A university professor has been sacked after students signed a petition complaining his course was too hard.
After signatures were counted, 82 of Maitland Jones Jr's 350 students had signed blaming him for the poor pass rate on the notoriously difficult organic chemistry course.
Despite the professor, 84, defending his actions, the dean of New York University terminated his contract.
Dr Jones' fellow teachers have leapt to his defence.
Paramjit Arora, a chemistry professor who worked closely with Dr Jones, said: “The deans are obviously going for some bottom line, and they want happy students who are saying great things about the university so more people apply and the US News rankings keep going higher."
Organic chemistry is key for anyone hoping to go on to study medicine.
Dr Jones tried to make amends for the struggling students still reeling from the disruption caused by the pandemic when classes went online.
The petition said: “We urge you to realise 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.”
In second midterm exams the average was around 30 percent. Despite the frustration the petition did not call for Dr Jones to be fired.
Zacharia Benslimane, a teaching assistant working with Dr Jones, defended him in an email to university officials.
She wrote: “I think this petition was written more out of unhappiness with exam scores than an actual feeling of being treated unfairly.
"I have noticed that many of the students who consistently complained about the class did not use the resources we afforded to them.”
In August, Dr Jones was told his contract would be terminated as his performance "did not rise to the standards we require from our teaching faculty”.
John Beckman, a spokesman for the university, defended the decision, saying that multiple students had complained about Dr Jones' “dismissiveness, unresponsiveness, condescension and opacity about grading”.
He added Dr Jones' evaluations “were by far the worst, not only among members of the chemistry department, but among all the university’s undergraduate science courses”.
