Petition Against Fordham Law's Decision About Kaczorowski's Constitutional Law Grade

Signatures 53 total

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1. 1
   Name: Michael Murphy on Jan 28, 2013

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2. 2
   Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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3. 3
   Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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4. 4
   Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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5. 5
   Name: Cristina Rincon on Jan 28, 2013

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6. 6
   Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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7. 7
   Name: Alexander Zozos on Jan 28, 2013

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8. 8
   Name: Nicole Lipsky on Jan 28, 2013

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9. 9
   Name: Samuel Jackson on Jan 28, 2013

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10. 10
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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11. 11
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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12. 12
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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13. 13
    Name: Joannah Caneda on Jan 28, 2013

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14. 14
    Name: Jacob Reiser on Jan 28, 2013

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15. 15
    Name: Anonymous Facebook user on Jan 28, 2013

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16. 16
    Name: Marc Gottlieb on Jan 28, 2013

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17. 17
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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18. 18
    Name: Sarah Goodman on Jan 28, 2013

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19. 19
    Name: Jared Kasner on Jan 28, 2013

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20. 20
    Name: Veronica Orecharova on Jan 28, 2013

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21. 21
    Name: Lara Miller on Jan 28, 2013

    Comments: This solution artificially inflates GPA's in a way that could detrimentally effect other law students of the 2014 class. Since students were already given the choice to rewrite the exam OR accept a their initial grade, despite exposure to the exam questions, the GPA averaging component of this solution is completely unnecessary and unfair.

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22. 22
    Name: Aviva Nusbaum on Jan 28, 2013

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23. 23
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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24. 24
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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25. 25
    Name: Alex Guiterman on Jan 28, 2013

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26. 26
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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27. 27
    Name: Elizabeth Boggia on Jan 28, 2013

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28. 28
    Name: Emily Weissler on Jan 28, 2013

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29. 29
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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30. 30
    Name: James Kim on Jan 28, 2013

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31. 31
    Name: Jamie Kringstein on Jan 28, 2013

    Comments: I think the best option is to grade the class pass/fail, so essentially all students will pass. This avoids the problem of disadvantaging the rest of the class of 2014 in their rankings. The students in the Con Law class will just not have any grade factored into their GPA for Con Law so the GPA will be based on all credits except Constitutional Law so 4 credits less than the total amount of credits taken. Students will still receive credit for taking Con Law but the grade will not be factored into their GPA. The same is true when students do an externship and only one of the three credits is factored into the students' GPA. I cannot think of a fairer and easier way to solve the problem.

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32. 32
    Name: Jamie Clouser on Jan 28, 2013

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33. 33
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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34. 34
    Name: Brandon McKenzie on Jan 28, 2013

    Comments: My understanding of this situation is that Prof. Kaczorowski plagiarized exam questions from another professor's old ConLaw exam (I'm curious if this amounts to an ethics violation that might subject him to professional censure). Some students in Prof. K's class had seen the exam questions prior to taking the exam, which gave those students an unfair advantage on those questions and, as a result, timing for the remaining questions. In an academic environment, particularly a law school, plagiarism of this nature should result in immediate termination (or a request for the professor to resign), and all other professors should be notified accordingly. Unfortunately, I have been told that Prof. K is tenured faculty, so that option is unlikely unless Prof. K chooses to resign voluntarily. I have been told (and someone please correct me if this is incorrect) that the administration has offered three (3) options: 1.) Students may take a grade equivalent to the average of their other grades for the semester (This would apply the same way to students taking twelve credit classes as it would to those taking sixteen). This does not reflect a grade earned for ConLaw coursework and could result in significant grade inflation. I have been told that the Deans looked at past trends, claiming that ConLaw grades were often around the same as the average of other grades. Keep in mind, however, ConLaw used to be taught as a 1L course (i.e. All curved classes, with everyone taking the same number of credits). This "solution" is likely to harm the class standing of over 300 other 2L students. 2.) Take the grade given for the half of the exam that was not plagiarized. This solution is inadequate, because the students who saw the plagiarized exam questions beforehand would have had more time to work on the non-plagiarized section. 3.) Take a grade from a re-take exam. If this option were mandatory, this would be adequate, as all of those students would be on the same curve. Unfortunately, as long as some students opt for choice 1 or 2 above, the curve will be skewed. I was just told that this exam has already been administered (I have yet to verify). The only problem here is that students in Prof. K's class would be forced to do this while taking a full course load this semester (not to mention, it's been over a month since most people have looked at ConLaw). Other proposed solutions: 4.) Make the exam pass/fail. Some students have suggested making the original exam pass/fail. This is somewhat fair, but for those students who would have earned high grades, a "pass" would have no affect on their GPA's, which is unfair to those students. 5.) My proposed solution is a variation of option 3 above. Administer a re-take examination for Prof. K's class. Since the law school refuses to place the blame where it lies, on Prof. K, as Prof. K's employer, Fordham should take responsibility. I propose that a re-take exam be given over a weekend or break, to give students time to review their outlines beforehand. In exchange sacrificing their time due to Prof. K's error, those students should be compensated accordingly, perhaps in the form of a $1,000 tuition credit for next semester. Unfortunately, in what is likely an eighty-person class, that would cost Fordham about $80,000. Since a deduction that large would have a detrimental affect on funds that would normally benefit all Fordham law students, a fair (albeit unlikely) solution would be to ask Professor K., in an email to the Fordham community, to cover those fees. Were he to decline, we would hopefully, at the very least, see an explanation from him for his conduct (and possibly students refusing to take courses with him in the future). My two cents. I would love to know what other students think about this and if others have proposed solutions.

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35. 35
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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36. 36
    Name: Michael Andreou on Jan 28, 2013

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37. 37
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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38. 38
    Name: Abigail Urquhart on Jan 28, 2013

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39. 39
    Name: Alison Cullen on Jan 28, 2013

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40. 40
    Name: Abigail Urquhart on Jan 28, 2013

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41. 41
    Name: Erik Mass on Jan 28, 2013

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42. 42
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 28, 2013

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43. 43
    Name: Martin West on Jan 29, 2013

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44. 44
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 29, 2013

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45. 45
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 29, 2013

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46. 46
    Name: Sarah Rosenberg on Jan 29, 2013

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47. 47
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 29, 2013

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48. 48
    Name: Anonymous on Jan 29, 2013

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49. 49
    Name: Eliska Krausova on Jan 29, 2013

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50. 50
    Name: Alex Marton on Jan 29, 2013

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