Students at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus can get a B or better just by showing up to class — because administrators pressure professors to inflate grades, a furious instructor claims.
That’s because undergrads who breeze through classes and get high marks help the university attract more applicants — and more tuition checks, LIU art Professor Jacques Hyzagi, 35, alleges in separate state and federal complaints to the Department of Education obtained by The Post.
“No matter what horrible work they give you, they’re going to get a good grade anyway,” explained Hyzagi, a French national who has a Ph.D. in art history from the Sorbonne.
“It’s to keep the tuition coming. It’s a very rich part of Long Island — [parents and students] are going to buy themselves a degree.”
Hyzagi — who landed a job at the $45,000-per-year Brookville school in 2010 but does not have tenure — said his courses were canceled for the current semester after he made the complaints this month.
“Since I refused to comply with the fraud, classes set for me for fall 2012, and for which I had already completed research and preparation, were given to someone else,” said Hyzagi.
In the complaints — which were obtained by The Post — Hyzagi said his superiors “asked me to inflate grades by giving every student no less than a B . . . setting the stage for a perfect tuition fraud scheme . . . at LIU.”
The evidence included an e-mail from Professor Rachel Baum, his boss at the time, to Donna Tuman, chair of the art department.
“It’s terribly clear that the emphasis of the school is on ‘retention’ at all costs, but there’s a certain point at which this means a devaluing [of] the course quality for the majority of students who want the best academic experience they can get,” Baum wrote.
“The message to faculty from the administration is obvious and should become the school’s motto — ‘adventor semper rectus,’ ” which is Latin for the customer is always right.
LIU brass denied the allegations.
“The administration of the university recognizes the academic independence and freedom of the faculty. There is not now — nor has there ever been — any administrative effort to influence faculty grading. Nor would the faculty allow it,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kane, LIU’s VP for academic affairs.
But in a separate e-mail included in the complaints, Baum told Hyzagi to correct papers and give students a chance to do them over before grading them so they don’t get bad marks.
“We have to treat the art history courses as remedial writing training and give them a chance to improve before giving them a bad grade,” wrote Baum, who now teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology and didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Hyzagi and other sources said the practice is such an open secret that students know they won’t be tossed from the school no matter how poor their work is.
“There are many people in the administration who consider this a business,” said a second source at the LIU/Post, where
Students said it’s common knowledge that many professors will hike grades.
“A lot of grades are negotiable. It’s never like final, you can do something to push it back up — like retaking an essay and stuff like that,” said a junior communications student.
“Students don’t want to pay all this money to get bad grades and then graduate without any real job prospects. The better grades you get, the more likely you’re going to stay.”
A senior sociology student said he worries the inflation is devaluing his degree.
“That’s really bad because the kids who work hard are not going to be taken seriously.”
Officials from the state and federal departments of education didn’t return calls for comment.