Oklahoma consistently comes in at or near the bottom of the national state education rankings. And judging by this story, it’s easy to see why.
In what has to be the stupidest battle in the never-ending culture war we’ve seen for some time, the MAGA propaganda machine is currently going into overdrive to defend a garbage college essay a middle schooler would be embarrassed to turn in.
Enter University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky, who was given the psychology assignment to read a paper and then write a 650-word essay detailing its findings on gender stereotypes. Fulnecky turned in a cripplingly embarrassing essay, whose core argument was:
“Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our heart.”
Fulnecky provided no citations (not even to Bible passages), displayed no critical thinking, and showed no engagement with the paper she was told to analyze. Her professor, Mel Curth, duly provided a lengthy explanation of why she was giving it a zero mark:
“While you are entitled to your own personal beliefs, there is an appropriate time or place to implement them in your reflections.”
The conservative outrage engine promptly kicked into high gear. At this point, you’d expect the University of Oklahoma to step in to defend their staff. After all, they’re an accredited academic institution, the essay is objectively bad, and Curth handled the situation delicately and professionally.
“Deeply concerning”
But this is hellworld, so the college suspended the professor and has launched “a full review” of the situation. Now the Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has stepped in, saying this is “deeply concerning”:
The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. I’m calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students aren’t unfairly penalized for their beliefs.
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) November 30, 2025
Stitt is at least right that this is “deeply concerning”, though not for the reasons he thinks. It’s deeply ironic that in one breath, right-wing hatemongers will bleat about “DEI” in universities giving academically inferior students preferential treatment because of their identities, while saying Fulnecky’s awful essay shouldn’t be failed because of her beliefs.
The general reaction is that this episode is already deeply damaging Oklahoma’s already shabby reputation for education:
My condolences to anyone that ever received a degree from the University of Oklahoma, cause at this point it makes a resume look worse than having no degree at all. There are many truly lovely people in Oklahoma, but the standard of education in the state is utterly abhorrent. https://t.co/XpTerld5If
— Dhoster Deer (@Dhoster_Deer) December 1, 2025
However this shakes out, it appears that the University of Oklahoma should be avoided like the plague by academics, professors, and students. Suspending a professor for correctly marking this garbage essay a zero only underlines their cowardice and refusal to maintain any academic standards.
