Don't Cry Over Bad Grades, Sue Your College

STLTODAY.com

B-minus? See you in court
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Bob Whitney isn't willing to accept a B-minus. He's suing the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after losing an appeal over the grade.

Bob Whitney, 52, alleges in the lawsuit that a history professor discriminated against him because of his conservative values. He seeks at least $10,000 for emotional duress, tuition, books and living expenses.

University officials say the complaint filed Jan. 12 in Clark County District Court has no merit.

Whitney said the grade he got in Eugene Moehring's class in spring 2004 damaged his grade-point average and made him ineligible for student loans. He claimed Moehring's fast-paced lectures prevented him from taking complete notes, and Moehring criticized his conservatism in written assignments.

Whitney accused Andrew Bell, then a graduate coordinator, of refusing to change the grade and humiliating him by yelling at him in front of his wife.

Bell, now associate dean of the liberal arts college, and Moehring, who has taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for 28 years, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Article was short enough to post in entirety. Did you find the funny?

Bob Whitney, 52, alleges in the lawsuit that a history professor discriminated against him because of his conservative values. He seeks at least $10,000 for emotional duress, tuition, books and living expenses.

If conservative values include frivilous lawsuits, blaming others for personal failure and just generally being a huge crybaby, this guy might just have a case.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Hey I am going to tell my daughter about that, maybe she will get one day to a point that she will not "agree" with her grade.

Perhaps the man in question got the teacher in a bad mood.

this incident is, indeed, something stupid. However, the issue of liberal professors treating students with conservative views unequally is, whether you believe it or not, a disturbing trend that needs to be addressed.

Yes, cause those liberals are everywhere gonna eat your babies, you sound like what iran sounds like when they talk about Jews. "They will come and eat your babies." Iran television NEWS channel. I swear, the reason you didn't get that extra pickel on your burger is cause you are a republican and the girl who made the sandwich was a LIBERAL! The reason that guy cut you off in traffic is cause you are a republican and he was a LIBERAL! The reason ATS sometimes won't open for you is because you are a republican and ATS is a LIBERAL! Get over it, you just sound pathetic when you balme your problems on a boogeyman, like what hitler did to the jews.

Anyways, this guy reminds me of the lawsuits that pop up every year at graduation time. "They didn't graduate me cause I got Fs in all my classes for 7 years if a row, I'm suing so they pass me!"

as posted by James the Lesser
Anyways, this guy reminds me of the lawsuits that pop up every year at graduation time. "They didn't graduate me cause I got Fs in all my classes for 7 years if a row, I'm suing so they pass me!"

Most excellent point, James.
Considering that I finally got around to attending a Freshman Seminar this year (being I was way too busy that last couple years), I was astounded, well, maybe not astounded but a bit surprised, to find that nearly 55+% of all Freshman drop out of college their first year, for a variety of reasons, but the prevailing reason was grades.

Between partys, going off-campus to the pub or bar, staying up till 4am, despite having a class at 8am, chasing women or men, etc., its amazing that now "politics" has come into play concerning "grades". Ironic that now you can sue over being politically discriminated against.

I guess next someone will decide to sue a coach for lack of playing time, because the coach was a conservative or liberal? Will this then progress past the college campus into the everyday world? The next time I get that liberal Kerry-loving waiter at the restaurant , perhaps I'll sue him for cutting me short on my food because I'm a conservative, etc.?!

This stuff is getting ridiculous.




seekerof

[edit on 14-2-2005 by Seekerof]

Hahaha, the reason he didn't let me play in the basketball game wasn't because I am 4"3, it is because I am a conservative.

Anyways, I do love stupid people, they bring me so much entertainment.

He shouldnt whine, the state of NV swung Republican in the elections so he should be happy enough with that. People who moan about something like a B- need to get slapped for being so demanding, cant they be happy with an above average grade, or do they need that extra ego inflation from the A? He tried the appeal, got shot down, so now he should just buck up and get on with life.

As for the whole accusations of humiliation, if it transpired after the appeal process was over and Whitney was still complaining then I think its completely warranted to make the dip**** look exactly like what he is, a whiner who doesnt know when to shut up and move on.

Sweet. I am suing over my B minus too.

Anyone know any good lawyers?

Surf

Originally posted by bratok

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;



Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Thanks for that.


Love that poem - picked it myself for a 6th grade recital. Never realized it didn't apply to me cuz I'm female. ...still don't. I kinda just reword it in my head to make it work.


Anyway, ya gotta love those conservatives. They're consistent in their hypocrisy at least.


.

I remember years ago having a certain teacher who was an actual communist. This man hated me with a passion. And I'm hardly conservative, just outspoken and obnoxious.

He once refused to grade a paper I had written on the fall of Rome. He objected to my first sentence and refused to read any further. After he handed me my 'F' with 'This is garbage' scrawled across the top in red pen, I took my paper to the Administrative offices and refused to leave until someone dealt with the issue.

I received an 'A' from an alternate teacher assigned to grade my paper, and was issued an apology.

Lawsuit, blech

The sentence he objected so strongly to (I will never forget this): The question is not what the leading causes of the fall of the Roman empire were, and what we can learn from them; Instead, the question we should be asking is how did the Roman Empire manage to last as long as it did while the ruling class was busy having orgies, enjoying bloodsports and passing the time in vomitoriums and bath houses.

So I tend to the dramatic sometimes, sue me

Originally posted by Duzey
The sentence he objected so strongly to (I will never forget this): The question is not what the leading causes of the fall of the Roman empire were, and what we can learn from them; Instead, the question we should be asking is how did the Roman Empire manage to last as long as it did while the ruling class was busy having orgies, enjoying bloodsports and passing the time in vomitoriums and bath houses.

Best thing I have read all day. I would given you an A just for that first sentence, because that is so right.

Come on people, don't be so politically correct.

Surf

I think this guy has a case. I got screwed out of my pell grants by a college (University of Arkansas). It was mandatory that all Freshman take a course in "Foundations of Learning", where you basically learned that college is a huge ripoff that keeps ramming you in various places for four years. On top of that, at the beginning of the fall semester we must take a COMPASS test on the computer, but they failed to tell us that in the English composition your suppose to click on every sentence and correct it, even if it is already correct. Nah, they just threw us into the computer lab and told us to take the test, and there was no directions on the computer! We just took the test and failed, many of us. Most of the Freshmen class was enraged when we were properly told how to take the test at the end of our fall semester. I am still enrage when I think about the waste of time! I made a 74% correcting only the mistakes on the computer without proper knowledge of how to take the take, and made a 97% when I was told how to properly take the test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've now dropped out of college on the basis of thier ethical problems and am waiting to find a more respectable college, a college I can be proud to obtain my degree from. If you have children, don't ever let them attend University of Arkansas. Besides razorbacks sucking big _____, they're academia is even worse.

[edit on 01/27/2005 by TheBigD]

College is just a money machine...Books, Tuitions, Room and Board...It all cost too damn much. Especially books, my GOD, they run anywhere between min. $50 to over $100 for just 1 book. To top it off, they don't last the next semester or quarter...But, to complain about a grade is ridiculous and a waste of time.

Originally posted by 954speeder
But, to complain about a grade is ridiculous and a waste of time.

Yeah, I didn't complain when I figured out the college had "hit and quit it" on me, I just bottled up my anger and dropped out cause the system won't change no matter how mad or crazy I get. I passed all my classes. I think the test your ability to not go crazy, I felt like cutting my ears off after listening to a bunch of half----ed professors lecture about irrelevant stuff that usually didn't even have anything to do with the subject of the class.............that probably how they found themselves teaching at University of Arkansas.

(although it is stupid to sue a school over grades.)

This country HAS declared war on conservative traditional values and morality, it is a rampant problem at the college level.



And whether you agree or not...
I swear to you the disintegration of the Family as the core value and foundation of the societal structure will be the undoing of our society, make no mistake about it.

Originally posted by Lking4
I swear to you the disintegration of the Family as the core value and foundation of the societal structure will be the undoing of our society, make no mistake about it.

LOL! You sound like people back in the 1960's when hippies and stuff started demonstrating. It won't be "undoing" of society. Society is evolving, you make it sound like catastrophe will happen because of family values not being the number one issue. If your conservative politicians really cared about "Family values" then they would make a mandatory vacation bill for all americans to spend time with their families. So, what exactly will happen in your version of "undoing" of society?
Etoro culture and society is still going and they're a society that endorses homosexuality. So, society is an evolution.

[edit on 01/27/2005 by TheBigD]

Originally posted by Lking4
(although it is stupid to sue a school over grades.)

This country HAS declared war on conservative traditional values and morality, it is a rampant problem at the college level.



And whether you agree or not...
I swear to you the disintegration of the Family as the core value and foundation of the societal structure will be the undoing of our society, make no mistake about it.

QUIT WATCHING FOX NEWS! You sound like you've been "hannitized".

I had a Professor in my ENG 102 Composition - Argumentative English. I don't think a single day went by where we didn't butt heads. And Hard. I think on every single topic that is controversial , abortion, religion, government, military, etc. we disagreed with each other 180 degrees and I was much younger then and there was alot of yelling involved. Anyhow, my GPA for that class was 4.0.

This is copied from my transcript. Can't get the title row and the data row to line up though...

COURSE ID -------- TITLE -------- GRADE CREDITS
ENGL 102 COMPOSITION 4.0 5.0

If your Professor doesn't agree with you and you have the basic knowledge to make logical stands on your beliefs, you can get the grade, regardless of whether your liberal or conservative.

Phae


[edit on 2/15/2005 by Phaethor]

It's fun not agreeing with the teach, brings alot more entertainment to your life, and even better when you get good grades cause you know you aren't the teachers pet, you deserved the grade you got.