Yesterday, 17 students published a convincing letter in support of Professor Michael Barry. I have never met the man, but I am convinced that dismissing him would be wrongheaded. No one at the University can replace his expertise.
A student familiar with Barry’s courses told me that overly generous grading is a likely reason for his dismissal. If this is true, perhaps the administration is right to show concern about his grading practices. According to the registrar, grades in his “Studies in Later Persian Literature” are based entirely on participation and an oral presentation.
But lenient grading per se is not a compelling reason for dismissing a scholar. In order to preserve the value of A-level grades, the University can make Barry’s seminar P/D/F only. This action has already been taken for creative writing classes, which remain as popular as ever and are vastly enriching to our students.
Newby Parton is a sophomore from McMinnville, TN. He can be reached at newby@princeton.edu.
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Reading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Bring back the course packet
Abigail Rabieh“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
