Students in Priya Venkatesan '90's Winter term Writing 5 classes will have the option of receiving credit for the class without a grade, Associate Dean of the Faculty Lindsay Whaley informed them on April 31. Venkatesan, a former Writing 5 lecturer and research associate at Dartmouth Medical School, threatened to name students in her Writing 5 classes in a civil rights lawsuit against Dartmouth in an April 25 e-mail.
"A few weeks ago we became aware of complaints by a number of students in her Winter term classes, and Ms. Venkatesan herself made allegations against both her undergraduate students as well as her supervisors at the College and Medical School," Whaley said in a statement e-mailed to The Dartmouth on Sunday. "Responding to concerns expressed by students, I have also reviewed the grades she gave to students in the Winter term and have concluded that they were not consistent with the feedback that she provided to the students." Grades for the classes ranged from A to C, according to Whaley.
Whaley informed students of the College's decision in a letter sent to their Hinman Boxes, a student in one of Venkatesan's Winter term classes said.
"I think that [the decision] is fair," the student said in an e-mail. "What wasn't fair was [Professor] Venkatesan's grading, but those who got decent grades shouldn't have to have those taken away, and those who were dissatisfied shouldn't have to have a grade based on her grading scale. I know some kids who got grades that did not reflect their work at all."
The grades students received in Venkatesan's Fall term Writing 5 class will be recorded, according to one such student, who added that students in the fall received "normal" grades, while students' grades in the winter were lower. The median grade for Venkatesan's Fall term Writing 5 classes was an A-, whereas the median for Winter term classes was a B, lower than any other Writing 5 class's median that term, according to the Office of the Registrar's web site.
Venkatesan's threats to sue Dartmouth for Title VII discrimination have garnered national media attention, including articles in The New York Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education and an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. Blogs such as the Prereq, IvyGate and Ivy League Conservatives have also commented on the story, along with several television news programs, such as Fox & Friends.
Venkatesan is not the only professor who has recently considered suing students -- law professor Richard Peltz at the University of Arkansas filed a civil suit last month against two of his students for defamation after they allegedly described him as a racist, The New York Times reported on May 1.
Venkatesan worked as a research associate at DMS from 2005-2007 and was hired to teach Writing 5 on a temporary contract for the fall of 2007 and winter of 2008. Venkatesan, who no longer works for the College, is now employed by Northwestern University, she confirmed in an interview.
