Student’s Grade to Remain Same : Education: Irvine Valley College writing professor cannot be forced to raise a failing mark, court commissioner rules.

A Superior Court commissioner Monday vindicated an Irvine Valley College writing professor, ruling that college administrators could not force him to raise a student’s failing course grade.

In a two-page ruling dated Jan. 8 but received by all sides Monday, Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk said Prof. Hugh W. Glenn did not act in “bad faith” when he gave a student a failing D course grade last year.

She ordered the Saddleback Community College District to reinstate the D grade and pay Glenn’s legal expenses, which will likely total more than $5,000.

“I am extremely pleased the court has vindicated me,” Glenn said. “It is regrettable that the Saddleback Community College District wasted thousands of dollars of public money to pursue this case, which it could not win.”

During a court hearing last month, Palk said the 12-page term paper entitled “Early Egyptian History,” which is at the center of the grading dispute, “read like something from an eighth-grader.”

Glenn, who has taught writing at Irvine Valley College for 13 years, sued Saddleback Community College District officials last year over their decision to change the student’s course grade to a passing C, over his objections.

Under the state education code, professors are granted the ultimate authority to determine final grades, except in cases where there is evidence of “mistake, fraud, bad faith or incompetency.” A district policy says that “bad faith” may be found “in an instance of an intent to deceive, in an act of dishonesty.”

Attorney Spencer Covert, who represented the district in the lawsuit, said he still believes that Glenn acted in “bad faith.” The district has not yet decided whether it will appeal the ruling, he said.

During the court hearing last month, Covert argued that Glenn “broke a promise” when he failed to accept the student’s third version of the term paper after she made all the corrections he had suggested. College officials accused Glenn of using inconsistent and vague grading standards.

“It has been the position of the district throughout this matter that the student did satisfy the instructor’s requirement,” Covert said.

Two other English professors at the college had also reviewed the paper and decided it was worth a C grade, Covert said.

“The district believes that Dr. Glenn acted in bad faith when he did not advise the student of all the corrections and that he also acted in bad faith when he marked as wrong revisions that he, himself, had made on the previous version of the paper,” Covert said. “The district does not believe that Dr. Glenn was free to change the rules in midstream.”

But in the court ruling, Palk said any lack of communication or amount of misunderstanding between a student and professor does not constitute “bad faith.” Court commissioners are appointees of the Superior Court who perform subordinate judicial duties.

“An instructor must be given discretion to determine a student’s grade, subject to the safeguards specified in the Education Code,” she wrote.

Glenn has said the student failed to make enough of the corrections required on the term paper, which prompted the D course grade.

The student, who has since graduated from IVC and transferred to Cal State Fullerton, was not available for comment Monday. She is scheduled to graduate in May with a major in sociology and a minor in criminal justice.