The New York Times recently published an article about how Maitland Jones Jr., an experimental chemist with a long resume of experience in teaching chemistry, was fired from the prestigious New York University (NYU). A group of students who had been in his organic chemistry course complained to the university that Jones’ teaching methods and resources were not enough for them to succeed.
An excerpt from the petition reads, “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. We urge you to realize that a class with such a high percentage of withdrawals and low grades has failed to make students’ learning and well-being a priority and reflects poorly on the chemistry department as well as the institution as a whole.”
The article continues to explain that COVID-19 may have been a factor in the students’ bad performance in the class. Professors from NYU’s chemistry department stated that due to the pandemic, many students experienced learning loss and were coming to the university without the knowledge of how to properly study.
Could this be happening at Southern Adventist University?
According to Chris Hansen, director of Institutional Research at Southern, the amount of F’s and students dropping out of classes have been slowly rising over the last five years. Hansen told the Accent that while the amount of F’s and W’s did noticeably rise in the year 2020, this does not necessarily indicate poor performance among students.
Some professors in Southern’s biology and chemistry departments told the Accent they have seen some differences in the students that have entered post-COVID.
In an interview with the Accent, Brent Hamstra, chair of the Chemistry Department, expressed concern about the fact that some students are coming into science classes without the proper preparation.
“Certainly at some high schools over the past few years, just to kind of survive, things may not have been quite as rigorous. And, again, based on what I’ve seen, the college standards haven’t changed,” he said. “If the high school standards are getting lower, and the college standards are getting higher, the gap is bigger; there’s more of an adjustment.”
Hamstra teaches general chemistry one and two, classes usually taken by freshmen and sophomores who are going into the medical field. He told the Accent that incoming class grades are fairly consistent but a little bit below what the previous years’ were. He noted that while the average of homework grades rose from a 78% average in the Winter 2022 semester to an 87% this fall semester so far, the average for quizzes and tests has stayed around the same.
Students themselves see the change in their studying styles since having Zoom classes compared to attending classes in person. In an email interview with the Accent, Amanda Leitao, a sophomore pre-dent biology major, stated that online classes and being in quarantine affected her time management.
“During my senior year of high school, I got a bit lazier after spending a whole year indoors and having Zoom classes every day,” she wrote. “I was more comfortable with procrastinating. I still got everything done, but I added this unnecessary stress to my putting things off until later.”
Noemi Gonzalez, biology professor, told the Accent that her classes have been fairly consistent over the past few years. In 2020, the department worked tirelessly to make sure that the rigor of the classes was unaffected by the pandemic, she said. Now, after a couple of years of online and hybrid learning, Gonzalez has observed that incoming students do require more support coming back into a physical classroom. Nevertheless, the department is still doing all it can to help them adjust.
“Students, especially freshmen, needed a little bit more hand holding help, just because their last few years of high school were given in a very unusual method,” she said. “It takes a bit more patience, a bit more assistance, but it’s just part of what we do here. We want them to succeed and rise up to the challenge of becoming scientists or allied health professionals.”
