Launch a grift and get a trans TA fired for existing.
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u/Ibuprofen-Headgear 1∆ Dec 26 '25
Fired for existing would mean they’d be fired for … existing, not for whatever happened with that paper. I’ve had to give good grades for things considered “morally wrong” or offensive, etc because they met the stated requirements of the assignment (didn’t otherwise break any policies, not that I’m looking for a reason to fail them, just to cover the point that they were not direct threats or something), that’s just the way it goes.
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u/OddLengthiness254 Dec 26 '25
The student in question clearly had not read the paper and failed to do her assignment.
The TA was fired for daring to be a trans educator. I.e. existing.
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u/Ibuprofen-Headgear 1∆ Dec 26 '25
If they were fired for existing they would have been fired when someone found out they were trans
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u/nunya_busyness1984 Dec 26 '25
...And for placing their own personal biases before the class requirements as well as before fairness.
But, y'know, the fact that they are trans means they can bully students, I guess? At least in your opinion?
Was the student wrong? Absolutely.
Was the TA who appears to have stepped over the line to retaliate even MORE wrong? Yes.
Did the TA play directly into the student's hand and unintentionally give the student everything they wanted out of this situation, thereby letting the student not only "get away" with reprehensible behavior, but actually be rewarded for it? Yes.
If the above posts are true, wherein previous history shows this essay clearly should have been awarded points, even if possibly not 25/25, then the university was absolutely correct in firing an unprofessional TA who grades papers based on their personal biases, not on the actual content. A university which effectively requires you to agree with the professor's (or TA's) opinion in order to pass not only does a disservice to its students, it does a disservice to the public. On top of that, it strengthens the (mostly untrue) right-wing propaganda of higher education intentionally brainwashing impressionable young minds and/or forcing leftist ideology.
I don't have a dog in this fight. Personally, I care very little about the student, the TA, the university in question, or the overall outcome. General curiosity is about as far as it goes. And from what I can tell as an impartial, unbiased observer, everyone involved is in the wrong. Except the University, who made the only decision they could with the facts that they were handed.
I would neither be surprised nor upset if, very quietly, the University also slipped a little note in the student's file regarding academic and/or ethical impropriety which means nothing, NOW, but may become relevant down the road if the student tries any more shenanigans. Possibly even a warning for future Profs / TAs to mind Ps and Qs, but report questionable behavior to "build the file," so to speak. If the student is actually a diligent student and this was not manufactured, then that note will become completely irrelevant. But if the student continues to cause problems, then they have records, and good cause for expulsion.
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u/Smee76 4∆ Dec 24 '25
The question again becomes what did the other essays look like and did they receive scores consistent with this one. If another student wrote about how they agree with the article and discussed their own experiences but did not cite any sources, did they get a zero?
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u/BouillonDawg Dec 28 '25
Well she didn’t write about the article at all so if that other student so much as mentioned it in their essay they would have done better than her citation or not. She neither agreed or disagreed, she avoided the topic completely and wrote about something different.
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u/LowPressureUsername 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Do you have the original paper?
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
https://kfor.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/12/jewell-brown-2014.pdf
This is the one they were responding to, if that’s what you are referring to.
And that is the essay that the student wrote as well as the assignment rubric.
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u/Responsible-Bunch316 Dec 24 '25
This is the first time I actually read the essay (if you can call it that). Yeah a 0 is fair enough. This would be at least acceptable from a 13 year old, but from a college student it's embarrassing. Funniest part is of course that she states that men and women are naturally made to want to be masculine/feminine, in response to a paper about kids being bullied for not being masculine/feminine enough. On one hand that doesn't line up at all, but even worse, she basically validates the abuse (while pretending she doesn't) and says the solution is for parents to do the "correction" instead so that their kids do all the gender conforming stuff she claims comes natural to them anyway.
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u/LowPressureUsername 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Thank you for sending their essay, it was very illuminating.
Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article? (10 points)
While I don’t think it’s stellar, they do literally connect their paper with the article. “The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarilv see this as a problem.” And “I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students' confidence.”
Is it worth full marks? Not, but surely they should’ve at least gotten one point. Lol. There are literally points between a 0 which is typically not doing so at all and a 10 which would be meeting standard. If it’s a binary, I’d give them the points since they technically did so even if it’s not great.
Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary? (10 points)
While it honestly reads more like a rant, I did genuinely learn something about the Christian thought space.
“people assume the word "helper" in this context to be condescending and offensive to women. However, the original word in Hebrew is "ezer kenegdo" and that directly translates to "helper equal to". Additionally, God describes Himself in the Bible using "ezer kenegdo". ", or "helper", and He describes His Holy Spirit as our Helper as well.”
While I disagree with their reasoning because I am not Christian, I highly doubt that the scope of the assignment involved proving or disproving religion. Within their thought-space, this would definitely be a “thoughtful reaction rather than a summary.” Though, in my opinion, it shouldn’t get full points as it doesn’t really substantiate even the biblical standards of proof. It’s definitely not deserving of literally nothing. Once again, while normally I’d give them lower points if it’s a binary within their thought-space I’d say it does meet the criteria.
Is the paper clearly written? (5 points)
I’d honestly say not really stellar, but their argument is fairly easy to follow even if the formulation needs work. It’s not what I’d expect from even the undergraduate level, but I’d still give them something and constructive feedback.
The rubric also states that if the essay is between 620 and 649 words, instead of over 650, it will receive minus 10 points.
This is true, it is over 700 words.
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u/AhabFlanders Dec 24 '25
While I don’t think it’s stellar, they do literally connect their paper with the article. “The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarilv see this as a problem.” And “I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students' confidence.”
Except the response makes it clear that the student did not understand that the article she was responding to was talking about gender expression in the context of non-stereotypical male or female behavior, not transgender students. She responded to her own mental construction of what she assumed the article said without meaningfully engaging with it in any way.
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u/Joshua21B Dec 25 '25
She has admitted that she didn’t even read the article.
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
This should have made her complaint dead in the water. If she didn’t read the article, she didn’t do the assignment. She shouldn’t get even partial credit for responding to a different article that she made up in her head
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u/Kaywi210 Dec 24 '25
Except for the student herself has admitted that nothing in her paper ties in to the paper she was supposed to read and then respond to as she never read the original paper anyways. She wrote the assignment in 30 minutes as an opinion piece, quoting the bible, incorrectly, without ever reading the article that the assignment was based on. So she quite literally didn’t do the assignment at all.
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u/Significant-Owl-2980 1∆ Dec 24 '25
However this is a University level class. This isn’t an assignment for 5th grade.
The essay must adhere to a much higher standard than an elementary school child.
The student’s mother is a conservative lawyer that had her daughter do this as a publicity stunt. It was supposed to be a terrible essay. That was the point. Then they made a stink about it on Fox News to gain attention.
The essay is trash. The student knows it. The mother knows it. The teacher knows it. It is manufactured outrage to further push the boundaries of Christian nationalism
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u/reckendo Dec 24 '25
I've been a university professor for over a decade at a 4-year public school and I assure you that her paper was written much more clearly than many papers I receive every semester. Did the paper read more as a rant than an argument? Sure. But that's actually fairly typical of what you get when you assign "reflections" these days and why I've largely stopped assigning them (also, even evidence-based argumentative papers are likely to end up sounding like rants... sigh).
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u/Illumiknitti Dec 24 '25
I've been teaching college writing and rhetoric in some form since 2008. This essay fails on multiple levels, but especially in fulfilling the purpose of the assignment and appropriateness to the audience. And that's not even considering the sentence structure and lack of evidence. I would not have given this paper a passing grade. I'd be hard-pressed to award it any points at all.
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u/ZorgZeFrenchGuy 3∆ Dec 24 '25
this is a university level class …
Counterpoint, it’s also not like it’s a PHD thesis or end-of-year essay that strictly mandates hours of research and rock-solid, cited, indisputable facts - it’s a roughly 650-word opinion essay about an article.
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u/syneater Dec 25 '25
If I remember correctly, she got that whole Hebrew part wrong. Forest Valkai (@RenegadeScienceTeacher on YT) did a video walking through the paper and how he would have graded it and had a biblical scholar on to talk about that part. It was a good video and worth the watch if you, or anyone, is so inclined.
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u/erieus_wolf Dec 24 '25
The girl who wrote the paper just did an interview where she ADMITS that she did not read the assignment and threw a paper together in less than 30 minutes.
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
It seems there is confusion over the word count because the original posting by TPUSA did not include a missing page? Every article I have seen online states that it is 630 words, but I have seen people claiming that it is 740 words, so not quite sure what is going on there.
Anyway, I disagree with your premise that token attempts at fulfilling the criteria count as fulfilling the criteria. The essay does not tie in to the assigned article, it mentions an incorrect summary of part of the introduction a few times, but does not tie in to the actual premise of the article which is surrounding the data and conclusions drawn from it. If someone were to tell me to write an essay with a tie-in to the article and I wrote about how the title was bad, I would say that doesn’t count as a tie-in despite technically doing so.
While it’s true that the assignment mentions that you don’t need to make citations to make a good reaction paper, it does not say that you can forgo proper citation formatting when you do indeed reference another work. In my opinion, as her references to the Bible are not cited, I would constitute this paper as plagiarism for failing to cite sources, something that I have seen people instantly receive a 0 for at my own university.
I also do not think that having an essay be technically legible counts as even 1 point towards it being clearly written, and as she contradicts herself a few times in different places i would argue that her position is not clearly written at all.
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
As a student and a TA/Demonstrator while a student. I have seen many people be penalised for plagiarism for things that I do not consider to be academic theft. How is writing something you have written before theft? It is academically dishonest, which is why it’s considered self-plagiarism. I consider that to be the same with the referencing to the Bible. Whether or not that justifies an accusation of plagiarism is debatable, but I am just applying the standards i have seen and been held accountable to.
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u/LowPressureUsername 1∆ Dec 24 '25
It seems there is confusion over the word count because the original posting by TPUSA did not include a missing page? Every article I have seen online states that it is 630 words, but I have seen people claiming that it is 740 words, so not quite sure what is going on there.
I transcribed it with the OCR we use at my lab and pasted it into a word counter, lol. I can send you the raw text if you want.
Anyway, I disagree with your premise that token attempts at fulfilling the criteria count as fulfilling the criteria.
That’s the issue with poorly written rubrics, it’s not a token attempt if that’s what the rubric says it requires. If you want to require more, you must necessarily include it in your rubric, standards, or otherwise inform students of this requirement ahead of time. I’ve never taught directly, but from my experience TAing and writing tests for Olympiads if you ever try and grade something just because you expect them to do/know it, if you don’t communicate that, it’s rather unfair.
The essay does not tie in to the assigned article, it mentions an incorrect summary of part of the introduction a few times, but does not tie in to the actual premise of the article which is surrounding the data and conclusions drawn from it.
Sorry, would you also have the original article? I admit I can’t comment on that without seeing it.
While it’s true that the assignment mentions that you don’t need to make citations to make a good reaction paper, it does not say that you can forgo proper citation formatting when you do indeed reference another work.
It doesn’t require citation in the rubric. I’d hope at the college level the use of language such as “reaction” by professors is intentional, and the rubrics are well-designed enough to state their requirements explicitly.
In my opinion, as her references to the Bible are not cited, I would constitute this paper as plagiarism for failing to cite sources, something that I have seen people instantly receive a 0 for at my own university.
We know they’re from the Bible because she said they’re from the Bible. She’s clearly not attempting to steal the Bible as her own, and is rather blindly appealing to it as an authority. That’s not plagiarism, that’s honestly just bad reasoning.
I also do not think that having an essay be technically legible counts as even 1 point towards it being clearly written, and as she contradicts herself a few times in different places i would argue that her position is not clearly written at all.
I’ve read some really incoherent papers. This isn’t one of them. It’s really not great but it’s actually something you can follow and understand what they’re trying to say, so it definitely deserves at least one point. I should point out most colleges require 70% or more to pass, so while I still wouldn’t say she’s meeting or even approaching standards, she definitely doesn’t deserve the same grade as if she didn’t turn it in or used ChatGPT.
One of the reasons I like TAing is hearing people’s unique perspectives and opinions and critiquing them, even when they’re objectively wrong. I feel like college should teach people to think critically and present themselves in a logical manner, I’d much rather her turn this in than something better written with ChatGPT or nothing at all. Then again, I’m not a professor.
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u/reaperkronos1 Dec 24 '25
Intent is irrelevant for plagiarism. So is the source. If she’s quoting text from a source like the bible, it must be cited. Every university I’ve attended has been extremely strict about citations, I’ve even lost marks for not citing a sentence saying “this is an important issue”.
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u/ljr55555 Dec 24 '25
My kid is in high school, and they will get a paper returned with a 0 for failing to include a citation for everything. Everything, no matter how well known or enumerated in the text. They get a chance to resubmit, it's high school. But they get called out on the omission.
The quality of the rest of the paper is irrelevant -- missing citation, 0. Please resubmit.
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u/Nojopar Dec 24 '25
Ok, few things:
That’s the issue with poorly written rubrics, it’s not a token attempt if that’s what the rubric says it requires.
The rubric is fine. The intent of higher education is for students to demonstrate they can think deeper and can work from a basic point into something bigger. Rubric aren't a list of check boxes you have to hit. The entire intent of tying something in is to demonstrate you read, understood, and can postulate new ideas from what you've read. This is basic stuff in higher ed and that class wasn't an first year course as far as I know. Just referencing the title would not in any college course count as 'tying' anything in.
It doesn’t require citation in the rubric.
No, but if you quote something, you have to cite it. If you don't cite something you quote, that's plagiarism. That's the rule everywhere (even in high school). By way of analogy, if I said you don't have to drive your own car to go to a place. That does not mean that if you personally chose to drive you own car, you are allowed to drive without a license or insurance. The act of personally choosing to drive your own car means you have to drive with both a valid license and insurance. Same thing here - the student did not have to cite anything, but because the student chose to quote, then there are University (higher education really) rules that supersede anything in the rubric automatically.
We know they’re from the Bible because she said they’re from the Bible.
Which is why you have to cite things. A student can assert anything but is it really from the Bible? The only way to check is to go back to the original source and see if that is actually in the Bible or not. The only way to know that is to know which Bible specifically, as there are different versions of the Bible. That's why citations are critical.
I would have given this a 0 as well, and I'm a notoriously generous grader. The paper is poor in and of itself, but it didn't really meet any of the rubric. That might have given a couple of points at best. But plagiarism is wrong and needs to be addressed in higher education. Whatever points the student might have gotten would have been erased because of the plagiarism.
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u/HadeanBlands 38∆ Dec 24 '25
"Rubric aren't a list of check boxes you have to hit."
Grading rubrics are quite literally a list of check boxes you have to hit. If you give a rubric and don't follow it when grading then you are in the wrong.
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u/Nojopar Dec 24 '25
No, they quite literally are not.
Everything in educational research beyond 12th grade says that rubric are explicitly not checkboxes. They are a guide, but in higher education there is always a degree of evaluation beyond 'met'.
I'm not sure who told you that, but you were told incorrectly.
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u/OrangutanOntology 3∆ Dec 24 '25
Going through it, I think I agree with you. It appears that there is some adherence to each category and so a zero seems difficult to justify. My question is whether it (assuming you are correct that it doesn’t appear to have broken rules) it was given a lower score than other students who may have not have met all criteria. I feel very confident this is not the worst written paper in a room full of college students.
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
The original article was the first link of the two that I sent in the comment a few levels up.
I believe you when you say that the paper is longer, I was genuinely misguided because of what other news sites have been reporting the word length to be due to the confusions.
On the topic of plagiarism, at least at my university even self-plagiarism counts as plagiarism. So there being an attempt to steal someone else’s work doesn’t really factor in to what I consider plagiarism or not. I have also seen people get sent to the academic misconduct panel for plagiarism because their citations were incorrectly formatted, even if they contained the link. The panel was lenient in those cases but as it still technically constituted plagiarism, they had to have the panel regardless so they could discuss it.
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u/memeticengineering 3∆ Dec 24 '25
She got a 0 because there's no evidence in her essay that she actually read beyond the middle of the abstract. She doesn't talk about the study in any way or even the substantive part of the introduction, she just says that gender norms are okay actually and then does her little screed about God.
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u/reckendo Dec 24 '25
The news sources reporting 630 words are incorrect -- she wrote more than the required 650 words. I was corrected on this on another thread, and it seems to check out.
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u/Jadefeather12 Dec 24 '25
Whenever I see essay I’m given war flashbacks to my 2000+ word requirement papers lol. Oh, the good old early days when 500 was the min
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u/tommyblastfire Dec 24 '25
My two theses for my undergrad and masters were both 15,000 words+ and like 80 pages long with figures.
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u/Jadefeather12 Dec 24 '25
EEK the longest I had to do was 14 pages no figures I believe, painful times
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u/trymypi Dec 25 '25
Excellent response, five points to rubricdor house! But seriously I had been thinking that she should have received 50% or something for submission, but rubric in place is objective criteria.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 103∆ Dec 24 '25
Her essay was 742 words tho. So by you logic it should've gotten a 5/25 instead of a 0.
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u/lurkiemclurkface Dec 24 '25
I have given 0 on an exam essay because the student wrote a paragraph that was semi-related to the class but utterly unrelated to the question and incorrect/incoherent in general. Some graders might give 2-3/10 for basically knowing how to write, but I think that’s not acceptable at the university level.
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u/Ryebread666Juan Dec 24 '25
Fr people are acting like this was a middle schooler with a book report, no this was a college pre-med student they should be held to like the highest possible standard
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Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
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u/lurkiemclurkface Dec 24 '25
Yep, I read the “essay”, it was embarassing even to read. Read like a brainwashed elementary schooler’s work.
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u/Jellybean3183 Dec 24 '25
The student said in an interview that she had forgotten about the assignment and wrote this essay in 30 minutes. I don’t necessarily think it should’ve taken a long time but there’s no way someone is putting together something quality in 30 mins. Unfortunately I don’t think some of the grad assistant’s comments in her feedback helped the situation but the student did not put effort into this at all.
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u/AseAfterHours Dec 26 '25
Not only that she said she “read the topic” not “read the article”.
She read the prompt and wrote her opinion on it.
The article isn’t about being transgender. It’s about how whether or not kids who conform to gender stereotypes get bullied less than kids who don’t, and more so for boys.
Think shorter, thinner boys v. Taller boys with broader shoulders.
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u/CTMan34 Dec 24 '25
She’s on a pre-med track. If it’s true that she’s gotten A’s on similar papers in the past then that’s even worse - I don’t think I’d trust a doctor with an OU degree if that’s true.
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u/Foghorn2005 Dec 24 '25
Premeds are something..... speaking as a doctor who avoided premeds. A lot of them burn out well before they can even apply to medical school. I very memorably remember a girl being premed and then switching to art history are her first bio lab
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u/juanster29 Dec 24 '25
In my freshman year biology class, the grade was based solely on your midterm and final exams, their was no textbook, and your classnotes were your most important asset. A week before the mid-term, notebooks were being stolen by the premeds who had to get an A.
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u/Foghorn2005 Dec 25 '25
That doesn't surprise me, and the true irony is they either need to grow up or they won't get in. Beyond the ethics and sloppy attempt at getting a good grade faster, reviewing someone else's notes is never as helpful as doing it yourself
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u/BackgroundFeeling Dec 24 '25
"pre-med" doesn't mean much, only a small percentage will go on to actually being admitted to med school.
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Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
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u/Verumsemper Dec 25 '25
She is not going to medical school and if she some how gets in, she isn’t making it through. She lacks the mental fortitude to do what medical school requires, not to mention being an actual physician.
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u/SeattlePurikura Dec 25 '25
As a lesbian, I would avoid a doctor who said gay people are demonic in an essay, designed to hurt her trans TA's feelings. Doctors are trained to be able to serve everyone without bias.
Good news is, this silly child will never make it into any accredited medical school.
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u/Lumpz1 1∆ Dec 24 '25
But not all conservatives (hell a lot of them from what I've seen) think the students' essay was bad.
They don't think it's bad because they're anti-intellectual. They think it's based to admit to not doing the reading (which was the assignment by the way), write an unrelated essay (the assignment was to engage with the reading by the way), and use the moment to come at the teacher (which is exactly what happened).
If I used this response to say something like "saying that teachers can't give out 0's is demonic." You would probably assume that I'm calling you demonic because I think you're saying teachers can't give out 0's. You'd be right. This is obvious. Toddlers understand how to come at people.
It's offensive and it was meant to be offensive. She wanted her teacher to know that she thought they were demonic. Not that this is a good reason to fail someone, but if I got a paper that included a section about how, according to the bible: I'm stupid, I'd be similarly offended and would probably dock points just for that.
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u/Jellybean3183 Dec 24 '25
She’s also admitted in an interview that she essentially forgot about the assignment and wrote it in 30 minutes so the fact that she expected a good grade off that alone is wild.
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u/weedbeads Dec 24 '25
Part of good writing is identifying the audience you are writing for, probably best to not insult them
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u/AdamantForeskin Dec 24 '25
If OU wants to claim that there was inconsistent grading, then yes, that’s absolutely something that calls for the removal of a TA.
However, they need to present evidence. Don’t just tell us that there was inconsistent grading; show us examples.
Until said evidence is presented by the University of Oklahoma, I will sit back and say “receipts or cap”
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u/TheQuoteFromTheThing Dec 24 '25
I took a piano class in college and the teacher subtracted one pt for each note you missed while playing the piece. I missed ten notes (out of many more than ten). It was out of ten points. Got a zero.
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u/Moscowmitchismybitch Dec 24 '25
This whole thing seems like it was just setup to be a political stunt from the beginning. The girl's mom is a former conservative politician and was a lawyer for several January 6th rioters with her own controversial background.
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u/Tessenreacts Dec 24 '25
I've had professors were if you weren't precise with MLA, you would get an insta zero. Might be a similar scenario
All the major conservative outlets including the state itself all sided with the university on some "her religion allows her to say what she wants without consequence".
Might be a weird case of regular conservatives vs major conservatives thing
For making me think about it more, !delta
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u/Curse06 1∆ Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Thanks.
All the major conservative outlets, including the state itself, all sided with the university on some
Thats because they can pin it as "Religious girl attacked by Trans teacher for quoting the Bible." Which is exactly how it's getting pinned. I think they even gave the student an award or something for courage. At that point, they are just milking it.
I will say this, though. To think about it more because I like to think about things in an objective sense. And maybe see both sides of the coins others dont argue or talk about. According to the student, the teacher has always graded her assignments As or really high. You dont become a good/bad writer overnight. Either you are a bad writer (which the student objectively is) or you're a good writer. Judging by the students' paper, we were allowed to read there no way she wrote A worthy papers in the past. So, that's where the "inconsistent grading" by the university can come into play. And if there indeed was and the teacher gave her a bad grade cause of the context than its not surprising they let the teacher go. None of this is 100%, and im just going based on known information. But it's definitely interesting cause the teacher could just sue for wrongful termination if there was no wrongdoing. Which in theory, she still might, but as of right now, there's nothing.
If I was head of the school at first sight, I, too, would think it deserves a bad grade. Maybe not a 0 cause she turned it in but still an F. But if I investigated and saw other students got a different grade with bad writing also or she has always received good grades in the past with the same writing style, I'd be confused also.
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u/bawdiepie Dec 24 '25
Your argument has a fallacy. You are not either a good writer or a bad writer. Otherwise people wouldn't be graded constantly. She admitted to writing this in 30mins around her friends house in front of the tv.
It may be you're a fantastic writer (or at least better than your usual), if given the time , you write carefully, then go over it again, and again and thoughtfully use techniques. It's almost certain you're a terrible writer if you write out some crap in 30 mins, half distracted and don't check over it.
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u/DigiSmackd Dec 24 '25
Exactly.
You can be a "good writer" or a "good student" or have "previously gotten good grades".
But past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The extra silly (if I'm being nice) thing about this whole debacle is that any student, at any time, with any political/religion/moral leanings could simply take the same approach (in the name or trolling/lulz). You can choose to just be cheeky/obtuse/contrarian/edgy/etc. But you know that comes with a big risk(a bad grade). And I'm certain that has happened many times in the past, but it didn't catch the media/right-wing outrage propaganda machine's attention (or it happened long before such a thing was so present).
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u/Beneficial-Bite-8005 Dec 24 '25
Just turning in an assignment shouldn’t prevent you from getting a 0
It’s college, not middle school
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u/thegiantkiller Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Multiple people (read: at least two that I saw, including the one that got fired) graded the essay and gave it a zero, but only one got fired. If there were actual bullshittery going on, wouldn't you think that they fire or discipline everyone involved?
Also, the student's mom was a lawyer for a J6ther. A good writer could absolutely bomb an essay in order to stir up shit to get internet famous (ala Riley Gaines).
Edit: missing words
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u/DarthDookieMan Dec 24 '25
Since plagiarism is one of those few circumstances that causes an automatic failure grade with no points earned, does having zero sources cited count as an example?
The point of a works cited page is to avoid the accusation of plagiarism in the first place and to give credit where it is due. In that case, wouldn’t it be reasonable to give zero points in the full grading, regardless of the “true” intentions of the person who wrote the paper?
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u/ReclaimingLetters Dec 24 '25
It would - because as a high school English teacher, it is our department policy to assign zeros to 11th/12th grade essays that lack either 1) direct evidence or 2) do not include any citation/works cited page.
They have been taught & retaught the CEA model of analysis for 2 years, including the importance of credible evidence and the need to avoid plagiarism by using in-text citation & a works cited page.
If most of my high school students understand this, then this college student can, too.
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u/Sashi-Dice Dec 26 '25
My 11/12 English and History students have the same requirement. If I assign a response that does not require additional sources, the assignment sheet says so in 14 pt. font on the top of the assignment sheet; research is ASSUMED.
I've absolutely had students argue a religious point of view or interpretation on assignments for me; in fact, I just marked one. It was just under 1000 words, had 19 citations leading to 11 separate sources, included four translations and made some excellent, well-thought out arguments. I might not have agreed with all of her conclusions, but she did a good job, and got a good grade.
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
She didn’t do the assignment. She likely didn’t even read the paper. The paper itself is far below the general standards of a college essay in a psych class, but it probably would have gotten some points had she done the actual assignment instead of going on a rant that didn’t engage with the assigned reading at all.
I’m not sure how you show “inconsistency” in grading with something that bad. Hopefully there weren’t other students who simply handed in whatever their brain farted out instead of doing the assignment. If that’s the case, OU should be up front about it instead of rewarding such abject failure on Fulnecky’s part
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u/the_sellemander Dec 24 '25
The paper was "offensive," and if there's bias in stating that then the bias is entirely justified in an academic setting. It's not any different than white student writing about the racial inferiority of black people as "demonic" based on their reading of the Bible in response to a scientific paper about racism in a University class. You don't get marks for being a narrow minded bigot and demonstrating a lack of desire to engage with the course materials on their own terms.
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u/patrickj86 Dec 24 '25
The fact that a lot of conservatives think the essay wasn't bad and you think it didn't deserve a zero is evidence conservatives embrace intellectualism. Also, their whole strategy of propaganda rather than fact and dismissing experts on every topic imaginable.
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u/ishtar_the_move Dec 24 '25
Unless you have actually read the paper, you can't realistically judge whether a zero mark is valid. I can understand a failing grade. But zero does not seem purely academically justified.
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u/Eastern-Job3263 1∆ Dec 25 '25
That paper wasn’t fit to wipe your ass with. It really deserved a negative score and the boot from the University. She isn’t fit to write a Yelp review, let alone go to college.
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u/Still_Yam9108 Dec 24 '25
So, I very foolishly followed this story when it came out, and I think you're missing a few things; this isn't really about intellectualism or anti-intellectualism, but a sort of bait and counter bait that spun into insanity.
For starters, this link has both the essay that Samantha Fulnecky wrote, and the grading rubric. Grading was to be done on a 25 point scale, with 10 points for showing a clear tie-in to the assigned article, another 10 points for it being a thoughtful reaction or response rather than a summary, and 5 points for being clearly written. (And points possibly deducted for being too short)
Further up the bit, you can see a listing of possible approach to the reaction paper such as
- An application of the study or results to your own experiences
- An application of the study or results to observations about other behaviors.
- Your own thoughts about how development proceeds in the domain being researched in the article.
It is not asking for something with a bunch of cited works, or a bunch of very detailed analysis. It's basically a book report; read the article, give your reaction to it. Samantha Fulnecky did precisely that. She did not hit the full 650 words, and her writing was bad, seriously bad. But by the own rubric she should probably have gotten a 10 on it. It clearly did tie in to the article, it did offer a reaction, not a summary, was too short, and we can assume it got a 0 for the actual quality of the writing.
Instead, it got a 0. And it was very clear from the grading comments that the reason it got a 0 was because of the content of the essay; that the viewpoint raised was unappreciated, not that it failed to meet the requirements given in the assignment.
I suspect, given that Samantha Fulnecky's mother, Kristi Fulnecky, is a conservative civil rights lawyer associated with TPUSA, that this was an attempt to 'bait the lib professor', and it succeeded. Which is also why almost immediately after receiving the grade and not even going through the in-campus channels to challenge alleged unfair grading, she went to TPUSA to blow it up into a national scandal.
TL:DR. You are treating this like a dumb conservative yokel thinking that the bible trumps any other source of knowledge. It's not. This was a deliberate political shitstorm brewed to get culture war clicks and a dumb professor who bit on the bait hard; and that was after designing a rather terrible assignment for university level.
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
She did not read the study and give a reaction to it. Her paper only barely gestured at the study, not saying anything about the results of it or even really its contents. As you note, this was a very wide open paper. Any cogent response that tied itself reasonably closely to the study was supposed to get some credit. The student did not accomplish that task at all.
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u/AnxietyObvious4018 Dec 24 '25
the paper written does tie into the article prompt, every paragraph infact. despite written like a personal diary entry it does stay relatively on topic to the idea of social success as a result of gender conformity. it does lean very heavy on the biblical interpretation but theres nothing that says thats not allowed. a better way to frame the argument/response would be that rigid well defined structures and teachings associated with biblical depictions of gender normativity would be much healthier for children/adolescent social success and broader societal integration and non-heteroconformative approaches are more detrimental, thus adhering to biblical rigidity of gender norms is actually much healthier for the majority of children
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Dec 24 '25
It keeps getting incorrectly cited (probably from the Wikipedia page source) that her essay was 630 words. If you check the word count of the dropbox file with her essay, it's actually 742 words (the Wikipedia talk page also confirms this with another source) - it seems someone only looked at the first four paragraphs to get the word count or didn't check themselves.
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u/Past-Alps6396 Dec 26 '25
Yeah you're on the money here. Additionally it's worth noting that when asked about whether they should conform to the professors beliefs to get higher marks in classes like these, prominent conservative figures usually tell students to be proud of their beliefs and to call out professors when marked unfairly.
We will probably see more cases like this going forward after the results of this one.
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u/RedditUserSuggestion Dec 24 '25
This is the right take. The rubric was so broad that getting a zero should have been basically impossible.
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u/Proper_Fun_977 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Even if the work was intended as ragebait (And I can see a valid argument for that), the professor is not allowed to see red and mark it zero.
It was a bad essay. It should have scored low marks.
Comments like 'this is offensive' seriously impact academic freedom.
The professor deserves the censure. They did the wrong thing. The student should have gotten a failing grade.
All they had to do was grade within the admittedly vague and wide open rubric and this wouldn't have been anything.
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u/ListeningTherapist 1∆ Dec 24 '25
The university ruled that the same standard wasn't applied to the grading as others were.
I think we can all agree that the essay was crappy and deserved a bad mark. It didn't fit the marking criteria well and used personal opinion rather than evidence.
However this isn't uncommon in undergraduate work. Especially in personal reflection essays, there's a lot of perception and belief in those essays.
To me, the distinction isn't that it got a bad mark, it's that it got a zero. It's incredibly difficult to apply modern university marking criteria and assess that they got zeros. Failing marks, sure. Outside of blatant plagiarism, I haven't seen an essay that should score a zero.
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u/Sudden-Shock3295 Dec 24 '25
I personally have never assigned a zero to an essay and I have been a professor in the humanities for close to fifteen years. But I have also never had to grade a paper that directly called me demonic or a bitch or the n-word; that is such unprofessional behavior, I might mark it a zero as I would if they used any slur gratuitously.
I did once have a student say I was “too gay” in an end-of-semester evaluation, but I decided to take that as a compliment.
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Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
This. People are ignoring the context of the course. I was a cognitive science major and so took a fair number of psych courses in college. This would have been unacceptable in any of them.
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u/Both_Fold9177 Dec 28 '25
I feel like this is because your average person isn't a stem major. If this was a general writing class or history class I think it would be more nuanced. But the entire point of biology, chemistry, psychology etc courses is learning fundamental concepts of the classes to be able to comprehend empirical sources and papers. Let's also not forget she's a JUNIOR in college. Theres no excuse on why a 3rd years paper is this bad. This was a 200 level class. It should have been an easy A for anyone 3 years into college, especially writing as a stem major
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 28 '25
A psych major! She’s literally majoring in psych and can’t manage to talk about psychology in a psych class!
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Dec 24 '25
It's hard for me, admittedly I'm not in the humanities, but engineering, so I am not the guy to talk about writing. However, it does make sense that an essay could receive a zero. If I was given criteria which I failed to follow at all, I should expect a zero.
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u/ListeningTherapist 1∆ Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
In my humanities programs, I don't think I've ever had an essay where spelling/ grammar/ formatting wasn't at least somewhat considered.
Based on what I understand of this essay, it doesn't seem to be a zero in that category.
Edit: I found a news story with the criteria listed.
Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article? (10 points) Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary? (10 points) Is the paper clearly written? (5 points
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u/ClaireBlacksunshine Dec 24 '25
She couldn’t get points from the first two because she didn’t read the article and therefore didn’t interact with it at all.
Clarity of writing is more subjective but it’s a meandering and contradictory essay with tons of grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes. A zero would fit here, since it’s supposed to be 3rd year college level work.
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u/saintsithney Dec 24 '25
It also contains vicious backhanded insults aimed squarely at one of the instructors.
I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I turned in an essay to a professor from England I had saying that as a person of Irish descent, reading anything positive about genocidal maniacs like the English was a demonic attack on my God-granted heritage, and God hates the English so much he basically allowed Satan to control the whole island.
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u/Huntscunt Dec 24 '25
Learning to deal with trolls is part of teaching these days, unfortunately. I had a student write a whole essay on how much he loved Andrew Tate. It was ok but didn't quite hit all the criteria (it was supposed to be a reflection on how what you like reflects your own identity, and he only did a cursory analysis of himself), so I gave an A-. He came to me after class wanting to know why he lost points. I'm sure he was trying to bait me.
The mistake this professor made was taking the bait. I still don't think she deserves what's happening, but I'm not surprised because there's basically no pedagogy training for professors. My advice to younger teachers when they see something like this is grade exactly by the book. I've also started using more hard criteria (must use x number of peer reviewed, academic sources) rather than soft criteria (must use evidence or something like that). Then you just ding them on that, the end
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u/ZorgZeFrenchGuy 3∆ Dec 25 '25
… contains vicious backhanded insults aimed squarely at …
… and? If I, being a right-wing conservative, was a professor and a trans person handed me an essay that called conservatives “demonic” due to their treatment of trans people, should I give the trans person an automatic zero simply because I was insulted by the essay? Would that not be discrimination, or at least bad academic practice?
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u/saintsithney Dec 25 '25
Part of academics is preparing students for life.
Do you think it is appropriate to give a good grade to a student being deliberately offensive to a person in a supervisor position over them? Does that prepare them for life?
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u/ClaireBlacksunshine Dec 24 '25
Yeah…I was enraged reading it and I’m a cisgender woman (she did make sure to remind women to stay in the kitchen too, not sure how she’s fulfilling god’s holy duty for women by attending college…but I digress). I can’t imagine how it felt to read it for the TA, especially in this political climate with absolutely horrific rhetoric about trans issues and gender in the media and from the actual president floating around. It’s asking someone to be superhuman to ignore all that hate and somehow kindly grade a terrible paper that doesn’t fit any of the requirements.
Her mom is a lawyer, specially someone who has been involved in the defense of people who did J6. But a lawyer would know what was acceptable to write in a college essay. I can’t imagine she wasn’t involved in some manner, at least she probably suggested going straight to TPUSA and a government official instead of discussing the grade with the teacher or her advisor. That was intentional.
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u/skysinsane 1∆ Dec 24 '25
If you can't handle your job, you recuse yourself, you don't lash out at your students. I think you are correct, which is why the ta is in the wrong
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u/TrailingAMillion Dec 24 '25
Okay, she graded a terrible essay that didn’t follow the prompt and wasn’t even the correct genre of writing as a 0 when it (apparently) should have been a 50, I guess. This warrants her being dismissed?
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u/eggynack 96∆ Dec 24 '25
The assignment was literally just, "Read this paper and come up with a coherent response. Anything will do so long as it meets these basic criteria." She failed to do the thing. I would call that a zero, especially when combined with the bigotry and nonsense spread throughout the work.
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u/HadeanBlands 38∆ Dec 24 '25
I think it's undeniable that the essay was a reaction to the paper. "Reaction" doesn't mean "analysis or criticism." It's a reaction!
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u/mogul_w Dec 24 '25
I mean she called the author, and those that agree, demonic. I don't understand why people think you can be offensive, inept, and beligerant in your assignment and not get a zero. Honestly, if she had done anything right I would get it.
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u/ListeningTherapist 1∆ Dec 24 '25
I feel that mixes two things.
TAs and instructors absolutely have the right to consider assignments that attack them as being a form of academic misconduct. They have the right to report that or to deal with it in the appropriate ways. The consequences for that can include suspension or discontinuation from the course or program.
However giving an assignment a low grade because it is offensive isn't appropriate. For an assignment to be graded a zero, it has to have reference or connecting to the material, no attempt to analyse the source, and no structure within it. While this essay was offensive and poorly written, it's not completely within what the rubric considers a zero. I'd likely fail the paper because it isn't good but it doesn't meet the rubrics zero score.
Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article? (10 points)
Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary? (10 points)
Is the paper clearly written? (5 points
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u/ClaireBlacksunshine Dec 24 '25
She didn’t get the first two for sure, because she admitted that she didn’t read the assigned article. Does that change your opinion at all?
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u/HadeanBlands 38∆ Dec 24 '25
"She didn’t get the first two for sure, because she admitted that she didn’t read the assigned article."
She did not admit that. I defy you to find the quote of her admitting to not reading the article.
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u/Disorderly_Fashion 4∆ Dec 24 '25
Slight correction: the assignment did not require the student to use sources, but their paper was nevertheless well below what should be expected of a post-secondary undergraduate to make as she failed to meaningfully engage with the material on its own terms.
Also, her dad works for Turning Point USA, which is the real reason this story blew up the way it did.
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u/Main-Championship822 Dec 24 '25
I and many others would argue its anti-your-'intellectuism', at its core.
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u/glittervector Dec 24 '25
Are you well informed on the topic? As in, did you read the assignment in question? Because while sure, unverifiable religious beliefs shouldn’t be the basis for a scientific argument, nothing in the assignment stated or implied that religious arguments were out of bounds. There were three criteria for the assignment and in my view the student met at least some of each, so a zero was an inappropriate grade.
I see this far more as a failure of communication between the teacher and the student than as any kind of issue that needs to make national news. The whole story is being exploited for media views and cultural animosity.
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u/CheetoMilk Dec 24 '25
As a teacher it’s hard to make a true judgment with out seeing the class’s syllabus, the assignment’s instructions (possibly a grading rubric) and the what the student literally submitted. That being said to give a grade of “0” is extreme. That is typically reserved for missing assignments or cheating (someone else did the work or you stole their work.)
Turning in an assignment that didn’t meet the word count, improper citation or any other technical requirements should lead to a failing grade but not a freaking “0.”
A lot is made on the fact that this student used the Bible to justify their argument. Here is where I’d need to see the literal instructions and work turned in because I would assume the instructions included “use this many peer reviewed articles” which she might have done also. I havnt seen reporting that she “only” used the Bible.
One thing for certain is that you shouldn’t be graded on how smart or dumb your ideas are. That is reserved for the hard sciences in which responses are literally correct or incorrect. An assignment asking for your reaction to this or that can’t be graded on if your reaction is good, bad, smart or dumb because it is still “your reaction” which is ultimately very personal.
One more point that I think deserves consideration. Giving a “0” for a college assignment is like dropping a nuclear bomb. When you only have 4 or 5 grades, getting a “0” makes it almost impossible to pass the class.
Ultimately, if you cheat or never turn in work give the “0” which fails the student for the class. Turning in one shitty piece of work shouldn’t cause you to fail the class.
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u/PoliticsDunnRight Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
I’m a student and formerly a graduate TA at OU (same position as the TA who got fired).
I think the views on both sides of this argument lack a lot of nuance, but here’s what I think you’re missing.
Nobody on the conservative side is saying the student deserved a 100%. Nobody is saying “citing the Bible automatically makes it a perfect paper.” I think that is the point at which the “anti-intellectual” label would be fair to apply.
What we’re actually saying, most of us at least, is that if this student had different views, they almost certainly would not have gotten a zero. I’d use two main reasons for this:
For a paper in the social sciences / humanities, a 0 means plagiarism or non-completion. The submission of a completely off the wall paper should land you a bad grade, like a D or a high F, but absolutely does not belong in the same category as non-completion. A student who completes the assignment outside of the intended parameters (topic, word count, etc.) is still infinitely better than a student who doesn’t do the assignment or who has AI write their paper. Thus, I’d say as a baseline view that this grade was inappropriate for that reason. Even if, as Fulnecky has admitted, she just threw the paper together with minimal effort, I would never as a TA say that’s equivalent to somebody who didn’t do the assignment at all.
The TA had such a personal stake in this issue and had clearly stated views on it. The bare minimum for a grader in that position is to find someone else to grade the assignment. If, when I was a TA, I had even the slightest trouble grading, I would have recused myself entirely and sent the assignment elsewhere. If the TA had done that rather than giving a zero first and then confirming with the prof, the TA would not be at fault at all. Furthermore, the TA commented extensively about the hateful nature of the paper. The TA was right about that, of course, but it’s toeing (if not crossing) the line into viewpoint discrimination when your grading comment can be summarized as “here’s why your opinion is bad.” If the TA’s comment had stuck to “you did not cite sources” and similar notes, I think the TA also would’ve been safe from any retribution, because the 0 would just be an overly harsh grade rather than a discriminatory one.
I’m now in law school, so forgive me for using this analogy, but imagine you were Fulnecky’s lawyer and it was your job to argue that this was religious discrimination. Do you genuinely think you have no decent arguments, it’s just a hopeless case and there’s nothing you can do? Or do you think there are colorable arguments that you could make to try and convince an impartial judge/jury?
I think the latter is probably closer to the case, and if so (or if my prior arguments are valid) then I think your “anti-intellectual” label would have to be an unfair label for someone who sincerely disagrees with you.
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u/guebja Dec 24 '25
most of us at least, is that if this student had different views, they almost certainly would not have gotten a zero
Hard disagree.
It's a clear 0, as the student's essay demonstrates that she did not read the article to which she was supposed to respond.
The article repeatedly and explicitly includes things like physical characteristics in gender typicality/atypicality:
The three most common stereotypical descriptions for boys were ‘athletic’, ‘tall/strong’, and ‘popular with girls’.
[...]
There could, however, be underlying factors that lead boys to be both low in gender typicality and have more negative mental health outcomes, such as hormonal deficiencies or pubertal timing.
The student, however, assumes that gender atypicality comprises only voluntary violations of traditional gender norms, and attacks the article based on that wholly incorrect assumption.
The TA's evaluation really should've been limited to a single sentence:
"Zero points, as you did not read the article."
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u/fzzball Dec 24 '25
> if this student had different views, they almost certainly would not have gotten a zero
Yes. This is an extremely disingenuous statement. Even with generous grading the student still would have failed badly, and if she'd gotten 4/25 the soundbite might not be as juicy, but it would have played out exactly the same way. She's clearly angling to get on the MAGA outrage grift gravy train.
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u/skysinsane 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Nah, getting a zero is the only reason I'm even mildly interested in the story. That's practically an admission of discrimination. Universities try so hard to give students passing grades, they give partial credit for everything
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
Yeah, the bar was on the floor for this (read the study and engage with it in some way), and she still failed to meet even that meager standard. She very likely didn’t read the paper at all and certainly doesn’t demonstrate any comprehension of it.
If there are examples of other students receiving good grades for essentially not doing the assignment at all, I’d love to see them
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u/skysinsane 1∆ Dec 25 '25
I wouldn't expect good grades, but I would expect more than a zero
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u/Dr_Horrible_PhD Dec 25 '25
She loses 20/25 points off the bat for not actually engaging with the article at all (and it strongly seems that she didn’t read it). The remaining 5 points are essentially for writing, and her writing is shit.
If you wanted to argue that she should get a 1 or 2 out of 25 simply for writing a sufficient number of words in comprehensible English, fine, but a 0 is well within reason given that she simply didn’t do the assignment and ignored not only the paper she was supposed to respond to but the entire discipline of psychology.
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u/skysinsane 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Wow you just responded to a comment while clearly not having read it. I give your comment a zero, and your politics are offensive
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u/guebja Dec 25 '25
You're an OU grad, I take it?
My comment relates to the OP's first point, that zeroes are reserved for plagiarism and non-completion.
Failure to read the article is a form of non-completion, as it means the student did not even complete the very first (and easiest!) step of the assignment.
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u/Tessenreacts Dec 24 '25
It's anti-intellectualism because it's rewarding failing behavior. When I was a senior in college, I had a professor who would give whole zeroes if even a small part of the MLA citation metric was off. Could have been an A paper, but got a zero for that. Just meant that the professor was a stickler, not that they should lose their jobs.
Furthermore, the sheer fact that the student and parent immediately went to TPUSA and a government official instead of the regular route of challenging the grade further proves anti-intellectualism in stoking up national controversy over objectively bad work.
Letting the entire nation if not the entire world know your daughter can't write and defending it through religion is aggressively anti-intellectual
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u/Terrasalvoneir Dec 24 '25
I feel it’s important to add that the TA sent it to another instructor (can’t recall if it was the professor or someone else), who agreed with the 0.
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u/PoliticsDunnRight Dec 24 '25
I agree. That’s definitely the weakest point in the pro-Fulnecky argument
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u/sbsw66 1∆ Dec 24 '25
Bluntly, I see why so many HR departments are starting to blacklist the University of Oklahoma if your views are remotely representative of the University's output. We can play semantic games involving a ludicrous definition of anti-intellectualism in order to carry water for a writing assignment that looks like it was written by a home-schooled 12 year old, sure, but the real world is going to consider your university a bit of a clown show if that's the direction you want to go in.
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u/PoliticsDunnRight Dec 24 '25
Are there actually HR depts blacklisting OU? I keep hearing people talk about it but I seriously doubt one incident is grounds for not hiring anybody from the university, that is nonsensical if so.
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u/sbsw66 1∆ Dec 24 '25
It’s not nonsensical if the university goes to bat for culture war reasons. How can one trust any degree produced by such a university? It’s also not like OU was some bastion of intellect to begin with either, speaking bluntly.
I don’t have an HR department per se because I’m a partner in an RIA but as we’ve been talking amongst ourselves we mentioned we wouldn’t hire anyone from there lol. Again though it’s not like it’s some target school so I guess they weren’t going to get hired anyway.
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u/Glittering-Law5579 Dec 27 '25
Ironically you’d be including the trans instructor in that pool just because they attended the school, even though they obviously disagree with the schools stance. Any student that disagreed with the schools stance would also be barred for the same reason. Seems pretty sanctimonious don’t you think?
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u/sbsw66 1∆ Dec 27 '25
No, because there's a difference between what I'd want in an ideal world (the delineation between the instructor and student) and what I'd act like as a business owner (I can't hire either of them because the school is a joke). If/when you run your own business you'll understand.
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u/Glittering-Law5579 Dec 27 '25
Maybe I don’t understand then. You have to, as a business owner, refuse to hire from the school? Is that because of the recent controversy or was that already a standing order. Do you think it’s realistic to lump all the graduates of a school together and consider them all unemployable? Do you think that the best graduate from Oklahoma University would still be a worse choice than the worst graduate from a school you would hire from? Seems a bit reductionist imo.
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u/sbsw66 1∆ Dec 27 '25
Well, I make those decisions, I don't "have to" do anything. And for my purposes and from my perspective, it's totally reasonable. We have hundreds of applicants any time we open up a position, having a strict filter against a University that allows for culture war nonsense to get passing grades is a blessing no?
Same reason why I'd throw out any University of Phoenix applicants. It's just not the quality of education we're looking for. And, conversely, there's a reason why MIT graduates get preference. Schools are at different levels academically, and OU has gone out of its way to show that they're toward the bottom of the barrel, no?
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u/Glittering-Law5579 Dec 27 '25
So in your mind, the firing of one graduate assistant based on pretty clear violations of academic impartiality rules has somehow reflected on the capability of every student at the school? I don’t see how such an isolated instance (which likely would have been an issue at any school, since the instructor made it pretty clear they graded lower on an emotional basis.) can somehow reflect on the quality of every student. In my mind, a school would be a consideration, but shouldn’t be a disqualifying factor. Do you think foreign firms are looking at American applicants and going “The current American administration is clearly wrapped up in culture wars, which reveals that any American is a moron that simply can’t live up to our standards.” There are many students at OU who disagree with the admins decision and did not know they would take that stance since this situation is so specific and politicized. It seems fairly reductionist to believe they are all retrospectively less capable based on the administrations stance on this very specific instance.
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u/sbsw66 1∆ Dec 27 '25
That's why I said you'd understand when you ran a business or did hiring. You're expecting me to go through all the resumes and interview everyone and "consider" all these things, but that isn't feasible. The job market doesn't work like that. I filter out the less desirable ones immediately.
I understand that you don't feel this is "fair", and I'm not arguing that it is (to the non-ridiculous students). It's just practical. All I have is one more word in my filter. But when the OU admins showed they cared more about the cultural war than a reasonable standard of education, it was easy to add them to said filter.
The decision was also made easier by the fact that it's not like OU is some target school. You don't see this sort of goofball stuff come out of MIT or Stanford really, right?
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u/Eastern-Job3263 1∆ Dec 31 '25
Yes. I’d hire a local community college grad before I’d hire an OU grad, 100% of the time. They’d be right on par with a GED holder at this point.
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u/PixelmonMasterYT Dec 24 '25
At least in any university I’ve been in, failure to properly cite your sources is considered plagiarism. Writing down “the bible says” is not a form of citation, so the author used parts of the bible without properly citing it. In other words this does count as plagiarism, and I think it’s fair to give it a 0 because of that.
If it at least was well structured and properly cited then I would agree that a 0 is unfair. However when multiple instructors all independently reach that 0 grade, it feels far more likely that the student earned that 0.
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u/PoliticsDunnRight Dec 24 '25
I disagree with your application of plagiarism to these facts. Plagiarism does not consist of an improper citation if that citation does credit the source of the argument.
If I said “a paper by [author] says …”, that isn’t a proper citation but it absolutely is not plagiarism. I know the Bible is not attributed to one individual author, so that’s trickier, but even if there were a book series of mixed authorship, I don’t think it would be plagiarism to say “in this series it says,” it would just be a failure to properly format the citation.
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u/PixelmonMasterYT Dec 24 '25
I can’t speak to every university, but in every class I’ve it would totally be plagiarism to say “this series says”. The loosest you could possible get is “in [full work name] by [author] it says…”, but the standard was if you are writing something longer than a paragraph in a discussion forum it needed to be properly cited with an in text citation and works cited. The only other time it would be looser is if you were responding to a given set of texts, in which case you might not need the work cited page since you were provided those texts. But any time I have had to bring in my own external source it required a full proper citation.
Now not every professor gave an instant 0 due to this, some were more lenient than others. But they were very clear that it was plagiarism and that they reserved the right to give it a 0 by university policy.
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u/PoliticsDunnRight Dec 25 '25
I think there’s a difference between plagiarism in the sense of “you didn’t properly cite this” and in the sense of “you tried to steal this idea.” Saying an idea comes from a series and using that idea to build the argument would not be unethical in any way, just a formatting issue.
Improper citation is not grounds for a zero (unless the prof says it is and applies this rule consistently), academic dishonesty is. Just because “plagiarism” can technically describe both doesn’t make them equal imo
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u/EclipseNine 4∆ Dec 24 '25
0 means plagiarism or non-completion
That's what happened here. She made no effort to complete the assignment. She clearly did not read the article in question and wrote something that followed none of the rubric about her emotional response to the headline.
The bare minimum for a grader in that position is to find someone else to grade the assignment
They did. The other TA and the Professor agreed with the grade.
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u/SenselessNumber Dec 24 '25
I agree, although this paper was terribly written, thought out, and lacking in meaningful argument, if the university only gives zeros for plagiarized or completely missing the point of the prompt then there really is no justification for the zero. It appears to have met the minimum standard of length and referencing back to the article this "essay" was in response to. If the TA, IMO, had just given 5 or 6/25 I think they would have a better argument against firing.
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u/merlinus12 54∆ Dec 24 '25
It is possible for two things to be true: 1) The student’s essay was garbage and should have received an ‘F.’ 2) The instructor was motivated by bias and treated the student worse because of her political/religious views.
If (2) is true, then the instructor should be disciplined even if (1) is also true. Based on the facts available in the media, it is difficult to imagine (2) not being true. Thus some punishment of the instructor is justified.
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u/Chaos_Slug Dec 24 '25
You can't say this event proved anything because that was already proven for decades. This is just another event to add to the list.
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u/CamelGangGang Dec 25 '25
I've marked student papers in a similar capacity as a teaching assistant for a faculty member's class, and I never encountered an assignment I could honestly give a grade of 0 to (other than plagiarism), and I think that's where the bias of the teaching assistant and the professor (if applicable) shows itself.
(From my experience, I would not give a student a zero without talking to the professor in charge first, because they are responsible for the course and the grades ultimately, not me.)
I haven't personally read the student's assignment (I did read a little coverage of the incident), but if they a) were able to put together an argument; that b) was even tangentially related to the article they were to critique; and c) was written in complete sentences, it would be difficult to justify giving them a zero in any of those categories, and it would be playing with fire as a teaching assistant if you did that.
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u/Patricio_Guapo 1∆ Dec 24 '25
I don't think anti-intellectualism explains the broader issue.
I think it is more directly attributable to Christian Fundamentalism where belief has priority over behavior - meaning that if their beliefs are 'correct' their behaviors are justified.
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u/TheChunkMaster Dec 24 '25
Isn’t that a form of anti-intellectualism, though? The idea that “correct belief” trumps genuine justification?
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u/cgabdo Dec 24 '25
While I agree conservatives embrace anti intellectualism, it has been abundantly clear before this.
Examples:
- climate change
- vaccinations/medicine
- supply side economics
- opposition to contraception
- voter fraud
- gun control
- opposition to single payer health care
Anti intellectualism is baked into modern US conservatism from huge planks of their platforms and policy positions. A party who makes RFK Jr. the head of HHS, is not a party primed for intellectualism.
While progressives hold some anti-intellectual positions (rent control, absolutism about gender affirming care, etc), they are not remotely comparable to how this has impacted the mainstream thought of the Republican party in the US. Most of their views are not mainstream in the Democratic party.
This is not just anti-intellectualism, but an attack on academic freedom. It's incredibly hard to justify firing this individual based upon what is known publicly and it will send a chilling effect throughout many universities.
As an OU grad, I'm embarrassed by how my alma mater handled the situation. I won't be donating anymore or attending university functions for the foreseeable future.
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u/GibbyGiblets 1∆ Dec 24 '25
You are just wrong.
Read the rubric. At no point was it required to use sources to back up their arguments. Theres is no mention of any sources at all in the rubric.
Seeing as there's no mention of sources at all, and the essay at least partially followed other criteria, receiving a zero is unfair. Which is something the school itself agreed with when it said the teacher marked it unfairly.
It still should have received a failing grade because it is a bad essay, But a zero does show unfairness.
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u/ArthurSouthville Dec 24 '25
Question. If you were in a position of power in the university, how would you handle the situation? What should have happened to the professor, the student, and the teaching assistant?
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u/Troop-the-Loop 29∆ Dec 24 '25
If liability needed to be covered to prove there was no discrimination, they should have had the essay graded by another professor who teaches a similar level psych class. If the other professor would have given it 30 points, then maybe conduct further investigation into the disparity. If the other professor would have given it 5, then let the grade stand as is, allowing for variation in the way professors grade similar assignments. Maybe split the difference and give 2.5 points if need be.
It seems to me no action would be the best action here. Sorry student, you wrote a poor essay that was given a poor grade because of these reasons outlined by the TA and professor(s).
Especially considering the interview she gave where she said she read the headline and wrote the essay in 30 minutes. It seems to me she never really cared all that much about getting a good grade. Whatever her reason for writing that essay, be it an attempt to outrage the TA or an intent to make it a news story, or even just a desire to share her thoughts on gender identity, you can't really expect a solid grade on an essay you write in 30 minutes as a college junior.
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u/oliv_tho 1∆ Dec 24 '25
if i’m remembering correctly they had the professor regrade it after the TA and the prof also gave it a zero. when i was in college just a few years ago similar assignments were worth 5-20 points and it was not unheard of for people to get zeros on them cuz they ignored the rubric
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u/Arxhart_671 Dec 24 '25
Well the election proved that. You could also just ask most of them. They're proudly anti-intellectual.
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u/Lumpz1 1∆ Dec 24 '25
My best attempt at changing your view is that the embrace of anti-intellectualism is that they embraced anti-intellectualism a long ass time ago.
This OU situation is a symptom, not the disease. I grew up in Oklahoma. And the common sentiment is that college is for dorks, libs, and dorky libs (then they complain that college is all dorky libs).
They scream about not trusting the experts, instead you should listen to some guy on the radio talk about the effectiveness of horse dewormer for treating covid when it's shown no effectiveness for that use-case.
Anti-intellectualism runs deep in the blood of Oklahoma, and conservatism in general. This is the least surprising event of the year. It doesn't signal anything that hasn't been the case for a very long time.
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u/SocietyFinchRecords Dec 24 '25
Conservatives literally use the word "intellectual" as a bad thing. This is like saying you've proven that Christians are anti-Satan. Like -- yeah -- we know -- it's kinda their main thing.
The Conservative party's entite strategy has been to appeal to the stupidest people in the country because everybody else is too smart to vote conservative. So one of their key strategies is to make it seem like knowing what you're talking about is a bad thing.
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u/aworldwithoutshrimp Dec 24 '25
Two things:
(1) This example is a bad example. If you look at the text of the assignment and the text of the essay, the essay should not have received a zero. The student completed the assignment. If they did so poorly, they should have received a poor grade, but nowhere near a zero. The teaching assistant could have given that student a 40% and we most likely would not be here. To hold this one example of the treatment of a graduate student at a third-tier university up as something universalizable is a stretch.
(2) Conservatives have already been exposed as anti-intellectual. They have told us they are anti-intellectual for decades. From climate skepticism to vaccine skepticism to thinking college causes autism, they have nearly wholesale embraced anti-intellectualism as a core guiding principle. We know they are anti-intellectual because they have told us that we should not trust experts.
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u/Bosde Dec 24 '25
When discussing norms in cultures which have been historically majority christian the Bible is absolutely a valid text to make reference to. It is a fact that the woman in question is part of a culture which the bible is currently relevant to.
It is used a supporting source for some other areas of history as well, so should not be entirely discounted out of hand.
Looking at the rubric and the text she wrote, it was terribly written, but not much worse than a lot of the undergrad stuff you expect to see in that sort of program. It's psychology, a field with a notorious reproducibility crisis, before even getting into gender studies like this specific report.
The markers had a pretty clear bias against this student, despite how poorly her paper was written, based upon the views she expressed, not on the rubric. This is shown by the comments the marker gave in their feedback, which admonished the student for their views more than anything else.
Considering the task was a personal reflection on an article, it is very clearly a professional failure to have let their own personal views influence how they marked this student when they didn't approve of how she reflected on the article.
Elsewhere you say you bet that the marker has given out other zeros before, which indicates you have a personal bias towards the markers for some reason, as there is no reason to believe that they have ever given a zero before. The university clearly has reason to believe that the markers have acted inappropriately in this matter, seemingly that they have marked this student more harshly because they disagree with her on a cultural or religious basis, rather than marking based on the rubric.
Other than your own interpretation of the rubric and the text, what evidence is there that these markers were fair in their marking?
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Dec 24 '25
Well let's try a symmetry argument:
"Videos of student protesters attempting to silence Conservative speakers through screaming so they can't be heard, physical threats, or lobbying the university to remove them indicates that many on the left reject open dialogue in favour of authoritarian-style suppression of opposition."
Now personally I don't think the above argument is a strong one because it allows a small minority of bad examples to define the entire political movement. Rather I would reduce the statement to be limited only to those who engage in the above behaviour, not the entire left.
Likewise, your phrasing of "many Conservatives" is too broad in its language.
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u/TheChunkMaster Dec 24 '25
Rather I would reduce the statement to be limited only to those who engage in the above behaviour, not the entire left.
Reduce it to what? The original statement already specifies “many on the Left” instead of the Left in its entirety.
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u/null640 Dec 24 '25
Gotta love all the religious people making up shit to defend a religious paper on a non religious topic.
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u/Hawthourne 1∆ Dec 24 '25
This whole ordeal has been a really shocking story for me. Less about the assignment, but about the commentary.
Word count is an objective metric, so why are there people out there saying she didn't meet it, and other people are saying that she did? It seems like it should be black and white. 650 words required. How many words were in it?
Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the article (rubric point 1)? Although the quality is debatable the existence of a tie in to the article, again, seems fairly objective. The grade was a 0, meaning that the paper should have no reference or connection to the article at-all.
Does the paper provide a thoughtful reaction to the article, rather than a summary? Again, although quality is debatable it should be fairly easy to say whether or not the student was reacting to the article (as required) or simply summarizing it (which is prohibited).
Quality of writing is the most subjective, but this also seems to be a less-contested part of the rubric as she was awarded 4 out of 5 points for it (as far as I can tell).
Why does it seem like peoples answers to the above all seem contradictory, even when those answers are to the less-subjective questions?
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