Student Denied Permission to Progress in Program

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Quoting Here for advice

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If it were a public university, I would agree. However, because it is a private university, I still have faith. Based upon my knowledge (and I've done a lot of research on this), unless someone points out something I haven't already considered, I THINK I can still sue for the damages. I just need to find the right lawyer.

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The right lawyer will come. You'll just have to have VERY. DEEP. POCKETS. to make this happen. A full on trial could cost YOU into the 6 figures.

(I'd probably forget the chiropractic bills lest I be laughed out of court)

You'd have a BETTER chance if it were a public university. Because it is a private university, your chances of a successful lawsuit are between slim and none, and slim just left the building.

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Quoting Lehk

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so you bombed the course, bombed the final. bombed the makeup final, and now you are mad at the professor?

work harder next time.

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Actually we had a quiz in this course every week; there were a total there were a total of 13 weekly quizzes. I received 80's, 90's & 100's on 9 of the 13 quizzes. I received two 60's and one 50 on the remaining 3 quizzes. Each quiz was 10 questions and worth 10 points.

As for the original final, our class was divided between two classrooms. Each classroom had a professor from the school of pharmacy who acted as the proctor. (This is standard operating procedure for every exam). During this particular exam, less than 20% of the class was able to finish the exam in the time allotted; this is not normal. Typically, no more than 5 students (out of a class of ~60) use the entire time allotted for an exam. Because of the number of individuals still testing when time should have been called, one of the proctors allowed the students in his classroom 10 additional minutes with their exams. I was not in the classroom that was awarded these additional 10 minutes and ran out of time to complete my exam during the time allotted. My score was a 68.8%; one percent away from the 70% I needed to progress. My argument for the first appeal I filed was that had I been awarded the 10 extra minutes half of the class received, I would have been able to obtain the additional 1% I needed in order to reach the 70% exam average necessary for progression. The Dean of the School of Pharmacy reviewed this appeal and issued the retake exam which was to be comparable.

With regard to the incomparable section on the retake final, the original final contained a similar section, but only asked material we actually studied in class and consisted of 14 questions. I got all 14 of these questions correct on the original final. That being said, I would have done fine on this section had the professor not incorporated concepts we did not cover in his class.

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Quoting BenT

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I am shaking my head. What institution allows a professor to rewrite an exam at their own discretion? If anything, this stacks the cards for the professor to fail a student. In most cases - there are alternate standardized exams. Form A, Form B.

I hope your lawyer is able to dig a little deeper because what you've described is academic BS. Boy's Club stuff.

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I was skeptical of the retake exam from the get go. During the first appeal part of the appeal, the professor made false and inaccurate statements about my work ethic in his course. I have these statements in writing. I also have documented evidence which falsifies the statements this professor made. Needless to say, I didn't trust him. I provided the Academic Dean with all of the facts. She simply chose to ignore the facts.

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Quoting CourtClerk

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The right lawyer will come. You'll just have to have VERY. DEEP. POCKETS. to make this happen. A full on trial could cost YOU into the 6 figures.

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I was aware this could get expensive, but what will make it so expensive? Will the university get involved even though I'm only suing one professor? This is a whole new area to me. Any advice in this area is helpful!

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Quoting cbg

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You'd have a BETTER chance if it were a public university. Because it is a private university, your chances of a successful lawsuit are between slim and none, and slim just left the building.

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It's my understanding that at a public university the laws are much more strict than at a private university. Is this not true? Additionally, I don't plan on suing the university, just the one professor. What about a private university would make filing a lawsuit against a professor that much more difficult?

To oversimplify things:

Public: Held to a certain standard, which is much more enforceable.

Private: Can do their own thing to a huge extent.

You're talking about a major trial - and you can virtually guarantee that the professor (if the lawsuit isn't summarily dismissed before it even gets started) will have the full backing and legal representation provided by the University; you will be in effect taking on the entire University.

Honestly? You seriously need to think about this. This is not your run of the mill small claims suit. This isn't even a slamdunk med-mal case where the attorney will take a percentage of the judgment. You're talking about an entity which can likely very easily bury you in legal fees before you even step inside of the courthouse. You're talking about a major undertaking where you will be paying the legal fees up front. You are potentially thinking 6 figures and several YEARS to even get to a preliminary hearing.

Are you absolutely sure you want to start something that you may not be able to finish (at best) and perhaps be liable for THEIR legal fees, too?

I agree with everything Dogmatique just said. In addition, something else to consider is whether the University has an absolute obligation to allow you to return to their program. Can the offer allowing you to return after you retake this course be rescinded? It would certainly be a sad state to sue and then find yourself unwelcome to return at all. So, add researching if any of your credits are transferrable should you became a persona non grata at the University to your list of things to consider prior to taking any action.

It's my understanding that at a public university the laws are much more strict than at a private university. Is this not true?

Because a public university uses public funds, they are held to a much stricter accounting than private universities. A public university must dot every i and cross every t. Therefore, if indeed the AD did not follow the absolute proper procedure in determining whether the tests were comparable (although I am not convinced that this is the case), you would have more protections than you have at a private university, where they can do pretty much anything they like as long as they do not violate the law. And one thing I can absolutely promise you - no laws have been violated.

When you attended school, they said sign these forms. These forms tell you our rules. You agree to follow our rules. Give us X dollars and we will start teaching you(OFFER). You said sounds cool to me. I will sign the admission form and other misc forms to start there(ACCEPTANCE). (MEETING OF MINDS) Here is my tuition money for classes as we agreed to(CONSIDERATION). So, we have a meeting of the minds, offer, acceptance and consideration, in writing. That is a contract.

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Quoting Here for advice

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There wasn't a contract with the school it was an agreement. I already consulted a lawyer to ask whether or not this situation constitutes a contract. Situations such as this, in which an agreement is signed, do not constitute a contract in the court of law.

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Quoting cbg

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It's my understanding that at a public university the laws are much more strict than at a private university. Is this not true?

Because a public university uses public funds, they are held to a much stricter accounting than private universities. A public university must dot every i and cross every t. Therefore, if indeed the AD did not follow the absolute proper procedure in determining whether the tests were comparable (although I am not convinced that this is the case), you would have more protections than you have at a private university, where they can do pretty much anything they like as long as they do not violate the law. And one thing I can absolutely promise you - no laws have been violated.

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I am by no means an expert in law, but pharmacy students are required to take a laws & policies class. While I realize that this class would only scratch the surface of the education lawyers receive in their four years of law school, the class did provide a foundation in understanding law. An practicing lawyer taught this course at our university and he did not go easy on us just because we were pharmacy students. His philosophy was, "The law is the law and pharmacists aren't exempt from the law." His intent was to make sure we had an understanding of the many ways in which the law can be interpreted." While awaiting the final decision from the AD, I consulted my notes from my law and policies class. I made two observations:
1. The ruling the Dean of the School of Pharmacy issued meet the six criteria for a contract.
2. When my professor wrote the retake exam, he did so knowing I wouldn't perform well on this exam. Negligence is, "A failure to use reasonable care that results in harm to another party. Under negligence law, there are two different forms of negligence. In one form, a person does something that a reasonable person would not do. In the other form a person fails to take action that a reasonable person would take to prevent harm. Both forms of negligence can result in a negligence lawsuit filed against the party responsible for the damage."

I looked into suing this professor for a breach of contract. I consulted a lawyer who informed me that this type of contract wouldn't hold up in the court of law. Additionally, the lawyer stated that because it was issued by a school entity, it would be considered an agreement rather than a contract.

On the other hand, I believe professional negligence still applies. Professional negligence is a violation of the law in civil court. This professor wrote a retake exam which included information that we did not cover in the class. When writing this retake exam, the professor knew I wasn't capable of apply this information; we never covered the chapter the information came from.

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Quoting Here for advice

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I am by no means an expert in law, but pharmacy students are required to take a laws & policies class. While I realize that this class would only scratch the surface of the education lawyers receive in their four years of law school, the class did provide a foundation in understanding law. An practicing lawyer taught this course at our university and he did not go easy on us just because we were pharmacy students. His philosophy was, "The law is the law and pharmacists aren't exempt from the law." His intent was to make sure we had an understanding of the many ways in which the law can be interpreted." While awaiting the final decision from the AD, I consulted my notes from my law and policies class. I made two observations:
1. The ruling the Dean of the School of Pharmacy issued meet the six criteria for a contract.
2. When my professor wrote the retake exam, he did so knowing I wouldn't perform well on this exam. Negligence is, "A failure to use reasonable care that results in harm to another party. Under negligence law, there are two different forms of negligence. In one form, a person does something that a reasonable person would not do. In the other form a person fails to take action that a reasonable person would take to prevent harm. Both forms of negligence can result in a negligence lawsuit filed against the party responsible for the damage."

I looked into suing this professor for a breach of contract. I consulted a lawyer who informed me that this type of contract wouldn't hold up in the court of law. Additionally, the lawyer stated that because it was issued by a school entity, it would be considered an agreement rather than a contract.

On the other hand, I believe professional negligence still applies. Professional negligence is a violation of the law in civil court. This professor wrote a retake exam which included information that we did not cover in the class. When writing this retake exam, the professor knew I wasn't capable of apply this information; we never covered the chapter the information came from.

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If you truly believe that you have a suit, you're of course welcome to consult with an attorney at your earliest convenience.

But if several very knowledgeable posters all share the same opinion, you must consider why that is so.