[I couldn't access the original NYT story; so I went with 2nd best:]
Daily Mail, Oct. 3, 2022
• Maitland Jones Jr., 84, was fired from New York University after 82 of his 350 students signed a petition against him
• Students claimed course materials for his organic chemistry class were too hard and blamed Jones for their poor test scores
• Jones previously taught at Princeton before moving to a yearly contract teaching at NYU, and later wrote a 1,300-page textbook on the subject he taught
• Jones said he noticed students struggling to reintegrate to in-person classes post-COVID-19 - a decade after he noticed a loss of focus among his students
• Former students and NYU faculty defended Jones, citing poor conduct from students
A New York University professor has been fired after a group of students signed a petition against him suggesting his course was too difficult.
Maitland Jones Jr., 84, had 82 of his 350 organic chemistry students sign the petition citing Jones' teaching methods and course outline as reasons for their poor grades.
'We are very concerned about our scores, and find that they are not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into this class,' the petition said, according to a New York Times report.
. . .
[Jones] said the problem with students emerged a decade ago, just a couple years after he moved from Princeton to NYU in 2007, as he noticed a loss of focus in his students.
As students returned from virtual learning as a result of the pandemic, that problem only got worse. Students were not studying and, Jones said, students seemingly did not know how to.
'We now see single digit scores and even zeros,' he said.
. . .
Jones was not alone in the pushback from students in the return from pandemic learning.
Kent Kirshenbaum, another organic chemistry professor, discovered students cheating during online tests. Citing poor conduct in his decision to reduce grades, students protested by saying 'they were not given grades that would allow them to get into medical school.'
Entering 2022, Jones said students were increasingly disengaged.
'They weren't coming to class, that's for sure, because I can count the house,' Jones said. 'They weren't watching the videos, and they weren't able to answer the questions.'
Following the course's second midterm - a test which resulted in an average score of 30 - several students began to panic about the course as it was a prerequisite for applying to medical schools.
Zacharia Benslimane, a Ph.D student at Harvard and former teaching assistant for Jones, emailed NYU in his defense.
'I think this petition was written more out of unhappiness with exam scores than an actual feeling of being treated unfairly,' he wrote. 'I have noticed that many of the students who consistently complained about the class did not use the resources we afforded to them.'
Jones said he fears for other professors at the university who may face the same response from faculty.
'I don't want my job back,' he said. 'I just want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else.'
