This is a huge meltdown in conservative circles, and considering how spineless the OU administration is, they’ll probably end up nixing the professor. They are currently working on getting rid of the African American studies department as is.
As others have noted, both student and teacher are kinda awful. The student for obvious reasons, but the teachers assignment and grading isn’t really best practice, especially if you give a 0 when there’s literally any rubric you grade to (and you want that for anything you’re grading seriously).
I teach psychology courses at University level and for written parts you really have two acceptable options. Important papers (e.g. final essays worth 20% of total grade) should always have a rubric-- these you can very much give a bad grade to a student who clearly doesn’t understand what peer reviewed evidence is because evidence might be a 20pt rubric item and without it, an A drops to a C (and that’s assuming everything else is perfect). Having it in writing protects you legally.
The other, much more common assignment like a reaction piece, is mostly to check for participation in reading an assigned reading. There’s usually no rubric and it’s scored for completion so there isn’t any subjective side to it. Quote the Bible or whatever, it’s like a participation grade to encourage reading and if you have a bad take, whatever. These are usually 1% of the grade and there’s usually one every week to keep up with.
Doing anything in-between opens you up to problems, not to mention it’s just unfair to students. If you follow a rubric, you almost never give a zero unless they just straight up cheated.
I would actually ask my professor for this information if it wasn’t presented. In fact all my professors did this. Is this not common practice?
It is common practice, which is more to the point that it’s weird this teacher didn’t. However, third rate instructors do exist. I’ve TAd for some even at a top 25 school who still just vibe-graded their classes. It’s really unprofessional, but they were hired for research reasons, not instruction.
I read the assignment, the paper, and the instructor comments. The instructor is correct to give this a failing grade, however a zero was probably too harsh.
The criteria were:
- Is there a clear link back to the assigned article? Can the reader assess whether the student has read the assigned article? (10 points)
- Does the paper provide a reaction/reflection/discussion of some aspect of the article, rather than a summary? (5 points)
- Are the main ideas and thoughts organized into a coherent discussion? Is the writing clear enough to follow without multiple re-readings? (5 points)
These are not particularly tough criteria. It’s an easy assignment aimed at ensuring students read a particular article and think about its contents. Here’s how I think I’d grade it:
- I skimmed the article myself. In 2020, I would have been pretty confident the student read it. In 2025, I can’t be sure an LLM didn’t summarize it for the student. I would expect more discussion of specific details from the article rather than a general overview of themes, especially now. 5/10.
- The student definitely has plenty of her own reactions to the article in her paper, but all of them are based on religion rather than psychology. If she wrote that there’s substantial reason to believe certain gendered behaviors are based on biology and instinct, and that going against those instincts causes stress, that’s fine. In a more rigorous paper, she’d need to cite sources for that, but not here. She could even use the presence of gender norms in religious texts to argue that multiple cultures have discovered something similar to what she believes. She didn’t though. She talked about her religious beliefs regarding gender. 4/10.
- It’s easy enough to follow her writing. 4/5.
13/25 (52%) is not usually a passing grade.
Oh for fucks sake.
These people whining about how oppressed they are for being xtians are just so very insufferable. Just because they ran into someone that doesn’t put their precious chosen lifestyle on a pedestal and clap for name-dropping their little book club… 🙄
Well citing fiction should get a failing grade.
FTA:
A psychology student at the University of Oklahoma says the failing grade she received on an essay where she cited the Bible was a violation of her right to free speech. Her instructors said she failed to use empirical evidence and called parts of her essay offensive.
In her essay, which was in response to an article about how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender, junior Samantha Fulnecky wrote that traditional gender roles should not be considered stereotypes, according to an earlier Oklahoman report. She cited the Bible to support her stance that eliminating gender in society would be “detrimental” because that would put people “farther from God’s original plan for humans.”
It’s psychology, not religious studies. She got a failing grade because she said thing and used a shitty source to back it up. Psychology is not religious studies.
be lazy college student
don’t want to bother with the readings
write half baked essay I do no research for (which literally says that bullying is not bad “The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarily see this as a problem.”)
throw in religious crap so I can make money on the conservative grifter circuit
the bigger issue is she (and a lot of others) believe the Bible to be a true and valid source of information. Critical thinking is just not a thing this generation.
This is not a generational issue. People are less likely to be dogmatically religious than in the past.
Yup. The real problem is the 24-7 conservative news outrage cycle.
This is a rather mundane thing that isn’t worthy of the news.
I’m not so sure that critical thinking is getting any better. And I seriously wonder what AI slop will do to the brains of those that already have terrible critical thinking skills and zero media literacy.
I’ve been watching the adherence to xtianity generally trending down about 1% per year for quite a while, though, so that’s promising.
Looking at the generations before, Ive come to the conclusion that critical thinking is just not an American skill set.
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Exactly.
She used a shitty source (and probably nothing else.)
Even if you say psychology is a wishy-washy science, it’s still science. The teacher failed her for not providing empirical evidence based on proper studies. The student is going to have a hard time of it, if her only response is to scream persecution. (And yes, that’s exactly what’s going on here.)
“Freedom of speech” is bullshit. She got to say what she wanted, and now she gets to get the grade she deserves.
“Freedom of speech” is bullshit. She got to say what she wanted, and now she gets to get the grade she deserves.
This was the biggest failing of (at least) my generation (gen-x): we were only taught that we had a freedom of speech, but never taught that there still could be consequences.
The professor has the right to express their side, and unfortunately will probably suffer the consequences, thud negating the bad grade. This will only serve to embolden said psychology student to keep doing what they did, and other professors will allow it to happen, lest they suffer the same consequences themselves.
I used to say that the system is broken, but now I realize it’s merely working as intended.
Religious studies is comparative. This is theology, and honestly probably C work at best in that.
wrote that traditional gender roles should not be considered stereotypes
What does that even mean? Her entire thesis just doesn’t make sense. Who is even calling these stereotypes?
They are, by definition, stereotypes based on gender :P
Good to know any college student can skirt the usual consequences of half-assing an essay if they’re willing to whine about “Muh Freedoms!” (Assuming this goes her way… which it definitely won’t)
A psychology student at the University of Oklahoma says the failing grade she received on an essay where she cited the Bible was a violation of her right to free speech.
Bitch, you clearly don’t know what that means. People will literally eat shit just for 2 minutes of fame.
You can’t just quote a Bible verse on a Calculus test and expect an A.
Idk I feel like some Oklahomans disagree
Criticizing essays violates free speech… She’d fit in well with the racist gamers banned for violating TOS by yelling slurs in online play.
My take, the whole thing is stupid. Everybody’s an asshole.
The instructions for the assignment said students were evaluated on three criteria: Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article? Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary? Is the paper clearly written?
She received 0 points. This wasn’t a graduate level psychology course. She was a junior. Honestly, the professor should be happy she wrote the paper herself instead of AI at that level. Based on the instructions (described in the link below), seemed like she did the assignment, but the professor just disagreed with her opinion and way overreacted. She got just as many points as if she didn’t even do the assignment. That is harsh.
Fulnecky emailed Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, OU’s president, the dean of her college, members of the media and Walters’ conservative anti-teachers’ union group fewer than four hours after her instructor justified Fulnecky’s grade. Four days later, Fulnecky went through the university’s internal process to file a formal discrimination complaint and an academic appeal.
But also, her reaction was to email the fucking governor and everybody else on god’s green earth. They have a grade appeal process, but her entitled ass went straight to the governor crying about discrimination. Just because you and your professor disagree on the validity of fairytales doesn’t make you some sad little victim. I’m tired of Christian’s, of all people, whining about discrimination. Freedom of religion doesn’t mean you should be allowed to push your BS fairytale onto other people and get praised for it. Appeal your grade and STFU.
Here’s another article with more details:
Does the paper…
They were clearly expected to use scholarly research. Using the Bible—or Harry Potter, Wikipedia, last nights weather forecast—should be an automatic 0.
It was a reaction paper. Give me your reaction to this article. It was not a research paper where you were expected to cite sources. This person’s reaction was inspired by the bible. They can be wrong, but doesn’t mean they didn’t follow the assignment.
Automatic 0 is insane. I have taken undergrad psychology courses in my day. Literally you get an A for effort. This professor was triggered and took it out on the student.
I wish the student had gone theory the appeal process before blowing it the fuck up. But it was obviously more important to get the attention than the grade.
It’s difficult to judge Fulnecky’s situation without knowing the full facts and internal operations within her psychology course, Shibley explained, which is an example of how difficult things can get when politics become involved in the academic process.
Best quote from the article. Honestly it seems like the professor and the student are both way overreacting and more concerned about politics than what each other is even saying. She said an idea was demonic he accused her of calling half the population demonic. He said she missed 1 of the 3 criteria and to 0 out of 25, she blew up and emailed the governor in response to her grade.
This is one of those cases that’ll end up at the SCOTUS and they’ll rule on something only vaguely related to force Bibles to be used in all academic papers.
the fact that this is even a controversy goes to show how brain rotted such a huge amount of people is, its absolutely baffling
Yeah, the Oklahoman could be covering the multiple deaths that have occurred thanks to Oklahoma child protective services not functioning, or the non functioning mental health system. But nah, this is the fucking hot issue all over Okie Facebook.
It’s possible her essay was just bad, with or without the bible thumping. And the inclusion of the bible could have been strategic. Some students will try anything to avoid a bad grade, except writing a good essay.
“ how dare you fail me for handing in a shitty paper full of delusions?! “
Her problem is she cited the wrong bible!
Clearly, she should’ve cited the real bible that has the true word of the gods in it. Not that atheist Christian bible!
Remember: If you don’t believe in my gods, you’re an atheist!
One grifter gets shot in the neck and two grow to take its place?
Bold move to file both discrimination and grade appeal at the same time while appealing to the Governor, Public Porn Watcher Ryan Walter & the group that hired the disgraced weirdo, and then the press.
This will all end in stupid.
