If you are a student in Dr. Larsen’s CHEM008C (002) course, please sign this petition to help gain support towards a letter addressed to the chemistry department in light of current events. Thank you for the support. 

Statement from the students: 

To Whom This May Concern:

We are writing this petition in response to the experiences of the undersigned authors within Dr. Catherine Larsen’s CHEM08C (002) course. 

Upon reflection of this quarter, and the circumstances that were provided to the students of Dr. Catherine Larsen's CHEM08C (002) course, we the students believe that proper accommodations were not made to better fulfill the emotional and academic needs of the students. We understand that this era in global and national history have never been seen before and recognize the difficulty in transitioning to an online platform within a matter of weeks. However, we believe that significant aspects of the course failed to properly fulfill the academic demands of the students. 

This quarter in CHEM08C has been extremely difficult for students as many of us face unsuitable working conditions in a home environment. Additionally CHEM08C is a rigorous course that requires continual support and resources which we believe that Dr. Larsen has not provided. This is explicitly shown through her grading system as tests make up the entirety of a students grade. In a time that students are already anxious on a day to day basis and face uncertainty within their lives beyond school, we find it unreasonable to base a students entire academic performance off of three exams. 

We would like to also address the ambiguity present within the syllabus provided. Due to a lack of context, students often have no direction or guidance towards understanding their status within the class. This was especially difficult with considerations for students who felt they needed to S/NC the course as little support was given on behalf of Dr. Larsen. Additionally, Dr. Larsen has not mentioned course accommodations, such as making the grading basis S/NC, during lecture nor has made announcements to the course via iLearn. It is clearly evident as to how this causes profound confusion on behalf of students because there is a lack of communication. During a time in which the only form of communication is remote, Dr. Larsen has not fulfilled her responsibilities of upholding the importance of having an open dialogue with students about updates in the course. 

Dr. Larsen has not appropriately adjusted the rigor and assessments of this course to reflect a remote learning environment. Her demeanor and reactions to the students have been interpreted poorly. When students begin to ask questions during lecture, Dr. Larsen is rude, disrespectful, and extremely inconsiderate. She consistently humiliates students for asking reasonable questions with regards to the course, grading, and material. Through berating students in a synchronous class of over 200 people, we often feel degraded as a result of Dr. Larsen's reactions. As the students are belittled, a sense of fear is enabled in asking for help from one of the few resources we have at this time. This creates an unnecessary sense of anxiety to add to the current insecurity which many students already face. We have concluded through the majority that this demeanor is a recurring theme that promotes a hostile learning environment. Additionally, with regards to professionalism, Dr. Larsen has previously been inconsistent with instruction towards midterms. This can be exemplified through changing the midterm format minutes before students were required to take the test. This heavily interfered with our ability to engage in the exam under normalized conditions that would “best mimic a traditional setting.” We as students have struggled to perform adequately with these conditions as no backtracking and unrealistic time constraints create a sense of angst. This sensation is further intensified through a realization that this is the only representation of our grade. 

With the current political climate and the fragility of the students through this current era, we find it unrealistic to take a proctored, time restrained, final which is representative of 50% of our grade. As other professors have made accommodations towards understanding the students and their needs, we feel a necessary reaction from Dr. Larsen towards these unfeasible conditions. We demand Dr. Larsen create a work environment where students can feel comfortable, and not carry the academic strain that she has imposed on us the past 9 weeks. We leave it up to the discretion of Dr. Larsen and her approach towards meeting our demands with these options:

 - Optional or no fault exam which provides students the flexibility to partake in the assessment only if they feel adequately prepared
 - Significant curve to achieve a no failing policy in which the lowest attainable grade is a C 
 - Dismissal of the “no backtracking” constraints and extra credit opportunities of significant value to decrease the weight of the final exam
   

As suppressed voices continue to be heard across the nation, we hope that you react to these demands appropriately and bring awareness to Dr. Larsen’s faults.