OU administration met with leaders of the Graduate Student Senate Tuesday morning to discuss the university’s termination of graduate teaching instructor Mel Curth, according to a statement from OU Marketing and Communications.
“The University of Oklahoma met with leaders of the Graduate Student Senate to listen, share perspectives, and have a constructive conversation,” the statement reads. “The discussion provided an important opportunity for University leaders to hear directly about recent graduate students’ experiences and their impact at OU.”
The meeting comes two weeks after GSS passed a bill calling for transparency from OU regarding its investigation of Curth. The bill states the university has damaged the reputation of Curth and the institution as a whole, has created an opportunity for lawsuits against the university and did not make it clear whether any official policies were followed during the investigation.
Sam Jensen, GSS Ways and Means committee chair, wrote in a email to the Daily Feb. 3 that the university’s response has negatively impacted the academic integrity, reputation and student body of the university.
“Since this situation started getting attention and generating national headlines, the University has become the butt of jokes about how our degrees are now worthless,” Jensen wrote. “It also affects every student on campus as it also calls into question the quality and significance of the degrees for which they have worked hard and incurred enormous expenses.”
Jensen confirmed Tuesday’s meeting in an email to the Daily and wrote that executive members would provide a summary of the meeting at the GSS meeting Thursday.
Senate Chair Summer Edwards wrote in a Tuesday email to the Daily that she would not speak about the meeting before Thursday.
“For the sake of maintaining trust with the provost office and other higher administration on campus, and out of legal precaution, I will only address this at the GSS general body meeting,” Edwards wrote.
The bill, passed at the Jan. 29 senate meeting, states the university should reinstate Curth, allow an independent audit into the university’s decision and respond to both the senate’s first resolution and the American Association of University Professors petition.
On Tuesday, OU Faculty Senate brought forth a resolution affirming that the Faculty Senate was not involved in discussions to terminate Curth despite claims from the university. The resolution also states that faculty senators fully support the GSS bill calling for transparency and the AAUP’s petition.
Faculty Senate has until 8 a.m. Friday to virtually vote on approving the resolution, according to a Wednesday email from Faculty Senate Chair Sarah Robbins.
GSS will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday over Zoom. Graduate Senate executive members will deliver the update during general assembly.
Background
In November, junior psychology student Samantha Fulnecky publicly contested a failed grade on an essay assignment in an OU psychology course, stating she believed she received the grade because of her religious beliefs. Fulnecky reportedly received zero out of 25 points for the Bible-based essay and filed an illegal discrimination claim. Curth, the course’s instructor, was placed on leave later that month.
Curth stated the grade was based on the essay’s lack of empirical evidence and said parts of the essay were offensive, according to reporting by The Oklahoman. Fulnecky reportedly asked Curth to reconsider the grade, stating she met the requirements of the essay, but Curth denied the request.
The other instructor for the course, according to Canvas comments published by The Oklahoman, wrote that they concurred with Curth’s grading and the paper should not be considered as a completion of the assignment.
On Dec. 5, around 250 protesters gathered on campus in support of Curth. Protesters also called on OU to protect its professors under political attacks.
On Dec. 22, OU announced that following an investigation, it was determined Curth engaged in arbitrary grading and would no longer have instructional duties at OU. Curth submitted an appeal to the Institutional Equity Office on Dec. 30, according to her attorney.
Fulnecky’s appeal has drawn state and national attention. Gov. Kevin Stitt posted on the social platform X on Nov. 30 that the situation was “deeply concerning” and called on the OU Board of Regents to review the results of the investigation
This story was edited by Macey Thaxton.
