Venetia Orcutt, George Washington University Professor, Didn't Teach Class, Gave Everyone A's

Imagine this: Your professor doesn't show up to any of your classes and gives everyone A's.

Sound like a dream (or a nightmare)? It really happened at George Washington University.

GWU medical professor Venetia Orcutt recently resigned after her students claimed that she played hooky more than once.

The Associated Press has more:

At least three students wrote letters to GW's provost this fall complaining that Orcutt did not teach two out of three semesters of a course on evidence-based medicine during the 2009-2010 school year. In the letters, obtained by The Associated Press, the students claim they were never told why the classes weren't taught and that they were all given "A'' grades.

A professor rating page for Orcutt turns up zero results.

Comments

[Guardian Weasel]

10:07 AM on 11/09/2011

Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live sketch with Billy Crystal as the dean of a college where they just split the parents' money 50/50 with the students in exchange for a degree. Their motto was "You Tell Anyone and We'll Find You, and We'll Kill You."

[gad fly]

08:40 AM on 11/09/2011

Since much of medicine is not evidence based...perhaps there was nothing to teach.

[hursh 4 ever]

05:42 AM on 11/09/2011

Education in the U.S....= over priced. it's like paying rolls royce prices for a yugo quality car.

[SCboy]

05:10 AM on 11/09/2011

I took a class during my undergraduate studies with about a dozen students. We met in a conference room, sat around a large table, the prof showed up maybe half the time. There was never a syllabus or anything that would qualify as academic; no assignments to do anything. Mostly we talked about sports. Everyone got an A.

I took another class from a professor who was working on a PhD. He showed maybe one-quarter of the time. We would regularly walk up to the classroom door to find a note cancelling class. The one assignment in the course was a reserach paper. Evgeryone got an A.

Four or five of the classes I took were taught by graduate assistants. Saw the professor maybe 2-3 times over the course of the semester. Thinking back, those were actually some of the better courses I took.

The situation described in this article does not surprise me at all. College professors have the easiest job in the world. (Yes, I said that and it's true). Some of them make huge amounts of money for doing next to nothing.

[JuanJeremy]

11:06 PM on 11/08/2011

for people that dont know it, in graduate school it is very common for a prof to give all the students "A's"

[MrMoo]

10:19 PM on 11/08/2011

I completed a master's in public health degree at GW. In the study design class every one got A's on the their final project. There were zero comments or corrections. It was obvious the prof (who was a dean) did not actually read the papers

[Demarcus Jackson]

07:24 PM on 11/08/2011

I can attest that this happens more often than anyone would dare to admit.

I personally have a strict attendance and tardy policy, so I definitely practice what I preach. I very rarely cancel class and I always arrive to class at least 15 minutes early, often before any of my students even arrive.

[fem56]

05:22 PM on 11/08/2011

I think I had this teacher in college-oops I guess it was a man but he had long stringy hair and was dating a girl half his age that looked like a man though she had long stringy hair too. Anyway he told us we would all get A's if we creditably completed one silly assignment that very vaguely had something to do with the subject taught. I am not sure if he taught class between the first day and the last since I didn't see a need to attend myself. I did receive and "A" and shamefully I never reported him since it was my most dreaded GE requirement and I was very happy with the situation. I must confess that nowadays I probably would have squealed on him.

[Vikrum Fagoora]

03:43 PM on 11/08/2011

Why couldnt I have taken this course? *smh* and an EBM course at that? Wow and we wonder how people like Conrad Murray obtain a license to practice medicine in this country. Lemme guess: she was tenured, it was an elective course for the students. Blegh.

[Barry Black]

03:18 PM on 11/08/2011

Getting an A with no effort that's my kind of class. Speaking of A's here's a personal story. It was a class in public speaking and another student had a name very close to mine. He was very good in the class And I just got by. Back in those days you were notified of your grade by a self-addressed postcard. When I got the postcard I saw I received an "A"-----strange, but never look a gift horse in the mouth! A short time latter I met my namesake on campus and he told me he got a "B" in the course and thought he deserved an "A." He wondered what I got. Realizing the prof got us mixed-up, I said I got a "C" and never the twain shall meet.

[Vrano]

03:05 PM on 11/08/2011

Those who complained were the conservative minority of the class, who expect to work for their grade. The professor and the other students who didn't complain are the liberal "educated elite" that are parked at the Occupy camps expecting more handouts.

[HarryP]

04:40 PM on 11/08/2011

lot of assumptions from your side - what about that those students - aside from any political affiliation - just wanted to pass their final exam?

[Demarcus Jackson]

07:25 PM on 11/08/2011

I would not even waste my breathe on this moron. The assumptions alone implies that "Vrano" is not the most intellectually honest person.

[charlygardel]

09:07 PM on 11/08/2011

I heard it was the exact opposite. The professor was totally against the Obama health care reform and was a huge Tea Party supporter. Those who called the university's attention to the matter were good leftists who were sick of wealthy people like the good medical professor taking their money and giving all the lazy, privileged right-wing students a pass.

Trust me. I am using at least as much evidence to make my claims as you are.

[irvyirv8]

03:02 PM on 11/08/2011

...and in another story, three GW students were beaten within in inch of their lives today by other students. Motive has not been established.

[bipolarbears60]

02:42 PM on 11/08/2011

Did they demand a refund? I would.

[Bob Metcalfe]

02:50 PM on 11/08/2011

Er.. they got A's dude.

[bipolarbears60]

02:58 PM on 11/08/2011

Then why waste time attending any class? Just find a good hacker, pay them some $$ (has to be cheaper than a 4 yr degree where you didn't learn anything anyway) and have them create your transcript. I'd do that before I'd pay for a worthless "A".

[gabufuda]

01:44 PM on 11/08/2011

http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/recorder.asp

That is an urban legend about the tape recorders. Not clear when I posted a bit ago why it wasn't made public. What strange censorship.

[mira chancleta]

01:40 PM on 11/08/2011

Since we are going to play can you top that...

The Big 10 School I attended was very addicted to its jock-strap snapping culture of boorishness.

This jock-obsession was felt in every pore of this school.

So profound was this obsession with the sports programs that one academic dean was known to create (at the tongue-in-cheek request of any number of coaches), 1,2, 3 and even 4 credit courses of "INDEPENDENT" study AFTER the semester had ended and then he would RETRO-ACTIVELY add the never-taken "course" to the "student's" transcript to keep him eligible to keep playing for the school.

Not too surprisingly the grade was always an "A".

The student athletes seldom graduated but for the time they were on campus, they were kept eligible and the pom-poms waved furiously every weekend as our "athletic supporters" wrote the fat checks to the university.

...Madison, WI