I have been writing for the last two years about race based admissions in colleges and other affirmative action programs which actually hurt minorities more than help them. Like most of my readers, I get disgruntled reading stories about the failures in the African-American community being blamed on institutionalized racism, rather than on lack of motivation, or downright incompetence on the part of those who actually failed. Today I read about a professor at Norfolk State University who was denied tenure because he did not pass enough students in his class. The large percentage of D’s and F’s Professor Aird awarded were not however due to poor teaching, or difficult curriculum, they were due to poor attendance on the part of the students.

A subtext of the discussion is that Norfolk State is a historically black university with a mission that includes educating many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The university suggests that Aird — who is white — has failed to embrace the mission of educating those who aren’t well prepared. But Aird — who had backing from his department and has some very loyal students as well — maintains that the university is hurting the very students it says it wants to help. Aird believes most of his students could succeed, but have no incentive to work as hard as they need to when the administration makes clear they can pass regardless.

In the classes for which he was criticized by the dean for his grading — classes in which he awarded D’s or F’s to about 90 percent of students — Aird has attendance records indicating that the average student attended class only 66 percent of the time. Based on such a figure, he said, “the expected mean grade would have been an F,” and yet he was denied tenure for giving such grades.

…many professors at Norfolk State say that there is a clear expectation from administrators — in particular from Dean Sandra J. DeLoatch, the dean whose recommendation turned the tide against Aird’s tenure bid — that 70 percent of students should pass.

Aird said that figure was repeatedly made clear to him and he resisted it. Others back his claim privately. For the record, Joseph C. Hall, a chemistry professor at president of the Faculty Senate, said that DeLoatch “encouraged” professors to pass at least 70 percent of students in each course, regardless of performance. Hall said that there is never a direct order given, but that one isn’t really needed.

Despite the fact that a large percentage of the professors students did not show up for class, the professor was expected to pass them anyway. Not because they showed a clear understanding of the coursework mind you, but because they come from “disadvantaged backgrounds”. No explanation is offered as to how passing students who do not show up for class will in any way benefit them when they enter the workforce. The only lesson that would be taught to these students is that it is not necessary to work hard in order to succeed.

John Hawkins at RightWingNews.com nails it:

Let me tell you something: college, at the undergraduate level at least, is a snap compared to the working world. If you can’t even manage to show up for your college courses, which probably last an hour, what happens when you have to show up for a job?

Moreover, what happens when your employer figures out that despite the fact that you have a degree from Norfolk State University, you’re as dumb as a brick because you got passed along in class after class despite the fact that you never showed up?

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Affirmative Action, Diversity, Education, Features, Racism