Ian Mullins’ class is rigged.
Mullins, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, teaches a course that asks: Should people be wealthy?
First- and second-year students enrolled in Mullins’ Engagements course start with a certain number of points, randomly distributed according to the wealth distribution in the United States. Some students are at the very top, some at the very bottom, and most are scattered somewhere in the middle.
“I designed a class that intentionally was not fair, where students could do everything right, have nothing go wrong, and still not get the grade they want,” Mullins said.
Students with more points can choose to award some to their classmates, or they can spend their points on things like using certain letter bundles on assignments or meeting with Mullins outside of office hours.
Fortunately, halfway through the course, Mullins lets students vote on whether to keep the original grading system or switch to another grading method – including an automatic B-plus, but Mullins said, “no UVA student wants a B-plus.”
“There are stakes to this class that you don’t normally encounter, and it doesn’t matter who you are outside of this class. You could be rich with all the advantages in the world, or you could be poor and have had to fight your way through,” Mullins said.
It’s an approach his students say works.
“The Engagements course descriptions are pretty vague online, but then in person, there was so much teeth to the class,” John Thomas, a second-year student, said. “Despite all the emotions of the class, he was such a calming, grounding presence.”
Mullins’ goal is to get students to focus on learning, rather than grading. As many college students increasingly focus on credentials, Mullins says he focuses on creating citizens.
Mullins says being involved with his community – at UVA and in Charlottesville – have helped him feel at home. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
The emphasis on grades is not something he experienced as a young person. In fact, Mullins said it wasn’t common to attend college where he grew up, let alone graduate school.
“I grew up in the Detroit metro area. Most people worked in auto factories, but it was a time of deindustrialization, and a lot of those factories were shutting down. People where I grew up did not expect to go to college,” Mullins said. “My mom believes education is important, and had the expectation that I go to college, but she did not have the resources to help me navigate that process.”
By his account, Mullins “did things wrong.” He attended three different institutions as an undergraduate, skipping introductory courses and moving straight into graduate-level ones.
“I was pure enthusiasm, and I just took what was interesting to me. I didn’t know the importance of an academic record, and I had great mentors, but they didn’t know how to help me with the problems first-generation students face,” Mullins said.
It took him longer to earn his undergraduate and graduate degrees than some might expect. While in college, he washed dishes, delivered pizza, sold appliances and landscaped people’s yards to keep himself afloat. He tried applying for doctoral programs, but they didn’t pan out. After working an office job that “hollowed me from the inside,” he decided to reapply for a master’s program. He moved to the West Coast, starting in Portland, Oregon, before heading to Southern California.
“It allowed me to become a serious student, not just one with some potential. I also met a lot of people who invested their time and energy into me, who helped me reapply to Ph.D. programs,” Mullins said.
He’s passing it down to his own students today. Angela Edwards, a fourth-year student from Hampton, said Mullins is the reason she chose to study sociology.
“The first day of class, he was wearing a black sweater and Converse, and I remember thinking, ‘That’s so millennial-coded.’ But it made him so relatable, especially as a first-year taking classes with a lot of older professors,” Thomas said.
.jpg)
