Oberlin College Student’s Request For Ferguson-Related Exam Delay Gets Epic Response
An Oberlin College student makes it clear just why she needs an education.
As I noted last week, Law Students at Columbia University and Harvard University had, apparently successfully, petitioned school authorities to allow students to petition for a delay in their exams due to supposed emotional trauma over events in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York centered around the failure of Grand Juries in those jurisdictions to indict police officers accused of unlawfully causing the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the protests that followed. A student at Oberlin College was met with much less success in her effort to do the same, but got a response that can only be described as epic: (Click to enlarge)
The email was originally posted as a publicly available photo on Facebook and quickly went viral. It has since been either taken down, or marked as private so that it cannot be seen and the Facebook shares have disappeared. Nonetheless, there were several screenshots of the email taken, including the one above. I have chosen, however, to black out most of the identifying information in the email address and the signature block. Anyone wishing to obtain that information can look elsewhere for it. As I had originally commented when I posted about this elsewhere this morning, were I Professor Raney my response would have probably been far more to the point that just Professor Raney’s simple, curt, and blunt “No,” but it seems to me to be the best response possible to an unreasonable, and ultimately dumb request. There are, no doubt, personal tragedies that an extension might be appropriate for, and of course students at all levels are famous for trying to find ways to delay the inevitable — whether it is an exam, a due date for a paper, or some other sort of project with a deadline — to the point where it has become something of a comedic trope for any television show involving students in High School or College. Given that, I suppose it is not all that surprising to see students trying to use events hundreds of miles away —- Oberlin for example is located some 530 miles from Ferguson, Missouri and 492 miles from Staten Island, New York — as excuses to delay exams, but I honestly get the impression that this isn’t just an “I’m not prepared” thing, it’s an earnest belief that they are somehow engaging in a form of social protest by asking for their exams to be delayed. I’m sure that people who stood in front of Bull Connor’s police dogs and water cannon’s appreciate the effort.
It’s worth noting that this exam was not in anything related to the legal field, it wasn’t a political science class, or sociology, or some class studying racial attitudes in America. It was a statistics class. That’s right, a math class. What makes the whole thing even more amusing is how the student decided to share the entire thing with the world:
Notice that the student who sent the email isn’t writing on behalf of herself but that of black students she just knows must be too traumatized to take exams and yet unable to speak for themselves. Good for Professor Raney for quickly and succinctly putting an end to this nonsense.
After receiving his professor’s response, the student posted the exchange publicly to Facebook, with the message: “TRIGGER WARNING: Violent language regarding an extremely dismissive response from a professor. This is an email exchange I had with my professor this evening. … We are obviously not preaching to the choir. Professors and administration at Oberlin need to be held accountable for their words and actions and have a responsibility to their students.”
Not being a current undergraduate or tuned in to whatever the “social justice” movement passes for these days, I have no idea what the Trigger Warning is about here, but apparently the author felt that her response required it. Given the earnestness of her request to the professor for a delay, which she seems honestly shocked was not only denied but denied so curtly, I can only assume that the “No” violates some rule or another that this movement considers important. What’s actually revealed here, though, is what I can only call the truly pathetic state of affairs among students at what are supposed to be some of America’s top universities. Have we really bred a generation that thinks that every piece of bad news that appears on cable creates grounds for which their tender souls must be coddled? I’m afraid it does, and the fact that just a few generations ago their were hundreds of thousands of people their age and younger who responded to a truly traumatic event — an attack on our nation that killed thousands and the prospect of a war that promised to be the bloodiest in the history of human civilization — not by whining and asking to be coddled but by standing up and getting to work doing what needed to be done, thus earning for themselves the title “The Greatest Generation.” Given how things seem to be working out today, our college students are well on their way to earning the title of “The Whiniest Generation,” and I don’t think that bodes well for the future. Buck up kids, because life is full of difficulties and you are either going to be prepared to handle them or you, and the rest of us, are going to pay the price for it. So far, you’re not impressing anyone.
I have a one-word response, Doug: YES!!!
It should be noted that Della here has apparently decided to play “Mighty Whitey” for Oberlin’s black students here, which is its own form of racism.
Well, I guess “No” was either “mansplaining” or “gross insensitivity to people with different life experiences,” which no doubt constitute “microaggressions” that the white, middle-class student in question has repeatedly endured in her 17-19 years on the earth on numerous occasions.
I can’t wait until some of these kids have to survive in the real world…
She cited the Daily Caller?
A friend of mine who’s a dean at a major northeastern private university says she’s never seen so many incoming students with a psychiatric diagnosis in one hand and a fistful of prescriptions for mood stabilizers, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, sedatives, etc. in the other.
I imagine a lot of typing went into that reply, and then finally he just backspaced it all and wrote “No.” Good call.
I’m a pretty cynical dude, but I’m still optimistic that “The Whiniest Generation” will face some kind of rebellion at some point. And stupid stuff like this will inspire it.
In the Spring of 1970 demonstrations against the draft and the Vietnam war were in full swing here at Sleepytown U. On May 4th, when the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed citizens in cold blood, this town came unglued. Hundreds of storefront windows were smashed, cars were burned and the county jail was full every night.
Two weeks of Illinois National Guard with fixed bayonets and loaded rifles. Vigilantes. Illinois State Police chasing citizens into local restaurants and shops, throwing in teargas canisters then beating people soundly with their billy clubs when they tried to escape through exits the cops had blocked.
The city passed an emergency ordinance that stated more than two people standing on the sidewalk constituted a mob. If two citizens were just talking to each other and a third person walked by the State Cops (4 to a car) would jump out, beat, teargas and arrest you.
Finally after days and nights of thousands of students marching and rioting the University shut down. It was a hell of a party the night the school closed.
Did I mention the enrollment here at the time was 99% white?
These college kids today don’t know what trauma is.
I have talked to some university instructors and they relate how it is becoming more common for some parents to accompany their children to the campus and help them out in various ways. This includes everything from cooking meals to meeting with the instructors and wanting to know why Johnny or Jane got a “C” in Psychological Aspects of Video Games. Athletic coaches are having to deal with parents question their child’s playing time.
This is a generation that came through a public school system that now “exceptionalizes” it seems like about 75% of the students, classifying them as having some sort of learning disability in order to meet stringent requirements of the Federal Disabilities Act that hold teachers responsible for meeting a ton of paperwork and classroom modifications that can include desk location, “individualized” assignments, and separate testing !! The system virtually ignores students who quietly go about the day behaving and doing their assignments.
Please support your “75%” claim with relevant data.
@James Pearce:
I’ve always found hilarious the irony that Millenials are being labeled as whiney by Baby Boomers…
@ernieyeball:
When Tyrell decides to deliver soliloquies on the good ol’ days when men were men, women were women, and everyone knew their place, he tends to get fairly fast and loose with “facts” or “numbers” or “rationality.”
Thank you for blacking out her name and email. I wish others had done so.
Oh No! Say it isn’t so!
Gee Hud, we only had 3 TV channels in the ’50s and no internet to download from. They had, well, the world at their fingertips when they were growing up. It just isn’t fair!
@ernieyeball:
My parents refused to buy cable until the day I moved out for college. I had 4 stations (PBS ftw), and I really did have an uphill walk both ways to the bus stop (we had a mile long drive way that crossed a hill).
I’m thinking this means I’m entitled to quite a bit from society, I just can’t figure out what yet…
@Trumwill:
Once she had taken the post off Facebook, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her email address exposed to the public, others can make their own choices about that but I’m not going to help the trollers harass her via email.
Here is a contrarian view: if I were her professor, I would tell her no (but perhaps with less tersity than her real professor) and would especially point out that her serving as spokeswoman for African American students is demeaning to them. I also have no doubt that this e-mail is a product of a society that cares about emotions too much. However, it seems that in opinion polls, millenials are the least likely generation to support torture. If I had to choose between a generation whose over-emotionalism is played out through this kind of silliness and a generation so held by fear that it condones a total retreat from the rules of civilization, I’d go with millenials each time.
Special snowflake is shocked, SHOCKED to find that incessant whining about Teh Damage to My Psyche doesn’t get final exam delay.
Hell, I would have responded the same. And I’m a feminist. Would probably have been much ruder, pointing out that if she can’t handle a simple math exam because of something that happened halfway across the country to someone she didn’t even know, she should probably find a nice padded cell, go into it with her favorite teddy bear, and suck her thumb until she feels better.
If she wants to not show up for the final exam, that’s her choice. But she has to take responsibility for the result of not showing up; i.e., an F for the course.
Yeah, well my dad didn’t buy a color TV till I left the house. He never got cable TV. Even when him and my mom lived in Chicago for 20 years. (Cubs came over the air on WGN.)
Never got a car with a radio in it either. And all those cars were stick shift!
(Gotta confess that the best thing my folks ever did for me and my brother and sister is that they NEVER spanked, hit or laid a hand on us. Thanx Dad, Thanx Mom. RIP)
@ernieyeball: The use of “seems” is all the justification an opinion needs.
I’m so proud that you are all so willing to come together to trash some 19 year old girl for saying something stupid. And then to build on that to trash an entire generation. Truly the internet has liberated the best of humanity and set it free to work to improve the world. Clearly any college student who says something stupid or even naive should be judged as harshly as humanly possible.
I mean, imagine a world in which people across the country didn’t bother to criticize a young college student they’ll never meet for something which has no effect on them. It’s like the Holocaust.
society needs a purge ……. this kind of idiocy makes me want to puke …. should have NO in a 72 font size
@Neil Hudelson: There is a lot of scorn heaped upon us millennials that I frankly have never understood. Even the gen xers are starting. This iteration of kids these days might just seem more vocal because now everyone can express it with the magic of the internet. That said we may just look “worse” to most of the previous generation because we have a written record of all the dumb shit you say and do when you’re a kid. Luckily being 28, I don’t have such a clear online record of the folly of youth.
@wr: It would be a real shame if some kid said or did something stupid and the internet didn’t respond like this.
When I was 19 and in college “My Generation™” got trashed by the bums in the White House all the time.
See Spiro Agnew:
Even though he got off cheap his resignation helped me get over the trauma he visited on this nation.
Meh. I think she’s a Poe. That e-mail is just too good at pushing all the buttons.
My high school senior son is very political, very involved in social justice, and also very involved in taking finals.
Substitute “feels” for “seems”. Same thing.
@Trumwill: Why does it have to be black? Micro-aggressor!
@Gromitt Gunn: I would have blurred it out because I believe in the melting pot, but I decided not to be picky.
The foolish thing she did was not to ask for a delay in taking the finals–she’s young, and when young people see that others are getting away with bullsh!t, they’ll grab a shovel and dig in. I mean, oh some of the BS that I tried to get away with when I was her age…
No, the foolish part was posting it to the internet.
At least in my day, our BS stayed local.
Cheers.
@Dave D: “There is a lot of scorn heaped upon us millennials that I frankly have never understood”
I just spent ten days teaching my low-res class at our residency. I’ve got five “millenial” women who stunned me every day — not only with their talent and ambition and knowledge, but with a sense of solidarity and love between them. It’s been two days and I still miss them every minute — I felt like I was rediscovering life at every moment.
So these assclowns can trash “milennials” all they want. They just make themselves look as impoverished as JKB and SuperDope and Jenos — completely incapable of seeing the good and beautiful in the world, and able only to complain. They can’t die off fast enough to make room for a new generation fast enough.
This is very much a social class thing, too. At the mostly working-class, majority-commuter state school I just graduated from, I can’t imagine a student ever suggesting something like this to a professor. If they did, it would go nowhere. Students without advanced education in their family tree (which does not include me, but does include the vast majority of my classmates) seem much more deferential to faculty and administrators. I think it’s a self-confidence thing. They don’t feel comfortable challenging the guy with a Ph.d, the way some Oberlin student might.
@TheoNott: My daughter is a professor at an open-access, mostly-commuter, state college in the Southeast, and I can assure you her students have no qualms whatsoever about suggesting stuff like this (or worse). One time she made a change to grading policy and a student e-mailed the president of the college in protest.
Fortunately for the future patients of the aspiring nurses and PAs to whom said daughter is teaching anatomy and physiology, said college president was unswayed…
@TheoNott: I am a full-time faculty member at a community college in Texas, and I get stuff like this all the time. I posted course grades yesterday afternoon / evening, and woke up to a dozen emails from students falling a point or two short of the next letter grade up asking to get last-minute special-snowflake brownie points and explaining why their particular circumstance *clearly* doesn’t *really* count as asking for a special advantage over the students who busted their humps to earn their As and Bs.
This even after I’ve expressed multiple times in class (and in my Syllabus) that the only thing that such requests accomplish is a permanent spot on my No Recommendation Letter Ever list.
@Gromitt Gunn: @Mikey:
I stand corrected, I guess. It’s unfortunate that professors have to put up with this stuff. I’m interested in completing a doctorate myself, and if/when I end up teaching undergraduates I intend to be firm in my grading policy. For me, I was always too proud to beg for a higher grade, whenever I was disappointed by my grade on my paper, or got fewer points on a test question than I felt I deserved, I just accepted responsibility for it and figured I would do better next time. Though, then again, maybe it’s easy to accept losing 5 points on a test when the result is a 95 instead of a 100. I was never in a position where my ability to continue paying for school depended on my getting a few extra grade points.
@James Pearce:
I suspect we’re not hearing the non-whiners, because THEY are actually studying something that requires intense study and hard work, and lack both the time and the interest in such utter bovine excrement.
I also note that people like this “Della” person (trust me, her whole name is not hard to find, and googling it is an eye opener: she’s been doing this Social Justice shtick since seventh grade, is the daughter of “two moms”, a professional astrologer (really ? They have pros ?) and a professor of nutrition.
Chances are, one or more of us will eventually cross paths with Miss Della. And when we do, remember to order Large Fries. . .
@<a href="#comment-19911@Keith Glass: 99″>wr:
The daughter of an astrologer and a professor.
No wonder this petty, spoiled, dingbat is such a self-serving whiner.
@TheoNott:
Really? I’m thinking they don’t like challenging anyone with such an unbelievably petty, childish, and pathetic excuse, not because they are more deferential, but rather more rational and mature.
@michael reynolds: @wr:
Yea, “able only to complain.”
Like Della here? Oh wait, she’s a Millenial, they don’t complain like everyone else, right?
@wr: @wr:
To “criticize a young college student they’ll never meet for something which has no effect on them.?” “It’s like the Holocost?” Are you freaking kidding me?
So this incredibly petty, histrionic, and self-serving dingbat criticizes everything from the Ferguson decision, to day-to-day “racism,” to the supposedly horrible lives the poor Blacks have to “endure” in this horrible country, and you are whining about how no one should criticize a 19 year old idiot? Because she’s harmless, supposedly? Seriously, the Holocost? Are you insane? Wait, you must be another one of those hand-wringing victim-peddlers, eh? Assuaging your fragile ego by claiming victimhood to rationalize all your insecurities and failures?
@calimani:
Perhaps you misunderstood me. I agree with you completely- this is a totally BS reason to delay someones finals.
For those of you worried about making fun of this microaggressor, please note that she is the idiot that posted her email, and her professor’s reply, on social media. If you post something on the internet, prepare to be raked over the coals, like William Desmond, the Harvard 3L that made the mistake of writing an opinion piece in the National Law Journal, defending asking to delay exams at Harvard. The comments are hilarious.
I would have given the same response, but drawing any wide conclusions from the incident are unwarranted. Every generation thinks the following one is going to hell in a handbasket. Older people have been bellyaching about kids since there was language and kids have been trying to get away with whatever they see someone else get away with since before that.
“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”
~S
@ernieyeball: Doesn’t have to, it was an opinion based on anecdotal evidence, as indicated by “seems like” preceeding his statistic.
@wr: Most of us may have been similarly stupid when we were 17, but we had enough smarts to not piss off our college professors.
@Gromitt Gunn: You’re reminding me (back when I was a Teaching Assistant) of the kid who pled for reconsideration because yeah, he didn’t put down that much in the exam, but he really truly honestly knew the stuff and had just flaked out…. We T.A.s were not sympathetic.
Is this behavior really that much more commonplace than before, or is it simply with the Internet we can hear about it more?
@Keith Glass: “Chances are, one or more of us will eventually cross paths with Miss Della. And when we do, remember to order Large Fries. . .”
What a loathesome, sanctimonious thing to say about a young girl who has never done you any harm other than be raised by people who no doubt tower above you in terms of courage and morality. I’m sure you’re so secure in your career that nothing can ever harm you — but if you ever said or did anything stupid in your youth, I hope you are made to pay for it for the rest of your life.
Oh — and I bet you call yourself a Christian.
@calimani: “The daughter of an astrologer and a professor.”
And what precisely do you do that’s so impressive you can look down on professors? Traveling salesman? Coder? Or just smug loser?
@calimani: Shame on you. Shame for attacking a young girl who has done nothing to you. Shame on you for attempting to prop up your pathetic, hate-filled existence by trying to drag everyone down to your level. You should unplug your computer and refuse to log on again until you discover a little bit of humanity.
This girl isn’t your enemy. She’s a young woman finding her way in the world. And she’s going to say and do some stupid things, just like everyone else. But we didn’t have sanctimonious creeps waiting to justify themselves by trashing us publically.
For shame.
@grumpy realist: “Most of us may have been similarly stupid when we were 17, but we had enough smarts to not piss off our college professors.”
And there was no internet.
And that’s a reason to attack her? Or maybe to feel a little compassion and leave her alone?
@Moderate Mom: “If you post something on the internet, prepare to be raked over the coals, ”
And you just can’t wait to jump in.. because other people are doing it.
Wait until it’s one of your kids, “Mom.” Maybe you’ll discover a little compassion.
My question is: How did this email correspondence get out onto the interwebs??? Was she or he interested in this rather stupid exchange getting some attention? This kind of shit is so rampant I guess I SHOULD START TRYING TO GET MY OWN EMAILS TO GO VIRAL. T’wouldn’t be so difficult, would it.
Blah blah blah
I guess the student’s generation has rejected the actual answer of NO and needs a dissertation attached that explains the process for arriving at a negative answer.
For my generation it was, “What part of NO do you not understand?”
@humanoid.panda:
Okay, to all you ridiculous haters on this comment list: I am a student at Oberlin college who knows this student. And other students of color ASKED her, as a good ally and a white student whose voice was waaaay more likely to be heard and listened to, to speak up for them. Many students of color had asked their professors for accommodations and were met with even worse and more harmful responses. Others did not feel comfortable speaking up. So yes, she is being a good ally and trying to use her privilege in a constructive way. Please don’t analyze this situation as if you know everything that’s happening: because you don’t. As for the trigger warning, that was put there because this is only one of many emails that the Oberlin administration has sent out that is hurtful, racist, and just plain rude. So to protect people that were already struggling and didn’t want to necessarily be bombarded with another example of just how unhelpful and faux-progessive our school is, she chose to add a warning.
You all should really check your privilege.
This has nothing to do with trying to ‘flake’ on an exam or get out of any work. These students (and by the way, the petition and Della’s email are not supposed to apply to all students; only students of color who need support) have ALREADY been struggling, not because they are stupid or lazy, but because the system is prejudiced against them. These people are victims of SYSTEMIC RACISM: Ferguson is NOT a one-time thing! And for those of you that argue that because this is geographically distant, it doesn’t have an impact on students here: have you not read about 12-year old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed in Cleveland for playing with a toy gun? Many students who go to Oberlin are from cities where police brutality is a real and persistent problem. Students are not slacking, and many are still taking exams or writing their final papers: but how can you focus on your physics problem when you’re worried that your brother, father, sister, friend, might be the one killed next? As one of my friends told me earlier during finals week, this is just another huge addition to the burdens that black students already have to deal with here. Don’t try to question other people’s lived experiences.
One of the most frustrating parts is that Oberlin is historically progressive and liberal (and still claims that they are). But though they were quick to make provisions for student protesters who wanted to be part of a country-wide movement in the ’60s and ’70s, now they ignore the 1000+ students who have signed a petition for change and who have gathered to call out the administration at several protests, marches, and convocations. Shouldn’t the administration be celebrating, praising, and helping these amazing students who are so dedicated to their causes, instead of shooting them down and patronizing them?
Another thing: many of you might not have noticed, but the professor replies 0 minutes later. He didn’t even take the time to read her email, or try to explain himself. As a student in his class, Della and others deserve at least a reason why not. ‘No.’ is just plain rude.
She is the one who first took her “case” against the professer to the Internet to express outage and indignation. She opened herself up to examination and criticism.
@oberlinstudent: He wasn’t “playing” with a toy gun, he was pointing a very realistic toy at people in a threatening way. They called the police. he continued to point the gun. It’s a tragedy, but it happened for very real reasons you HAVE to ignore. But you have to sugarcoat it to fit your agenda.
You would have peed your precious little panties if he was pointing it at you, hipster.
@Michael Modes:
Seriously? If you look at video footage you can see that he was shot almost immediately after the officer got out of the car. Not a second to ask him to put his hands up, but instead just an immediate judgement. And however you attempt to explain away any of these individual events, it’s impossible not to recognize a very disturbing, nation-wide pattern of violence emerging. Open your eyes: it’s not just about a kid whose gun was too realistic or the guy that shouldn’t have been selling loose cigarettes anyways. It’s about unharnessed violence and devaluing of black lives.
And thank you for personally attacking me. That definitely helps your credibility.
I’m pretty close to filling out the American Racial Incident Bingo chart here:
https://neuronbomb.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/905525_10152894786907288_258496331112787388_o.jpg