NYU Professor Fired After Students Say Class is Too Hard

Last week, one of the most well-known names in the field of Organic Chemistry (Orgo) was fired. His name is Dr. Maitland Jones, Jr. and he’s been teaching Organic Chemistry for over 25 years.

Now, if you aren’t a Doctor or a Dentist, you probably didn’t take Orgo. Organic chemistry is vital because it\’s the study of life and every one of the chemical reactions associated with life.

It’s known as the “weed-out” class for kids wanting to go to Medical School. As such, Organic Chemistry is super-hard. According to my Primary Care Physician, it was the hardest class he ever took, including his Medical School classes. See, colleges and universities use Orgo as way to ensure that only the best & brightest students apply to Medical School. That way they can brag about a 94% admission rate to Medical school. Anyone contemplating Medical or Dental School knows that Orgo is the gatekeeper for a career in Medicine.

That’s why it was so surprising this week to learn that New York University canned one of the most well-known Chemistry Professors in the country. Dr. Maitland Jones, Jr. literally wrote the 1,200 page textbook on Orgo and it’s now in it’s fifth edition. Prior to joining the faculty at NYU in 2007, Jones was a tenured Professor at Princeton.

So why did NYU sack the esteemed Professor? You’re probably thinking that Jones got caught in the supply closet with a nekkid co-ed, or tweeted something nefarious back in 2012. No so. Professor Jones was fired because 82 students out of a class of 350 signed a petition last spring. It alleged that the Professor’s class was too hard. The students cited mental and emotional distress from the class and demanded that the class be made less difficult. Yes, the generation that grew up on participation trophies and Gray’s Anatomy wants a do-over.

Here’s a snippet from a New York Times article:

One student even claimed to have “hyperventilated” about their grades and the possibility of not getting into the right Medical school.

According to the article, “The university’s handling of the petition provoked equal and opposite reactions from both the chemistry faculty, who protested the decisions, and pro-Jones students, who sent glowing letters of endorsement.” One supportive letter quoted in the Times article stated:

The NYT article outlines the efforts undertaken by Professor Jones to assuage the students and faculty at NYU. According to the Times:

In an interview, Dr. Jones described how things had changed after Covid. Students seemed to have lost their focus and were, more or less, mailing it in. “They weren’t coming to class, that’s for sure, because I can count the house,” Dr. Jones said in an interview. “They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.”

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In addition, it seems students got lazy during Covid. Remote learning created a comfort with being able to watch lectures in your day-jammies from your futon. And, I also suspect that during that period of remote learning there was an enormous amount of cheating. As a result, the kids are academically stunted compared to previous pre-med students.

The key driver of the University’s decision can be found in a statement from the Chairman of the university’s chemistry faculty. His statement cited “concerns from tuition fee bill payers” (i.e. parents of students) when dismissing the professor in August. Meaning that the university acquiesced to the students in order to avoid noise from the parents paying the tuition bills. It’s even more ironic considering the petition did not ask for Jones’s termination.

In order to calm the “tuition fee bill payers”, NYU agreed to a plan allowing students to have their grades reviewed. For the first time since it’s founding in 1831, NYU also agreed to allow students to withdraw retroactively from the class. So, basically the university decided to give the whiners a gigantic “do-over”. And an adult version of the participation trophy.

The Chairman described this decision as an effort to \”extend a gentle but firm hand to the students and those who pay the tuition bills.\” Firm hand?

The decision to fire Dr. Jones and to make grading exceptions opens the door to future protest. And, it raises the question about the integrity of the school’s $80,000 annual tuition. Is it possible that an exorbitant tuition creates greater pressure on the faculty to ensure that students grades are acceptable? Is this not inviting helicopter parents and whiny, coddled students to throw a temper-tantrum to obstruct academic freedom? Is the University more concerned with student protests and a few angry tweets than upholding the academic integrity of a 190 year old institution? The answer to all these questions is yes.

For me, I don’t want a Doctor who hyperventilated over Organic Chemistry cutting me open. I wanna know that my Doc crushed Orgo the hard way. That she had to invest time, discipline and persistence to master it. And, that the gate to Medical School is still ten feet high.

Why? Because life is full of stress and distress. And, more importantly, life as any kind of Physician is fraught with stress and distress. If you’re hyperventilating over passing Organic Chemistry, perhaps holding another human being’s life in the palm of your hands isn’t for you.

But, the world and karma may get the last laugh. See, that petition is now in the public domain. I imagine that the Admissions departments at the nation’s most prestigious Medical schools are reading this story. And, I’m betting they’re gonna check to see if an applicant from NYU signed that whiny-ass petition. Cause I’m betting that Medical Schools don’t want a bunch a whiny-ass, entitled kids who couldn’t pass Orgo. I hope these kids learn a valuable lesson. Life is hard. Suck it up, buttercup.

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