What the Firing of an NYU Professor Says About US Universities

For those following the academic decline at U.S. universities, the decision by New York University to fire Maitland Jones Jr., an 84-year-old organic chemistry professor, comes as no surprise. Jones, who wrote the textbook on organic chemistry, retained a strict teaching style and demanded quality work from his students. After retiring from his tenured position at Princeton University in 2007, Jones began teaching at NYU on an annual contractual basis.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that students in Jones’ class were disgruntled over not being “given the grades that would get them into medical school.” After 82 of Jones’ 350 students signed a petition against him, NYU fired the professor. In an op-ed for the Boston Globe on Friday, Jones wrote that “many students seem increasingly unwilling to put in the necessary effort to master the material” and that “Teachers must have the courage to assign low grades when students do poorly without fear of punishment.” The difficulty accompanying an organic chemistry class is intentional because it is designed to weed out future medical professionals who cannot keep pace with the intense coursework. The decision by NYU underscores how universities that were once bastions of intellectual thought are forsaking academic rigor in favor of accommodating the feelings of an increasingly coddled American student body.