My professor is holding my grade hostage over a group member who ghosted us.
By @danafr · School
We had a semester-long project worth 40% of our grade. One group member did zero work, disappeared for the last month, and now our prof is threatening to fail the entire group unless he submits his part.
The full story
i'm losing my mind over this. so for my senior seminar we had this huge project we've been working on all semester. groups of four. this one guy in our group, let's call him 'dude', seemed normal at first. we met up a few times, divvied up the work, everything seemed fine. then, like a month and a half ago, he just vanishes. like completely ghosts. doesn't reply to texts, emails, discord messages, nothing. we had to scramble to cover his entire section of the project, which was a nightmare. we pulled multiple all-nighters to get it done and submitted it on time. we made a note in our submission document explaining the situation, thinking the professor would be understanding. nope. we get an email from the prof saying the project is 'incomplete' because dude's part is missing, even though we literally did it for him and integrated it into the final thing. the prof's policy is that every member must 'actively contribute and submit their designated components' for the group to receive a passing grade. he said we all get a zero unless dude submits something, *anything*, himself. he said this is to 'prevent free-riding' and ensure 'individual accountability'. we've tried explaining that we literally cannot contact this person. he's not in class, he's not anywhere. we did the work. our other group members and i went to the department head, who basically said it's up to the professor's discretion. so now my graduation is literally on the line because this one guy decided to peace out and the professor is on some weird power trip about a policy that makes no sense in this context. we did the labor. we shouldn't be punished for it. i feel like i'm being held responsible for something completely out of my control.
How people voted
- On their side — 27% (78 votes)
- Both sides — 44% (129 votes)
- Other side — 30% (87 votes)
Readers say “Both sides” (44%) — 294 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@danilol — The professor is on a massive power trip and needs to be reported.
@sageish — nahhh
@niasorta — This happened to me in a marketing class and we found the guy's mom on facebook to get him to submit it lol
@edieactually — I bet the professor knows the other guy and this is some weird attempt to force him to not fail.
@sashakinda — This is so unfair, you all did the right thing and the professor is completely out of line. I hope the Dean steps in for you!
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