« A good editorial from the Star Tribune

I see presentiments of my future fate

Sometimes, students earn a failing grade. I hand back essays or exams with zeroes on them, and inform students that they aren’t passing the course…and suggest that we meet so we can work out the problem. At the end of the semester I might log into the Peoplesoft database and put an F in a little square box, and the students are clear about who’s putting the black blot on their transcript — it’s me, not them. So I still worry that they might hate me or take action with the administration to get me in trouble. It’s part of the job.

Sometimes you have to evaluate a student’s performance, and sometimes they fail. And now we have a new generation of entitled and ignorant students that think they can just go over the instructor’s head to demand that their biases get approval.

The University of Oklahoma has placed a trans graduate instructor on administrative leave after a student received a zero on a psychology assignment that described transgender people as “demonic” and asserted that gender roles are “Biblically ordained.” The dispute has quickly escalated into a statewide political flashpoint.

The controversy began when junior Samantha Fulnecky submitted a 650-word reaction paper for a course on how social expectations shape gender. Instead of addressing the assignment’s questions using data, her essay claimed society is “pushing lies” about gender, warned that eliminating strict gender roles would be harmful, and described transgender identities as “demonic,” Them reports.

You can read Fulnecky’s essay for yourself. It’s terrible. It might pass muster in Sunday School, but this was submitted to the University of Oklahoma, which has somewhat higher standards. It contains no data, unless you count quoting the Bible poorly as data (you shouldn’t). The central theme of the essay is that you shouldn’t question conservative interpretations of the the Bible.

I do not think men and women are pressured to be more masculine or feminine. I strongly
disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions
could improve students’ confidence. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and
everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth. I
do not want kids to be teased or bullied in school. However, pushing the lie that everyone has
their own truth and everyone can do whatever they want and be whoever they want is not biblical
whatsoever. The Bible says that our lives are not our own but that our lives and bodies belong to
the Lord for His glory. I live my life based on this truth and firmly believe that there would be
less gender issues and insecurities in children if they were raised knowing that they do not
belong to themselves, but they belong to the Lord.

The TA’s evaluation was spot on, and Mel Curth should have a bright future in academia, although maybe this experience will sour her on the career.

Graduate teaching assistant Mel Curth, who graded the paper, wrote that the zero was based on academic criteria, not retaliation for the student’s religious views. Curth wrote that the essay “does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.” Curth also noted that portraying a marginalized group as “demonic” is “highly offensive,” and urged the student to use empirical sources rather than doctrinal statements when critiquing course material.

Does Fulnecky learn from this instruction? No. She immediately turned to Turning Point USA to advocate for her, filed a religious discrimination complaint with the university, and got the governor of Oklahoma to intervene. You’d think he has better things to do with his time.

Fulnecky wasn’t penalized for her beliefs. She was penalized for not doing the assignment and using her biases instead of data.

The university has bent the knee and removed the TA from the class and put a full-time professor in charge (I wouldn’t want to be in their position — imagine taking over a class with cocky students who have learned that they can get rid of instructors who don’t give them the grade they want.)

A state representative is demanding that Curth be fired.

To use academic power to punish or pressure a student simply because she stood firm in her faith and cited real science in her essay is not leadership. It is inappropriate, unacceptable, and should be investigated for discrimination.

The University of Oklahoma must address this. This individual should not be teaching in higher education — period.

Take another look at Fulnecky’s essay. Can you find where she cited any science?

I’m trying to avoid imagining a student in my genetics or evolution class complaining that a known atheist was teaching about stuff that contradicts their religious beliefs. It could happen, it has happened, but so far it’s always been confined to private meetings in my office, with me reassuring them that I don’t care what they do on a Sunday morning, but that the course content is well defined by the textbooks and the evidence.

And afterwards I thank God that I don’t live in Oklahoma.

If you care about getting a good education, don’t go to the University of Oklahoma. Go further north.

« A good editorial from the Star Tribune

Comments

  1. birgerjohansson says

    …And keep going north when you reach the Canadian border.
    BTW Canada has just made a kind of Security deal with the European Union, now that Merica is unreliable.
    EU passed over Britain, as they might get taken over by some other nut job (Farage?) when Starmer is done fucking up.

  3. raven says

    Oklahoma is ranked No. 49 in both per-student funding and expenditure, according to the most recent data from the National Education Association.Sep 2, 2025

    Are Oklahoma public schools ranked almost last in per-pupil funding?

    It is Oklahoma.

    The state that hates education.
    Oklahoma is 49th in per capita funding of their schools.
    AFAIK, the only reason Oklahoma has a university is to provide a stadium for its football team.

    .1. Where was the university administration in all of this. They should have found a few vertebrae and their ovaries and said something.
    .2. Where was the rest of the science faculty in all of this too?
    I’m sure just keeping their heads down and hoping they don’t get fired.

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    … and asserted that gender roles are “Biblically ordained.”

    In Bible times, men wore dresses.

  5. cartomancer says

    Why do bigots like this even bother enrolling on degrees like Gender Studies, where they know they’re going to be presented with a body of academic knowledge that fundamentally contradicts their religious beliefs? That’s like going into a vegan restaurant and getting it shut down because they refuse to bring you beef. Aren’t there enough shitty bible colleges catering to their stupidity?

  6. raven says

    Those graduate students can and probably will eventually sue the university and the state of Oklahoma.
    They should also sue that wannabe martyr as well. She is being deliberately evil and malicious.

    FWIW, there have been numerous court cases on similar religious beliefs, i.e. the creationists ones. Here is a summary.

    Google search:

    In California, and across the U.S., court cases involving creationism in public education have consistently ruled that creationism is a religious belief, not a science, and thus cannot be taught in public school science classrooms. The courts have found that the inclusion of creationism in science curricula violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion.
    Key cases and rulings demonstrate that arguments for “viewpoint discrimination” by creationists are generally rejected when the exclusion is based on the subject matter’s lack of scientific grounding, not the religious perspective itself:

    Edwards v. Aguillard (1987): The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that required public schools to teach “creation science” whenever evolution was taught. The Court determined the law’s primary purpose was to advance a particular religious belief and thus violated the Establishment Clause. This set a major precedent that “balanced treatment” acts are unconstitutional.

    Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005): A federal court ruled that “intelligent design” (ID) is a form of creationism and not science. The court held that introducing ID into a public school’s science curriculum as an alternative to evolution was unconstitutional.
    University of California Admissions Suit (2005-2008): The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) sued the University of California system, alleging viewpoint discrimination because the UC system denied admission credit for certain high school courses (e.g., “Christianity and Morality in American Literature”) that blended religious instruction with academic subjects.

    A federal judge initially sided with the university, stating that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and high schools without regard to religious affiliations, provided the courses offer adequate instruction in the subject matter. The university’s decision was based on subject matter requirements, not viewpoint discrimination.

    The case ultimately settled in 2008, with the UC system maintaining its right to reject courses that offered more religious than academic content.
    In employment contexts, creationists in California have sometimes received settlements in..

    The tl;dr version is that you can’t pass off cult xian beliefs as science in science classes because that violates the First Amendment rule mandating separation of church and state.

    I don’t see that this case is any difference except she is trying to pass off incoherent fundie xian gibberish as science in a science class.

  7. raven says

    Why do bigots like this even bother enrolling on degrees like Gender Studies, where they know they’re going to be presented with a body of academic knowledge that fundamentally contradicts their religious beliefs?

    Most likely she is a political activist and deliberately enrolled to cause trouble and get a few TAs fired.
    It’s academic terrorism.

    If the universities just start to fall apart every time this happens, it is going to start happening a lot more.
    You don’t give in to terrorists without encouraging them and then expecting a lot more terrorism.

  8. Cyborg says

    Ugh. I went to OU in late 80’s. It wasn’t that bad, especially compared to the smaller state schools there. My dad was a professor at NSU in tiny Tahlequah, OK. The Profs were OK, but the town was totally indoctrinated into the Xtian cult. Soon after graduation I managed to escape to PZ’s old home state of Washington. I rarely go back to visit relatives. Those that stayed say I am part of the problem by leaving, but life it too short to have to deal with that crap all the time.

  9. says

    Two possibilities:
    1. This woman signed up for the course intentionally, to get famous in the TPUSA set for being a martyr.
    2. She’s fucking stupid.
    Or both. Neither alternative conflicts with the other.

  10. says

    It’s all very simple to explain:
    In this country, the inmates are running the asylum!
    Honesty and rationality are demonized by the drooling, evil magats that now own this country.

  11. says

    Oh, and using logic, this xtian terrorist student HAS NOT had their 1st amendment rights violated, they were perfectly free to spout their pseudp-biblical bullshit, it’s just that it does not satisfy the assignment. WTF

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