Hi Mr. Mooningham,

I would like to take a moment to discuss with you the conflict I am currently having with my math professor, William Wuerfel. I am a Social Work major, currently in my third year. I will start applying for field work this spring. Next year I plan to be enrolled in field placement, and am anticipating finally putting my knowledge to work. In order to proceed with the program it is required that I have all of my general education credits done. I took Math 082 this year, and I planned to take Stats in the winter; once these are completed I will continue on with senior seminar classes. Having to retake this class will set me back an entire year, because I cannot begin field placement. I worked extremely hard in my Math 082 class, I attended every class, but two. (On one of the days my car broke down and I was not able to make a test, which I was grateful that he let me retake around his schedule). I also diligently took notes, studied for every test, and did homework. I am being completely honest when I say this. There were a few homework assignments I missed, because they are time consuming and I do have four social work classes, and a 17 hour part-time job. However, I feel that I completed at least 70% of my assignments. During the beginning of the year I could not order the book from the bookstore, because they had a major shortage in the number of textbooks they ordered, so I was without a book for the first 2 weeks until they received a new shipment. Wuerfel was not lenient on my homework assignments, even though not having the book was out of my control. I was also the only student to utilize this professor's office hours. I did twice. One of these was during exam week, when I studied in his office for 2 hours at the only time he said he was available; it developed conflicts with my schedule, but I went to show him I was extremely dedicated and was determined to ensure that I could learn a bit more from the study session. I received a 69.8% in the class. Just .2% shy of passing. I fail to comprehend why he couldn't raise my grade by a mere .2%. Amongst my peers, I believe that I was one of the most attentive. If you could see my gpa and meet me you would realize that I am a very dedicated and hard working student. The only explanation I can offer for his indifference is that during midterm reviews I singled him out for “treating the course like a high school math class” and stating that “for a 082 class the amount of work required seemed lunatic.” I still firmly stand by both of these sediments; however, I now realize the dangers in eschewing complete honesty when completing teacher reviews; it truly came back to bite me, and for that I wish I had never spoke exactly what was on my mind regarding what I thought of him and the class. I will just elaborate on this briefly so that the departments chairman can understand better. I believe that there was no transition into realizing that this particular class was being held in a university classroom. To clarify that, I will provide an example: one day a female in the class had to leave early and so she quietly packed up her belongings, and exited the classroom without causing any commotion or presenting any kind of attitude; she simply left. However, during mid-lecture, Wuerfel left the classroom to pursue her down the hallway, demanding to know where she was going. I spoke with the girl the next day, because I have her in another class. I just could not believe the amount of disrespect he had for both our classroom (to just leave) and to the girl (to pursue her). I understand that students should not typically leave class whenever they desire, but this was not routine to the female. I also stand by my statement that for a Math 082 class, it DID require an extraneous amount of work. I feel that the class did take away time from my other classes, and I don’t want to say “more important” classes because I do believe math is important, but it really did take away time from my Social Work Major’s course classes. Below is the email about my final grade, I received no response back before he posted it online as a  D.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tiffany Vedder" <tmvedder@svsu.edu>
To: "William Wuerfel" <wwuerfe1@svsu.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 3:07:52 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re:

Hi Mr. Wuerfel,
I am really worried about passing this class, and the class average is so close! I almost can not believe it. Will I have to retake the class or can it be rounded? Thank you so much, and same to you as well!!!!

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Wuerfel" <wwuerfe1@svsu.edu>
To: "Tiffany Vedder" <tmvedder@svsu.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 10:14:52 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re:

Hi Tiffany, you scored 138/200 on your exam giving you a final class average of 69.8%. Best of luck to you in any future college classes you may take and may you and your family have a great Christmas. Mr. W.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tiffany Vedder" <tmvedder@svsu.edu>
To: "William Wuerfel" <wwuerfe1@svsu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 2:43:58 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re:

Hi Professor Wuerfel,
Thank you again for helping me during the 2 hours you were in your office! Could you please email me once you have the tests graded with my overall grade in the class? I'm anxious to know! If you could that would be great, happy holidays.
Tiffany

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Wuerfel" <wwuerfe1@svsu.edu>
To: "Tiffany Vedder" <tmvedder@svsu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 6:38:49 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re:

Hi Tiffany, The weather wreaked havoc on our schedule this week. It has caused many conflicts for a number of us who teach at both SVSU and Delta. I will be at SVSU today in my office at 12 noon and will be proctoring an exam at 2:30. I will not be at SVSU tomorrow as I have 3 exams to give at Delta and someone else will be proctoring your exam. So, if you can come in today between 12 and 2, I can go over anything you have questions about, but I can not do that tomorrow before your exam. Mr. W.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tiffany Vedder" <tmvedder@svsu.edu>
To: wwuerfe1@svsu.edu
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 3:39:39 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern

Hi Professor Wuerfel,
I'm in your Math 082 class on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:30-2:20. I was wondering if your office hours changed this week due to exam week/and or the snow day. I would like to utilize them if I'm not already occupied during those times. Also I was wondering if you would be willing to come in a half hour early for this exam like last exam? I think a number of students would appreciate it, because more people showed up last time than those who said they would. I would definitely show up early! Hope you enjoyed the snow day!
Tiffany Vedder

I’m not sure what can be done about this grade, or if anything can be done. I think I sort of feel a sting of resentment in him not willing to raise it, despite my efforts to pass. I was hoping you would look into this, at least read the email and see where I am coming from. I would appreciate if you could email me back to just let me know you got the email, and maybe any sort of response you have to it. I would appreciate that. Happy Holidays.
Tiffany Vedder