Professors take to Twitter in reaction to university firing professor over complaints his class was ‘too hard'

Maitland Jones, a New York University organic chemistry professor, was fired after students complained that his class was ‘too hard,’ resulting in outrage from professors on Twitter.  

According to a New York Times article, 82 out of 350 NYU students in Jones’ class signed a petition last spring complaining that the course was designed for them to fail and that Dr. Jones, a renowned organic chemistry teacher formerly from Princeton, was “condescending and demanding.”

“We are very concerned about our scores, and find that they are not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into this class,” the petition read. 

Despite less than a fourth of the class signing the petition, in August of 2022 Jones received a note from Dean Gregory Gabadadze informing him that he had been terminated from his position. 

Jones cited that students struggled to pass his class because “They weren’t coming to class, that’s for sure because I can count the house. They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.”

Professors on Twitter seemed to agree with Jones. 

NYU adjunct professor of journalism Elizabeth Spiers said Jones should not have been fired.

I teach at NYU and don’t think this guy should have been fired. One of many problems with insanely expensive private education is that institutions have an incentive to treat the student as customer and not student who needs to learn certain things. https://t.co/sUfwusLCgG

— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) October 3, 2022

Associate professor of history at Maryville College Aaron Astor noted that while organic chemistry classes are “notoriously difficult” that did not justify “the Dean’s irresponsible decision here.”

O-Chem is a notoriously difficult “weed out” class. Students often complain when their dreams of med school end in O-Chem class. None of this justifies the Dean’s irresponsible decision here, which will intimidate non-tenured profs into lowering standards. Terrible leadership.

— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) October 3, 2022

NYU Clinical associate professor Elisabeth Fay stated that the university response should be more concerning than the actual petition.

The student petition isn’t the scary thing, it’s the NYU administration’s response: clinical Prof. Maitland Jones was informed of his “non-renewal” less than a month before the start of fall semester — no due process, no opportunity to grieve. https://t.co/WtBXQSOH7M

— Elisabeth Fay (@schadenfreulein) October 3, 2022

Several members of the medical field also weighed in on Jones’ firing. 

One professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine Adam Cifu said struggling in organic chemistry classes was expected, and pointed to “time management and study skills” that helped him eventually pass.

About half my class failed our first organic chemistry class freshman year of college. Our professor, Claude Wintner, responded with an hour long lecture on time management and study skills. The most important lecture I ever attended. Not sure where I’d be without it.

— Adam Cifu (@adamcifu) October 4, 2022

Steven Salzberg, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, called NYU’s decision to fire Jones “questionable” especially since “[t]he students’ petition didn’t even ask for NYU to fire him.”

Very questionable behavior by @nyuniversity, firing a renowned chemistry professor because students complained that organic chem was too hard for them. The students’ petition didn’t even ask for NYU to fire him, but the dean did it anyway
https://t.co/f2aUPEJpDT

— Steven Salzberg 💙💛 (@StevenSalzberg1) October 5, 2022

“Everyone knows organic chemistry is a very difficult subject,” Salzburg told Campus Reform.

“I think it’s a very troubling case where it appears the NYU administration is trampling on academic freedom,” Salzberg stated. “Their action will probably influence the behavior of other professors at NYU, and not in a good way.”

University of California San Francisco professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Vinay Prasad wondered about the necessity of organic chemistry as a prerequisite for medical school but argued that it was easy to “see [Jones] might be right and zoom results in lower test scores.”

2 thoughts
1. Sad we cater to students like this and fire teachers who give tough grades. Easy to see he might be right and zoom results in lower test scores
2. Not clear organic chemistry is a useful prereq for med school/ antiquated/ said this for yrs https://t.co/znAFpylIi2

— Vinay Prasad MD MPH (@VPrasadMDMPH) October 4, 2022

Prasad told Campus Reform that online learning “is no substitute for in-person learning.”

“I also think the students complaining about the teacher, forgetting bad grades is an unusual cultural movement. This was not present 15 years ago, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing,” Prasad commented. “Are students customers? Are teachers at the customer service industry? I don’t think so.”

Prasad also reiterated his tweet stating that in his opinion, “Organic chemistry is absolutely not necessary to being a good doctor…[a]nd there are better things students could do to decide who is best to go into medical school.”

NYU alumni Pamela Tadross said Jones’ textbook on organic chemistry “is one of the reasons [she] fell in love” with the subject.

When I was at NYU, I learned organic chemistry from Maitland Jones before he actually taught there. His book (in my basement, heavily annotated) is one of the reasons I fell in love with organic chemistry. (Also has a few Mets references!) This is a lazy decision, @nyuniversity. https://t.co/LTcfusut9z

— Pamela Tadross (@PamTadross) October 4, 2022

Tadross also stated that she wished Jones had been her professor at NYU and that Jones’ firing “won’t solve your problem [NYU].”

Organic chemistry is hard. Objectively. But Jones’s textbook taught me to problem solve rather than memorize. And that’s a foundational skill on which I’ve built my career. I wish I could have had him as a professor.

— Pamela Tadross (@PamTadross) October 4, 2022

Maitland Jones has had a profound impact on generations of organic chemistry students, both through his textbook and his teaching. Firing him won’t solve your problem, @nyuniversity. As an alumna, I’m very disappointed.

— Pamela Tadross (@PamTadross) October 4, 2022

Campus Reform contacted every university and person mentioned and will update this article accordingly. 

Follow @kliseanderson on Twitter.