Professor Reveals He's Secretly Been Deducting Points From Students Who Had Phones on Desks

A college student says a secret cell phone policy one of their professors has implemented has put them at risk of losing a job they had lined up for when they graduate.

Redditor Ok-Hospital1153 uploaded a post to the popular social media platform in the r/advice and r/CollegeRant subs detailing how both they and other classmates were blindsided by this policy.

They stated that the instructor recently revealed that points were being deducted from students who left their cell phones out on their desks during lectures. Consequently, OP says that 20 points were slashed from their grade alone, despite the fact they weren't even using their phone, just because it was on their desk during the lecture.

Their main gripe with the ruling is that they claim the professor "never called attention to it, or said anything about the rule." Furthermore, they added that the professor seemed "smug" about informing the students of this policy, as if they were happy to finally drop this bombshell on attendees.

OP wrote the professor acted "like he'd just won a court case instead of just screwing a random struggling college kid with a contrived loophole."

Moreover, the Reddit user says that they attempted to speak to the professor but coming to an agreement with the educator was unsuccessful. Additionally, they tried submitting a complaint through their school's grade appeal system, however, that, too, didn't work out.

After posting about the incident on Redditor, several other users on the application chimed in. There was one person who opined that perhaps the tactic was meant to frighten students in what seems like a maneuver to try and get attendees to take the class more seriously.

However, OP stated that when they looked into the issue more, they learned that "this is a trap he pulls some semesters." Unfortunately, the Redditor stated, they "didn't get the memo" along with a bunch of their other classmates.

They also added that upon reading the syllabus for the course, the professor wrote that they "retain ... discretion to adjust anyone's grade in light of any infraction."

It appears that the "infraction" in question that OP is referring to is keeping their cell phone on their desk during lectures.

After calculating the deductions to their grade the professor said they were indeed going to cut from OP's grade, they saw that there is no scenario where they wouldn't fail the class.

So they decided to try and get in touch with the school's dean, but couldn't get a meeting with them. They also contacted the school's newspaper, however, the publication didn't seem interested in running an article about it. The Redditor then decided to launch a petition to look into the matter.

This must have caught the attention of the professor, who ended up announcing that the course's syllabus had been amended. It stated that any student looking to overturn a grade outside of the university's official grade appeal system would have their grade ultimately rendered a zero.

OP thought that this would culminate in students being afraid to sign their names to the petition, however, the retaliatory syllabus change frustrated them.

The folks who reached out to the Redditor stated that they knew other people in the class who had points deducted and would probably sign their names to the petition as well.

Someone who worked in education since 2006 replied to OP's post and stated that the syllabus change certainly seems like a form of retaliation against students. They added that in the institutions they teach in, this type of behavior "would not fly." Primarily due to how "vague" the transgressions and subsequent penalties associated with them are.

They capped off their remark by stating OP's professor's measures are a "complete abuse of his authority" and that they've previously seen "professors disciplined over crap like this" during their own time as a teacher.

One Reddit user on the application urged OP to keep attempting to go up higher on the University chain of command. According to them, since "there is always someone more powerful than a professor," they should utilize that organizational structure to their advantage.

Another person in the comments section who also stated that they are a college professor wrote that they were "flabbergasted" by the instructor. Particularly the portion of the amended syllabus where they wrote that students who sought to appeal their grade or call attention to their policies would "result in a fail."