The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has denied an accusation from a visiting fellow at its Department of English that it was secretly lowering individual students’ grades, without the consent of the professors, in order to appear more academically challenging.
The contract of Cody Glenn Fuston, an American novelist who also goes by his pen name CG Fewston, was terminated on Tuesday. CityU said it was because he refused to submit student grades unless his demand for a pay rise was fulfilled.
However, Fuston told HKFP that he was dismissed because he knew the reason behind the alleged secret grade changing activity – to obtain a better rank among universities around the world. Fuston claimed that City U lowered grades to make it look like a tougher institution and that he was fired as he asked “too many questions” and filed complaints against the department’s staff.
Fuston wrote a letter to his students about the termination which was widely circulated after it was posted on the popular CityU Secrets Facebook page on Wednesday.
‘Too many times to count’
Fuston said that he became aware of the alleged secret grade changing when he arrived at the university in June 2014.
“I have always stood against this and any and all corruption I witnessed in the English department, and this is why I asked my students to hand in a hard copy of their assignments for them to keep accurate records.” Fuston wrote in the letter.
“Be sure to always ask the professor for the final grade. Do not depend on the English department for the final grade since they will secretly lower the grade without anyone’s knowledge – not even the professor.”
He added that “I had this happen too many times to count while I was at CityU, a university I hope I have made better in my rather short time.”
‘Serious breach of contract’
However, a spokesperson for CityU told HKFP that the accusations regarding the Department of English were unfounded.
“Mr Fuston was employed as a Visiting Fellow on a one-year contract to teach English classes. Within the duration of the current contract, Mr Fuston demanded a pay raise. Unless his demand was met, he said he would refuse to submit student grades to the Department. This behaviour constitutes a serious breach of his contract with CityU,” Yvonne Lee of the Communications and Public Relations Office of CityU said.
“To protect students’ interests and to ensure that students’ academic progress would not be affected, Mr Fuston’s appointment was terminated on 27 October 2015 in accordance with relevant provisions in his employment contract.” Lee said, “Suitable arrangements were made immediately to ensure that normal teaching and learning activities would not be affected.”
“Separately, there are other complaints against Mr Fuston and disciplinary proceedings are currently underway. In view of these ongoing proceedings, we are currently unable to disclose further details.” Lee added.
Lowered, never raised
In response, Fuston told HKFP that he and many other professors were receiving complaints from dozens of students each semester questioning the grades they received.
He claimed, for instance, that a B+ he gave to a student became a B-, though he never agreed to the changes. He said it was against his principles but professors “were forbidden [from] talking about grading schemes.”
Fuston accused assistant professors of changing the grades he originally gave to students – a practice he described as “absurd and ignorant.”
“The reason these grades were being changed (lowered, never raised) was to make CityU look better in the eyes of the grading system that ranks universities around the world,” he said, “If the grades are lower, then it means the university is more challenging and more difficult – regardless [of whether] the students actually did what they should have done to achieve a certain score.”
The Department of English would have students who questioned the final grades file a challenge – their work would then be reviewed and higher grades were often rewarded, he claimed.
‘Pushing too many buttons’
Fuston said that, according to his termination papers, he was fired for failing to hand over grades by a certain due date for review by professors holding higher positions than him.
“In all my years at CityU I had never done this and I never agreed to turn in my grades early, meaning before the end of the semester. I refused because I knew what they were doing.”
Regarding the demand of a “pay raise”, Fuston said it was a challenge he made to CityU after he found out that visiting fellows were being paid much less than full time professors: “[It] was unjust and unfair and simply wrong.”
“Basically I got terminated, quite unexpectedly and without notice, for asking too many questions, for pushing too many buttons. CityU didn’t like that so they figured they would just silence me by terminating me – and they broke their contract to do so.”
Complaints filed
Fuston said that he contested the decision of the Dean of Class in appointing Professor Chan Hon-suen, former Head of the Department of Public and Social Administration, to be acting head of the English department – which is a Humanities department. Chan was acting head of the Department of Chinese, Linguistics and Translation from 2012 to 2014.
Fuston also said that he emailed CityU President Way Kuo questioning the changes in grades, the departure of ten professors from the Department of English over the past summer, and the appointment of Chan Hon-suen, saying that this would have never happened in his native America. He said his emails were ignored.
Regarding “proceedings currently under way”, Fuston said he filed two official complaints against Chan Hon-suen and a human resources staff member in the department. He said he believed that one of the reasons he was terminated was “so these official complaints against these two people would never see the light of day.”
“Basically, they could get rid of my complaints while saying whatever they like. The accusations against me are unfounded and the main complaint was a counter complaint made by Hon Chan [Chan Hon-suen] because I first made a complaint against him.” he added, “I told him I never agreed to hand over grades to a third party for censoring.”
“Happy to be done with CityU”
“I am happy to be done with CityU… If I am guilty of anything from CityU, and being investigated for any disciplinary actions, then why did CityU terminate my contract, in effect breaking it and going against the law, all without notice, mind you, and then pay a handsome severance package all in the course of a single business day?”
“I do believe that CityU uses fear as a method of control – to control the students and the professors. But anyone who uses fear as a control mechanism lacks emotional intelligence.” he concluded.
CG Fewston was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence 2008 Awards. His published works include the historical fiction A Time to Love in Tehran.
