To the BIOS E-1a teaching staff, Dr. Fixsen, Dean Lambert, and other interested parties;


We the students of BIOS E-1a, Introduction to Molecular and Cellular Biology, of the Fall of 2014 at the Harvard Extension School would like to draw attention to several issues leading up to and culminating with the second midterm examination that was administered to the class on the evening of November 17th.

We the undersigned students believe that this examination was fundamentally unfair in both writing and administration. With frequent interruptions, innumerable exam writing mistakes (such as incorrectly written base pair sequences), and poorly worded questions, we do not believe that this exam grade should be allowed to stand as is. We also believe that we were misled with regards to preparation leading up to the exam, making it extremely difficult for any of us to prepare with any success. We were, in fact, tested on material we were explicitly told would not be on the midterm examination. We find this most unacceptable.

We find the teaching leading up to this examination to be at least partially at fault, as recent weeks' lectures had been unclear and had consistently used imprecise or contradictory language in printed materials. Further, practice problems seemed almost unrelated to lectures. Given this level of general obfuscation, it was prohibitively difficult to prepare for this examination. As a result, we would like to make you aware of a profound dissatisfaction amongst your students.

As a majority of us are career changers, and are taking this class as a pre-medical requirement, we take our performance seriously. We have a right to expect that our professors do the same. It is in this spirit that we demand that our aforementioned grievances against the second examination be redressed by teaching and/or administrative staff. We also demand fairness and clarity in any further examinations. We would appreciate your immediate attention regarding this matter.


Respectfully submitted,
The Undersigned Students of BIOS E-1a, Fall 2014