I am writing to make a formal complaint against Garen Avanessian, a professor at Diablo Valley College. I took Mr. Avanessian’s course, Engineering 230: Circuits and Devices in Spring 2015. According to DVC’s policies, Mr. Avanessian did not follow the school’s policy and administered the grade I received in his course on bad faith and incompetency.

Based off DVC grading policies, the faculty’s philosophy, California Administration Code, Title 5 (Sec. 51300-51325), and the Contra Costa Community College District Board Policy 4001, an A resembles excellent, a B good, a C satisfactory, and a D and F both less than satisfactory and failing. According to the work shown on my exams, not by the scores Mr. Avanessian has assigned to them, a D is not a valid, fair, or just grade assigned to me for the course.

He showed that the decision behind the grade assigned to me was through bad faith, incompetency, and discrimination, and are not a proper reflection of how DVC grading policies are meant to be implemented.

The following acts prove these claims:

This signed petition by my fellow classmates in this course, who faced and felt the same type of unpleasant, uneducational atmosphere that Mr. Garen Avanessian put us through during Spring of 2015 at Diablo Valley College. With their signature on this petition they agree with the standards and claims put forth by myself that I do indeed deserve a grade change.

Bad Faith:

·      Gave zero to little credit if a problems first details were incorrect even if concept and understanding were present

·      If the first step is wrong, the whole solution is wrong, even if steps, conceptual procedures, and method are still correct

·      I would receive the same scores as a student who has left half of the test blank, since my solutions were not perfect

·      Graded tests through an unfair system that does not reflect the DVC grading policies stated above

·      Only gave students 3-5 minutes to review their exams or else they could not challenge their grade; this hurt a lot of students’ chances at higher scores

·      Forces students to do the problem over again in stressful situations with no structure if they believe they deserve a better score; asked me to redo test problems in lab; asked student to perform a problem on whiteboard in front of other students waiting to ask for partial credit as well

·      Did not return the last exam until the day of the final, which did not allow students to learn from mistakes

·      Did not reply to my first email asking to discuss my grade

·      Replied to a second one and did not address my concerns but only told me he would be available for a short time

·      Told me to perform the problems I was contesting in the lab on an actual circuit board three weeks after the semester was over

·      Grabbed my test from me and told me to leave, threatening to call the police, when we met on June 10th.

·      35 percent of the class received a D or an F in Spring 2015, which is the highest percentage 

Incompetence:

·      Rushed through lectures stating he is not getting paid enough

·      Never possessed a class syllabus during lecture and would constantly forget where we had left off and had to be reminded by students

·      Was never prepared for lab and did not follow the syllabus per labs planned

·      Would go off tangent using valuable educational time to talk about his personal life and issues as an engineer

·      Laughed at questions from students that may be deemed as "stupid"

·      Rushed through examples without a conceptual approach, where finishing the problem set was more important than taking time for questions and discussing concepts

·      Would always bring up his own beliefs and views during lecture, using up class time

·      Halfway through the semester my grade seemed absurdly low on his website. I asked him to take a look at his excel grading spreadsheet but he told me he was right and that I should calculate my own score and come back to him. I did not have every piece of material so I begged him to please check his excel spreadsheet for calculation errors but still he told me he was right and I was wrong. After some more persuading he finally allowed me into his office and he realized he had made a mistake. The mistake had me two grades lower than where I was. He did not apologize for his unnecessary remarks or attitude.

Originally accepted to the UC Davis College Of Engineering, my admission was rescinded due to a grade of D in this required for admission course. UC Davis will only re-admit me if I bring them a transcript that states I have a C for this course. Not only have I lost admission to the only school I applied to, I am in the process of losing financial aid awarded to me, I will have a D on my transcript if I must apply to colleges this year and since this course is only offered during spring I will not be able to make up for it in time, I am at the maximum units permitted for transfer students, I have no other requirements to fulfill.

Had I not felt deserving of a grade change I would have lived with these circumstances, but based on the differences a grade of C and D represent, I believe the committee should review my case, exams, and evidence, and award me with a grade of C, so that I may continue my journey as an engineering student at UC Davis and become a contributing member to our community and world as an engineer. 

I am confident that DVC will make the right decision for me. I am grateful to be part of the DVC community and have always looked up to all of my professors. The staff and faculty here have always been so helpful and I am glad I was able to begin my college career here. If you have any questions or other information is needed please contact me as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you and the committee soon.

Best,

Omar Mohammad

WE THE UNDERSIGNED HAVE HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE WITH MR. GAREN AVANESSIAN, AGREE WITH THE STATEMENTS CLAIMED, AND BELIEVE OMAR IS DESERVING OF A GRADE CHANGE TO C