A Lowering Of Standards

I could understand giving a little extra time to complete coursework, given the troubles of the last week, but this?  No.  This is sickening on many levels:

Students at the University of Washington are demanding that black students be given leniency on finals because they are too “busy fighting for [their] rights to sit down and study.” The university is advising professors to do just that.

An online petition calls for laxed grading and accommodations, specifically for Black students. So far, the petition has amassed more than 26,000 signatures.

“...give Black students a break! We are already DISPROPORTIONATELY impacted by this pandemic in terms of health care access and financial hardship. Now add state-sanctioned violence, how do you expect us to enter finals in this headspace?!” reads the petition.

"You need to encourage and demand professors to accommodate their black students during this time. If UW truly understands our pain, UW will be a part of alleviating it,” the petition continues. “We can’t sit back and watch as injustices unfold before our eyes. We don’t have the privilege that white and non-black students do to ignore what’s happening and stay at home to study for finals," the petition added.

Any school that would give in to such a petition should lose its academic accreditation.  They won't, of course, but they should.  And I don't have a lot of confidence that UW will stand up for academic excellence in this case.

Update, 6/7/20:  UCLA, too:

Some students at the University of California Los Angeles are demanding the firing of professors who refuse to cancel final exams over the death of George Floyd.

Professor Gordon Klein of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management was doxxed by students after he declined to allow minority students to skip the final exams over grief caused by the death of Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

"Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota," Klein reportedly said in an email to a student who requested a final exam reprieve. "Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only? Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?"

Preet Bains, a UCLA senior, started a Change.org petition asking the university to fire Klein for that response.

Update #2, 6/15/20:  From Campus Reform:

New evidence suggests that the UCLA professor who was suspended after refusing to ease grading requirements on black students was actually expressly told by the diversity chairman not to offer such accommodations.

UCLA lecturer Gordon Klein is now under police protection following his refusal to grant special treatment to minority students in light of the George Floyd protests, the Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday. A spokesman stated that the Malibu Police Department has increased police presence around Klein’s home in response to multiple threats against the professor.

Klein has been suspended for three weeks while the university conducts an investigation of the incident. Campus Reformreported Tuesday that an online petition calling for Klein’s firing had reached more than 20,000 signatures.