Clarification: Another option for students having problems with difficult professors is the Court of Academic Appeals.

When professors and students clash, things can get ugly. Students can end up with bad grades, feelings can get hurt and students can even drop out of the higher education system altogether. But there is some hope for students.

Marché Fleming-Randle is one of the assistant deans at WSU’s Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. One of her jobs is to deal with formal complaints students file about professors or grades.

Since the spring semester began, Fleming-Randle has received 168 formal complaints.

“And they were all resolved,” she said. “I don’t like for a student to leave my office unhappy…these are their college years and I want them to be memorable, not how they didn’t get the assistance they need.”

Luke Winslow, a former WSU student, had problems with a professor last spring that ranged from the professor being late to classes to making what Winslow said were “derogatory remarks” about public servants such as police officers and firefighters.

In a couple cases, he said the professor assigned things that were not in the syllabus over email. He said most of the class did not see the assignment and the “bad communication” was affecting his grade.

Winslow initially went to his advisor who told him to talk with his professor first. Once he did that, he returned to his advisor who gave him an email to try. He couldn’t access the email records from almost a year ago to find out what address he was told to contact.

He said he never heard back and after three or four weeks, was done trying.

“I gave up,” he said. “Nothing I did was fruitful at all.”

Because the professor had been a part of the school for so long, Winslow said his advisor told him that not much could be done about the professor he was complaining about.

“They told me, ‘this [professor] has been here forever,’” he said. “They said, ‘you can maybe get out of some of this, but nothing’s going to happen to him.’”

Although problems do occur with tenured professors, Fleming-Randle said that graduate assistants and adjunct professors are complained about more often.

“If a professor is tenured, they pretty well know the ropes,” she said. “They’re usually not the problem.”

Winslow is no longer a student at WSU, mostly due to a change in career choices. He hopes to be admitted into the police academy next month.

Fleming-Randle said that she wishes she could have talked with Winslow about his complaints.

“Nobody wants to be ignored,” she said.

Students who have complaints about grades or professors should talk with their professors first, Fleming-Randle said. If that doesn’t work, the student should speak with the department head. The final step is the dean’s office.