Hunter College CUNY Remove CHEM 350 Biophysical Chemistry Course Requirement for the Biochemistry Degree

Are you a former or current Hunter College CUNY student majoring in Biochemistry? Have you been told that in order to acquire your degree you must take and pass a course called CHEM 350 Biophysics Chemistry even though it has nothing to do with your degree? Have you taken this course more than once, failed and it still have not been able to graduate because the class was purposely set up for failure?

Then you are not alone, and it’s time to act.

CHEM 350 Biophysics chemistry is a 4-credit course that does not contain any biology or chemistry components, but focuses on quantum physics, one that must be mastered in order to pass this class prior to learning or being taught these concepts in less than two months, sometimes a day after a lecture without practice or reference material.

Class is set up for failure:


• Violation of the Disabilities Act:
o Professor cannot and won’t amplify their voice to make their voice audible, negatively disadvantaging students with poor hearing, despite having microphones accessible to the professor to use for this purpose, a violation of the Disabilities Act in education.

o The lectures are conducted in a dark room with a projector that the professor refuses to amplify, making it not only illegible for the students to see, despite the multiple pleads from students that they cannot see the writing by the professor, but in poor handwriting that the professor refuses to explain the illegible writing. Students with low vision and other visual disabilities are being disadvantaged despite pleads by the professor to use a readable technology.


• No resources are provided for the students to learn:

o There are no slides or notes shared by the professor for the students to review.
o No textbook to refer to or practice questions.
o The textbook recommended by the chemistry department, but not used by the professor is for a Physical Chemistry course but does not contain any resources to self-study or practice.

• Tutoring Services provided by the college are useless.

o The tutors available are unable to assist the students or understand the material presented by the students. When asked for assistance the tutors are just as confused and unable to provide the services they have been hired to do at the tutoring center. The material is incomprehensible to both the students and those in charge of providing the tutoring and mentoring services.

• Exclusive & Privileged Teaching:


o Office hours held outside of campus and inaccessible to all students taking the course. Professor expects the students to travel to their place of employment during the hours that’s convenient to them, outside of previously announced/agreed hours and location, in this case to the professors’ place of employment outside of the campus.

o Professor only teaches during office hours and not during lecture. Professor does not teach, explain or answer questions during lectures, but conducts a full lesson during office hours, a time and location not accessible to all students, but only to those able to travel to and take time off from work or other classes to attend these exclusive meetings.

• Lectures are held for less time than assigned, sometimes ending one hour early.

• Quizzes and exams do not reflect what’s being taught in class, only what’s taught to a selective and privileged few students that attend the office hours.

• Questions that reflect what will be on the exams and quizzes are presented to the students 40 minutes prior to the exam during a short recitation period, where the volunteer TA attempts to teach what the professor fails to do, and no time is provided to process this material or practice within humanly possible circumstances to do so.

• There is NO course equivalent to this course at any other CUNY university or external colleges as per the chemistry department. The syllabus describes concepts that can only be covered in physical chemistry courses that require multiple semesters to cover this one-semester course. The chemistry department doesn’t grant ePermits or permits to other universities to take a course that will satisfy this course, and no options are provided.

• There is no option to take this course at a different time or day since only one professor teaches this class, excluding working adults, adults with jobs and/or a family that cannot attend office hours in the middle of the day and travel to the professors place of employment outside of the college campus, making this course impossible to repeat if the student’s work schedule or personal life cannot provide for the only time slot designated by the department. This has only become a deterrence from completing a college degree that is 98% completed for one class that is purposed made inaccessible.

• Students have repeated this course sometimes 3 and 4 times, without having a path or resources to acquire a passing grade, costing thousands of dollars in both borrowed student loans, increasing and burdening students with unnecessary debts and wasting the years that the student could be working in their career or moving on to graduate school to acquire higher earnings, which this one course is fully responsible for.


We are demanding the Hunter College and the governing body of the City University of New York to:

1. Removes the CHEM 350 – Biophysical Chemistry course as a required course for the Biochemistry Degree/Major.

2. Investigate why the Hunter College Chemistry Department has forced students majoring in Biochemistry to have to take a course that has nothing to do with biology or chemistry, a course that focuses on a specialized subject in quantum mechanics, a course that doesn’t have resources to refer to, practice or actually learn the material that it is expected during the exams and quizzes, and have no option to take an equivalent course or a substitute that will satisfy this made-up course that has become a money-making scheme to for students to repeat a course multiple times, and delay the graduation by years unnecessarily.

3. We demand that the university ensures that disabled students with vision and hearing and mobility disabilities have access to the education that is required to succeed in this course, where the professors meet the legal requirements of providing materials that are accessible, and within the campus building.

4. Oversight and accountability for violating the Disabilities Act with enforcement to ensure that professors that violate the Disabilities Act by imposing conditions that are inherently discriminatory towards students unable to meet outside of lecture and tutoring hours and to be forced to travel outside of campus to attempt to receive the teaching that should be done during lectures and within the college campus where every student registered for the class has access to.

5. We demand that our money’s worth! If we pay you to teach us, then you must provide us education and ensure that the resources provided are meant for us to succeed in any course at this university following standard educational protocols that include meaningful lectures, resources to refer and practice with, along with actual educators who are experienced to teach the material that’s necessary to achieve the educational goal: to learn.

Please add your name to this petition to demand that Hunter College and the City University of New York honors their educational responsibility and provide what we paid for: an education, not an obstacle at the end our long, arduous and expensive higher educational journey to prevent us from acquiring our well-deserved Biochemistry degrees by removing CHEM 350 biophysical course from the curriculum now!