Failure is Not an Option?

I often feel like my role in the education of medical students is pretty minor. So I was taken by surprise the day I was told that I was possibly all that stood between a student graduating and being dismissed from school. I had sent out a syllabus prior to the first session of the biomedical ethics elective I taught that spring. It was a two credit pass/fail course covering a range of bio-ethics topics for students in the spring of their M4 year. The e–mail included class times and instructions for a brief assignment due prior to the first class. One student, John*, did not turn in this assignment. During the first class, I again went over the syllabus. The next day, I e–mailed John to tell him I was still waiting on the first assignment, and asked him to choose a topic for his main project of the semester. I told him the day he would present his project to the class, approximately five weeks from that e–mail. A week later, I heard from John, as he had selected a topic. He did not offer any detail about it, and did not mention the first assignment. I asked for more information, specifically information about his ethical approach. He never responded.

This pattern continued through the semester. John routinely came to class late, turned in assignments late or not at all, and ignored communication from me. At one point, I had to reschedule the class period I had set aside for John’s class project since I had not heard from him in so long I wasn’t sure he was going to show up. At that time, I also warned John that he needed to attend all classes and turn in all assignments on time for the rest of the semester or risk failing the course. I also asked him if there was anything going on in his life that was affecting his performance in class that he wanted to discuss. John did not reply, although he did show up on his presentation date without a presentation, so I assumed he had read my e–mails.

After meeting his deadlines for the next month, John did not turn in the final class assignment or come to the final class. Because I had warned John about the need to complete all assignments and since he had not performed well up to that point, I turned in a failing grade for him. I wondered what was happening with him, but he did not seem interested in sharing any information with me, which was a choice I felt I had to respect.

Several weeks later, the day before the medical school graduation ceremony, I received a phone call from the Director of Academic Affairs for the Medical School, Ms. D. She said she had received an e–mail from John about his grade in my class, which she forwarded to me while we were talking. In it, he stated that he had just learned he had failed the course, which was a surprise to him, and he had been told it was due to attendance requirements. Ms. D was calling me in order to find out what steps John needed to take to “fix this.” I told her that he had not failed due to missing class, but rather due to missing assignments. She asked that I allow John to drop the class so we could “just be done with this.” She also forwarded me an e–mail form the Dean of the medical school saying it was fine with her if I allowed John to drop or receive an incomplete.

About an hour later, I received another phone call. This time the Dean herself was on the line, asking if I could give John an incomplete or drop him from the class. I had never spoken to the dean before. I explained that I had been in communication with John throughout the semester, and that he could have come to me about his grade at any time. I offered to forward her the e–mail...