motivation probably money. price per barrel which was over $120 in march by late september dipped below 80. and it also seems designed to help russia which has been hurt by sanctions since its invasion of ukraine and heavily depends on its oil profits. surely, opec plus knew the move would also impact america s election which is just a month away. when joe biden took office the national gas average was $2.39 a gallon by this summer, it more than doubled, $5. even higher in california, and his popularity plummeted. and then in the wake of the supreme court overturning roe versus wade on june 24th, the democrats have been getting more hopeful signs about the midterms, maybe hoping to hold on to the senate and a slim chance to keep the house which many attributed to abortion rights and that issue. but could the real issue be something else, as nate cohen suggested in the new york times this week isn t st. the gas price, stupid? cohen pointed out ten days before the issue on ab
physician, or medical exam or treatment, i want the smartest, best individual out there and if somebody struggled for whatever reason on organic chemistry, i don t know, i d be a little nervous. i mean, of course, all of us want to make sure that folks going into the health care profession are able to do a class like organic chemistry. i think you re right, there has been a shift in student performance in the last decade or so. and professor jones has observed that. i do think it s worth inquiring why that is. jones also pointed out that while he had seen kind of a downward shift in student performance over the decade, and he used the phrase fell off the cliff during covid. that s useful information to have. it s not up to nyu to say, we re going to lower standards and make this easier for students. i do think it s up to, of course, universities and high schools and kind of down the line to figure out how do we start to reverse these changes.
and garnered many awards. last spring, 82 of the 350 students in his large lecture course unhappy with their test scores signed a petition against him. it read in part we re very concerned about our course and find they re not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into this class. we urge you to realize that a class with such a high percentagech withdrawals and low grades has paled to make students learning and well-being a priority and reflects poorly on the chemistry department as well as the institution as a hole. and nyu terminated dr. jones year-to-year contract saying his performance, quote, did not rise to the standards we require in our teaching faculty. in a grievance protesting the decision, jones wrote students were misreading and grades were