Superior Court Flunks Appeal of C+ Grade

Speaking for a three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Judge Patricia Jenkins has rejected the appeal of a Lehigh University grad student. She had claimed that her C+ grade was both a breach of contract and the result of sexual discrimination. The poor mark hampered her effort to become a professional counselor, she claimed. But following a four-day bench trial before Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano, a Moravian graduate himself, he concluded that Lehigh had it right.

This student, who ironically is the daughter of a distinguished Lehigh professor, appeared to have a bumpy relationship with a professor who awarded her zero out of 25 points in classroom participation. This brought her down a full letter grade.

Judge Giordano sympathized with this student, writing that if he were her father, he would be unhappy, too. But he found no evidence that her grade was based on anything other than academic performance.

Though conceding that "[t]he relationship between a student and a private educational institution such as the University is contractual in nature," Judge Jenkins added that courts “may not override [the school's judgment] unless it is such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms as to demonstrate that the person or committee responsible did not actually exercise professional judgment.”

You can read the Opinion yourself here.