bush

Spec‘s reporting that freshmen will have the option to retake the lit hum exam or to receive a grade based on the rest of their work this semester. Apparently, it was all the professor’s fault… So the choice is obvious for most.

But what about all those C students who have already jet off for the Caribbean?

Full text of the email after the jump. (Don’t worry, the article is still on the Spec site.) You’ll notice they said they released it “to the press”- check the New York Post, Daily News, AND New York Sun tomorrow for doubtlessly enlightening information, some of which was gathered through Facebooking freshmen.


To All Literature Humanities Students
The following is the statement that the University has released to the
press:
On May 7th it came to the attention of the Literature Humanities faculty
that the results of the final examination for the course may have been
compromised. The exam grades were immediately set aside and an ad hoc
committee of senior faculty appointed to review the matter and recommend
next steps. 
 The committee met today and confirmed that the exam had been
compromised and that responsibility for this lay with an individual
faculty member and not with the students.   In these circumstances the
committee decided that students in the course will have two options:
1. To have the course grade determined on the basis of all work
completed prior to the final exam;
2. To take a replacement exam.
Patricia E. Grieve Austin
E. Quigley
Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor in the Humanities Dean of Columbia
College
Chair, Literature Humanities
************************************************************************
The ad hoc committee, consisting of past, present and incoming chairs of
Lit Hum plus several senior faculty currently teaching Lit Hum,
expresses sympathy for all students whose year of Lit Hum at Columbia
has ended in this way.  To ensure equity, the committee has set the
following policy:
Grades based on work completed prior to the invalidated final exam will
be posted by Tuesday, May 15.
Students who wish to accept the posted grade need take no further
action.
Students who choose to take a replacement exam after seeing their grade
must declare their intent to do so to the Core Office no later than
Friday, May 18, at 5:00 p.m.  A separate e-mail address is being created
for this purpose; it will be sent to you shortly.  This notification
date is needed in order to arrange the logistics required for a
replacement exam.
The replacement exam will be administered on the first Friday afternoon
of the fall 2007 semester.  Further details will be announced in due
course.
Patricia E. Grieve, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor in the
Humanities, Chair of Literature Humanities
Deborah A. Martinsen, Associate Dean of the Core Curriculum