Instructor Robert Kramer

Department of English/ College of Arts & Sciences

New Mexico State University/ Las Cruces, NM 88001

RE: Grade Appeal in English 318.90

Defense Letter of March 12, 1999

Comprehensive Defense Memorandum of March 18, 1999

Letter to Dean of April 14, 1999

February 12, 1999

Dear Professor Kramer:

Inasmuch as we have seemingly reached an impasse in our verbal exchanges related to my final grade in the above-cited course, I have deemed it useful to commit my position to writing. Copies of this correspondence will be made available to hierarchical figures within the English Department, and, if agreement cannot be reached at the Departmental Level, to appropriate authorities in the College of Arts and Sciences. Ultimately, proof of my eminently acceptable coursework, authorized absence verification documents, and detailed defense statement will be transmitted to those involved in the Appeals Process, should the need arise.

On page one of your five page Course Syllabus, you devote a considerable amount of prominently displayed space to your Attendance Policy. I would be the first to agree that attendance, in a course that meets but once weekly, is of paramount importance. Fortunately, both you, in writing, and I, in point of fact, have acknowledged that perfect attendance in this day of "virtual reality" and "convoluted multi-national lifestyles" is not within the realm of either the expected or the realistic. Your syllabus, on page one, clearly refers to "unexcused absences", from which we may validly infer that "excused absences" are, if to be discouraged, perfectly acceptable. Further, on page 2, you extend the friendly gesture of "exploring options" in the event of non-attendance.

Sir, I remind you that we did considerably more than "explore options", we literally sat down in your office on every occasion that I incurred an excused absence and reviewed, in person one-on-one, course material that had been covered in lecture during my classroom absence. I remained glued to my chair in your office until, on each occasion, you were fully convinced that I had mastered the material in question. To supplement our in-office sessions, I e-mailed you in considerable detail, and reflected in those messages my questions, concerns and observations pertaining to course material.

Keeping our compensatory office meetings and my numerous e-mail messages firmly in mind, let us now review, on the Table below, the valid excuses, all of which are documentable, which I presented in a timely fashion for each of my regrettable, but nonetheless authorized absences, all of which were well beyond my individual control:

DATE OF ABSENCE .................NATURE OF ABSENCE ...........VALID DOCUMENTATION

August 22, 1998            Late Course Registration   Registrar's Dated Receipt  

September 5, 1998          Establishment of Account   CANTO On-File Record       

September 12, 1998         Justified Illness          Physician's Slip           

September 26, 1998         Saudi Crown Prince Visit   Embassy Confirmation       

October __,  1998          Justified Illness          Undated Physician's Slip 

With respect to the first justified absence, it can be readily ascertained that, due to protracted Departmental Pre-Registration Counseling, it was academically undetermined, as late as August 28th, that I was required to even include your course in my degree program. In light of this perfectly legitimate delay, acceptable to the University by virtue of its officially published course registration deadline, I did not attend the first class session of your English 318.90 course. This was a clearly unavoidable and legitimate absence. In fact, I was not even a registered student in your course at the time of the first session.

The second absence is equally defensible. Due to (1) inefficiency in the Computer & Networking Department, further compounded (2) by an inter-departmental communication problem involving the Registrar's Office, in turn complicated (3) by my justified late registration in your course, I still had no university computer account established in my name at the time Project 1 was due. Conscientiously concerned about my Project Due Date, I spent the better part of two days arranging this account, including our September 5th class session. Finally, after two extended meetings with technical personnel, as is confirmed by CANTO records, my account was established and I proceeded to create my HTML assignment and the Sunbelt Electric Internal Memo (9/25), both of which you accepted, indeed, praised as original and innovative, although they were finalized somewhat after the Syllabus Deadline. This justified absence was duly "compensated" in your office.

The third incident of non-attendance was a documented and excused absence due to illness, similar to sickness-related absences of many other students in your classes. University policy is clearly defined in this regard, and, upon clinically established proof of illness, no negative grade penalty, under these circumstances, is to be imposed. We made arrangements via e-mail to meet and review class material which I had missed. Our "compensatory" meeting did, in fact, occur.

The fourth absence was related to my patriotic obligation, sanctioned and commanded by my Embassy, to attend a Royal Event in Washington, D.C., namely the visit of Saudi Crown Prince ABDULLAH IBN ABDUL AZIZ to my host country. His Royal Highness' presence, and my understandable absence from your course, can be verified by contacting the Royal Saudi Embassy at 601 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20037, Tel. (202) 342-3800. This event is also recorded on the Internet at: Visit of His Royal Highness Obviously, foreign students have certain compulsory obligations which must be respected on a priority basis. It is noteworthy to add, once again, that we spent time in your office to offset this absence, as we did on all occasions. Up to this point, after four excused absences, you found no fault either with my academic performance or with my attendance pattern.

The fifth and final excused absence seemed, in your estimation, to tip the balance. Unfortunately, we are only human and I succumbed to another brief illness, properly documented.

In this instance you met with me in your office, as always, to review requisite course material and were satisfied with my progress. However, you examined more closely an assignment you had previously accepted and stated that I had "plagiarized" a portion of it. I explained that, since this assignment involved patented Microsoft Page Mill Software, I felt it appropriate not to modify the description of its capabilities and characteristics. No intent of "lifting" can be established and, indeed, this incident, even though, as your student, I re-worded the text in accordance with your instructions, falls into a distinctly gray area of semi-legitimate academic license. It was at this extremely late stage, in spite of my perfectly acceptable academic performance described below, and in spite of our FOUR AMIABLE, COMPENSATORY SESSIONS, that you informed me that an F would be assigned me in this course, a course in which I require a satisfactory grade (C or higher) to literally graduate after four years of costly and arduous studies at New Mexico State University.

Let us briefly examine my performance on assigned Class Projects. The following Table summarizes results of which I am aware and which should appear in your records:

Description of Assignment ...........Approximate Results................Professor's Comments

Project 1: Dobrin                              100%                     Creative and Innovative
Project 2: Documentation                        85%                     Brochure: Acceptable
Project 3: Document Design                      85%                     Excellent Résumé & Docs. 
Project 4: Reports/Proposals                    30% (see note below)    Group Work: "Inadequate"
Project 5: Power Point                          90%                     In Class: "OK, Approved"

Cursory examination of the foregoing table indicates that, given our regular office meetings to offset excused absences, and taking into due account the note pertaining to Project 4, my grades were perfectly acceptable, even commendable in this course. I could tolerate a B rating in this course in view of the probable impact of missing "actual class discussion" during my excused absences, but even this factor is more than adequately "redeemed" by one-on-one interaction with the professor in his office.

It is apparent that a pattern of subtle discrimination is afoot. Although my absences were duly excused in each instance, and we more than covered course material privately, you have assigned a totally inappropriate grade to me on the basis of subjective assessment of my ethnicity, non-native speaker status or misperceived personal attitude attributes. The foregoing constitutes merely a preliminary defense of my eminently defensible position.

I would have preferred to discuss this with you amicably, but you seemed totally impervious to reason in the weeks prior to your departure.

Most sincerely,

Masaud M. Al-Qahtani

------------------------------------

Note Pertaining to Group-Project 4:

The 30% grade cannot, in any sense, be considered a proper reflection of my true capabilities since other group members aggressively seized the choice-morsels of this assignment, leaving only a brief and admittedly inadequate Introductory Passage for me. I acted in accordance with Islamic principles of reserve and modesty when confronted with the rapacious and ultra-competitive attitudes of my American group-mates. Your group-design strategy is clearly at fault, not my failure to contribute. Such group dynamics are predictable, and are fully documented in published curriculum development and educational research journals. I could plow through the ERIC database, if you wish, for references. Furthermore, you were not present to witness these intra-group events.