Btukfyl

The dean of our school/program teaches a class and has put in the syllabus that if a student gets below a 75% in her class it is an F and the student will be eliminated from the program. She doesn't round up either so a 74.99% is a 74%, and a D is not a grade she offers; it's an A, B, C or F.

I don't think this is legal and was wondering if anyone else has had this issues or any advice on how to fight her on this.

I don't think this is legal

While laws vary from country to country and even within countries, I highly doubt any country has a law that makes this illegal. As for how much leeway professors have for setting the grading criteria, this depends on factors from the department level all the way up to the university, and possibly accrediting agency, level.

was wondering if anyone else has had this issues

I am not sure I have ever seen this exact grading scheme, but professors do all sorts of stuff. The department I did my undergraduate studies in had limited lab space and therefore made sure the prerequisite classes had the appropriate failure rate.

any advice on how to fight her on this.

I am not sure what there is to fight. If too many students fail (or not enough get As), you might be able to file a complaint. The university will hopefully have a formal procedure in place. Filing a complaint as an individual student will likely have no affect. You will need to demonstrate that the system is unfair.

I don't think this is legal...

There seems to be a general misapprehension among students that there are strict legal or procedural rules on academics in regard to how they assess their courses. Such beliefs are generally not rooted in any actual training or study of the law, and are far from the legal realities of higher education. In reality, academics have wide discretion to form the assessment structure and pass-requirements for their courses, within allowable university policies. The only constraint that is commonly operative on a university lecturer is if the university has chosen to adopt an assessment policy that constrains its own academics.

I have practiced as a solicitor in Australia, and I am unaware of any legal rules in any country that would prevent a university lecturer from choosing the assessments and pass-level for a course they are teaching. The only exception to this would be general laws of contract, if there is some university policy or other representation to the student that disallows a higher pass-level for a course. Some universities do indeed set policies for their courses that specify constraints on the assessment structure, and in some cases this may preclude a higher pass-level.

...any advice on how to fight her on this.

Unless there is some university policy that prevents her from setting the pass-requirement at 75%, or has some other expectation with respect to the overall pass rate, you will not have much of a basis on which to raise an objection. But for the sake of argument, let's suppose you fight her on this and you win. She is then required to drop the pass requirement to the standard level at 50%. All that will happen is that she can now make the assessment items correspondingly more difficult, so that achieving 50% on the new items requires the same level of understanding as achieving 75% on the old items.

Rather than putting your energy into an administrative battle with a person who is given wide discretion to assess her own class, I would recommend that you put that effort into mastery of the course content, and try your best to get up to the pass requirement. If this causes you to knuckle down and learn the material to a high standard then you might find that you look back on this as a valuable challenge.

The professor might be doing the students a favor.

When I was going to school, a D was worse than an F. If you got an F, you could retake the class and have the grade replaced.

If you got a D, it's still not considered a passing grade, and you would still have to retake the class. Then you would get the average of the previous and new grade AND the transcript would show you getting a D in the class.

It seems a bit harsh that failing would result in dropping out of the program though. Are you sure that's what the consequence of failing is? No chance to retry?

The dean of our school/program teaches a class that...

Sorry, but I think your time/energy is better spend getting a tutor and working harder, than spending it trying to figure out how to get a D in the class that the dean says s/he won't give.

The only work you should do before getting your final grade is to maybe collect contact information of the other students. At that point, explore your options - until then, study.

There was a prof at my school that always said at the beginning of the semester that he had never had a class that got all A's and wanted that to happen before he retired. The last class he taught he gave everyone an A - regardless of their deserved grade. Professors can do, and do do, a lot of crazy stuff. Deans are maybe worse.

Your options depend on the university you attend. My recommendation is to talk to your academic advisor and see what they say. They might tell you that it's fair and to do your best or they might raise their eyebrows and help you go over her head. If your school has an ombudsperson, that is another great resource. Their job is to resolve conflict and they are typically very familiar with college policies.

Best of luck!