So here’s the story… I was an English as a Second Language (ESL) student at a university in St. Louis, Missouri. I was there for only one semester, Fall of 2008. And then I transferred to a community college in St. Louis and started taking academic classes. I did not know that I received a Non-Pass (NP) grade in the whole semester in ESL until last month. Therefore, I set an appointment with the director of the ESL department to discuss my final grade, and she claimed that they don’t have my files from fall 2008. She was not even certain which teachers taught me back then. She said we have to send e-mails to all teachers in ESL to confirm that I passed all of their classes as most of the teachers don’t teach there anymore. Except only one teacher who is still a teacher there, the director asked this only teacher, whom I had three classes with, and the teacher said that I passed in all her three class with decent grades. So now there’s still two more classes to check their grades with the rest of the teachers. one out of 6 or 7 teachers replied that he does not have the grade book anymore.
In the Director’s last e-mail, her response was:

“Nope. Jenny may not be in St. Louis any more. I have asked some teachers to find out about her.

There is nothing I can do if I do not get a report from all the teachers. As mentioned in the meeting, the grades are final. I do remember checking all the Fs, as I do each semester, and I did not notice any mistakes of one student getting an F in the place of another. I checked the lists again recently, where we record final grades, and you were the only one in that part of the list.

In addition, the time to argue about final grades has a time limit, for obvious reasons. Among other reasons, teachers are not obliged to keep records for more than two semesters, and nor are we.

I am very sorry, but you need to recognize that you did not pick up your grades nor stay for the final appointments with advisors, which is when you would have had a chance to not only find out about your grade, but also try to argue about it.”

Speaking of meeting with an advisor, I did not have to meet with an advisor since I had already made my decision to transfer to a different school.

Now, some of you might think that well why am I asking to change the grade now, not earlier. And my answer is because now I’m applying to better schools with great education and good reputation, so they are asking me about the institutions and universities I have attended in the past, and an F in the whole semester in ESL program does not look good, and it might actually screw up my whole admission decision.

Please give me decent answer, DON’T be shy, please express your thoughts and ideas on how to solve the problem and convince the department to change the final grade. Your answers are appreciated, Thank you!

Topics: education, school, relationships, student, teaching, decisions, college, studying, fixing, university, management, problem solving, relationsips, teachers, problems, opinions, problem, decision making, schooling