text:
Emailing a professor for points on an exam when you want a recommendation from the professor
I recently took an exam in my master's program where I missed just enough points to change my grade from A+ to A (in my country, these show up differently on a transcript). I intend on applying to some extremely competitive PhD programs (otherwise I would not be concerned with this grade difference), and given my undergraduate background, this is a course where I am probably expected to get an A+. Furthermore, I am essentially depending on a letter of recommendation from the professor of this course.
After having already looked at the exam with my professor, and hearing him explain the grade justification, I believe I did not yet make a well thought-out argument as to why I should have been given certain points.
My question
Should I bother emailing this professor with my legitimate argument, or simply let it go? I will probably get a rec letter from him either way and while I want an A+ and genuinely think my work on the exam deserved it, I don't want to annoy my professor and make his opinion of me depreciate.
Edit: In this scenario, I feel that an error was made on the part of the test-writer where a question could've been reasonably interpreted in two distinct ways. I was told that because I was the only person to make this particular interpretation, that it was an unreasonable interpretation. I don't agree with this logic.

That's not how it works.

Do you care more about the A+ or the recommendation letter? Because if you go begging for the A+ you almost surely wont get that lettersince this request makes you look like a choosing beggar, which is generally something frowned upon.

As a professor, I encourage you to reframe your thoughts: you didn't "miss just enough points to change [your] grade from an A+ to an A"; rather, you earned enough points to rise to an A but not quite enough to rise to an A+. It's amazing how this one detail can result in a huge shift in perspective.

You made a case,he gave his explanation. Unless it's a blatant over sight, like he thought you wrote 2+2=5 when you didn't, you should let it go. Approaching him a second time will only annoy him at this point.

"And given my undergraduate background, this is a course where I am probably expected to get an A+"... FYI, if you're in the US at least, what you're really expected of is to have a glowing recommendation letter, not a glowing A+.

Really bad idea.  You seem to have normalized grubbing for points and arguing about it as some normal thing.  It's not.  If there is a genuine mistake, let the prof know.  Then accept the outcome even if it is wrong and move on.  Don't complain about referee foul calls in sports either.  Just move on.

So, how many took the exam? Given all the advice on here, that simply put, the reference letter is worth more than the grade, then you are going for the grade! Brilliant decision, hope it works out .... but plan for the worst...

Let it go.
You discussed this before, he made his arguments and it is unlikely that he will change his mind. It isn't only up to you to make a good argument for the points, but the professor himself will have judged the points again when you discussed them and will now be convinced that the points are fair.
Begging even more for the points will probably not get you any more points, but may annoy the professor, e.g, because you already discussed it and you are still not satisfied after he told you the final outcome. He has neither the time to discuss this again and again, nor he will consider that he was wrong the first two times (the first assignment, then your previous discussion).

First of all, you are probably correct. But to your last statement, it could potentially help if I get a higher grade, and I see this as a legitimate possibility (around 40%).

Agree with this answer, if the prof had seen enough validity in your arguments then the grades - for all - would have been adjusted. If the grades were not changed then they won't change just because you ask a second, or third, time...

+1. The glowing letter is far more valuable than a minor grade change. If you want to ask the prof to boost the grade, ask what additional work you could do that might convince him to do it. A dispute pushes in the other (wrong) direction.

@Buffy: I agree that the letter is more valuable than the grade change.  However, I wouldn't suggest asking a question like "what additional work could I do".  It sounds like you're asking for special treatment, which would be unfair to students who weren't offered those opportunities.  If there are extra credit assignments listed in the syllabus, look to those; otherwise let it go.

@NateEldredge, actually it isn't unfair to the other students since it doesn't affect their grades in any way. But if you are willing to do something for one under a set of circumstances you should be willing to do the same for others. There is even a parable in the Christian bible about the issue.

@David 40% is not "a legitimate possibility". It's not even a coin toss. It's a chance of 2 in 5 to have a minor improvement to one of your grades. An A is already considered a 4.00 GPA, an A+ won't meaningfully improve that.

@Nzall I am not in the U.S., and the grading system does show a difference between A and A+, and this is a course where, frankly, I feel that I am expected to get an A+

@Buffy: using different standards to determine grades for one student is definitely unfair to the other students—"it doesn't affect their grades in any way" is a non-argument, and would apply for instance to one student paying their professor for a higher grade. In this situation, in particular, implicit gender and ethnic biases result in differential treatment for students who make requests for special treatment.

@GregMartin, you are confusing "treating people fairly" and "treating people the same". They aren't necessarily the same thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Workers_in_the_Vineyard

I am not confusing the two concepts; I am asserting that this is a situation where the two concepts coincide. The grading schemes on our syllabi are contracts with students, which they accept given the understanding that the grading schemes will apply to all students the same. Upholding our end of that contract, by using the same procedure for all students' grades, is what is fair. If our contract were known ahead of time to be "everyone receives a penny regardless of time worked", then upholding that contract would be fair.

@David You probably made some mistakes. A+ is reserved for (almost) no mistakes. A is pretty good. Your prof reconsidered his decision and came to the same result. Begging for A+ instead of A now is kind of a luxury problem and insisting on it more than once, even when it was declined will not reflect good on you. It would be another issue when you fight for the point required to pass the course, but you're actually telling the prof and us, that you are the very best and not acknowledging this must be a mistake.

I've added an explanation of the scenario in the post.

@GregMartin, sorry, but you are wrong again about contracts. Contracts define what people are required to do, setting minimum standards. They aren't about what people are permitted to do. If you have a contract to pay someone 10 but pay them 12 instead, you haven't broken the contract. You seem to see the grading rubric as a contract with everyone else that I will punish John if he doesn't measure up, rather than a contract with John that if he does he will reap the rewards. Again, fairness doesn't imply the "same" actions. Otherwise no exceptions would ever be permitted, say illness.

@David Adding more about the scenario does not help. You had one chance to discuss this and the prof. did not only hear your arguments and did not change your grade. And I am not sure what you want to achieve by discussing the question here over and over again. It doesn't help telling us how important it is for you, because this does not make it important for anyone else.

@allo I felt that explaining the scenario would clarify one thing, being that this isn't a case of "I wanted an A+ and I worked so hard and I deserved it, etc." but a legitimate case of "I think the professor made a mistake and I don't know what to do about it". Probably shouldn't included this part from the get-go but too late. I have accepted your answer.

I understand your disappointment, but I really do not see a chance. Best wishes for the recommendation letter.

At U.S. top schools, recommendation letters are more important than grades.
If your professor knows you well and has a truly positive opinion of you, this will come out in the recommendation letter.  The best thing you can do for yourself cultivate a real relationship with the professor (e.g. by visiting office hours, talking about ideas beyond the syllabus of your class etc).  If you can talk about your goals for doing original research, so much the better.
As an aside, perfect grades aren't a very strong signal for who will be a good PhD researcher, so I really wouldn't worry about the grades very much anyway.  A person who is curious and pushes themselves beyond their comfort zone -- even at the risk of getting some bad grades -- is a much better PhD admit than someone who has always gotten perfect grades.

Please justify your top headline with sources. While this may be true for US schools, I am quite certain that the reverse is true at many continental European schools.

fair point -- I should clarify -- I'm talking about top schools in the US, specifically in social sciences. And my sources are admitting PhD students to our program and discussing with other people who do the same in other programs.  This is anecdotal, but I believe it is true of US social sciences programs.

@HRSE Even in Europe a good recommendation letter carries a lot more weight than the difference between a single A and A+ grade.

If you asked me for the points and the letter, i would give you the points and reflect my irritation with you in your letter.

...and look (not with anger, but precision) if there are other places where I should have deducted some points.

If you asked me for points (a second time) and the letter, I would not give you the points, and would not write the letter (citing the point begging). It shows a lack of maturity.

@RichardRast There is a large difference between point begging and ensuring that you are being evaluated fairly. I always encourage students to look at their exams carefully and argue in case some point deduction is unjustified.

@HRSE in theory sure; I can't recall a time when a second conversation was needed and the reasoning was legitimate. But perhaps such times exist.

I briefly explain the scenario in my edit.

Here is my two-part opinion.
First, it would be a breach of professional ethics if a professor let the quality of their letter of recommendation depend upon whether students questioned their grading judgments. (I know for a fact that I have made grading mistakes, and I have come to terms with the fact that I need to receive all requests for reconsideration, even though the majority of them are misguided, to allow the students to have my back on the not infrequent occasions they are correct.) I know this is a statement of ideals, while you are asking about what happens in practice; for that I would guess that your cordial interactions will be remembered far more than the content of your query.
Second, I still think you should let the issue go, for the following reason that is unrelated to the letter of recommendation. You had an opportunity to present an argument about how the grading scheme was applied to your work; you did so; and the grade was confirmed. Perhaps this is a learning experience that one should take the time to formulate the best argument possible the first time around, if you think you didn't do so. But the fact that you now think you could have presented a better argument is, in my opinion, not relevant: you had a chance, and you did the best you could—none of us are perfect.

Maybe the A+ is justified, maybe not. Clearly, the discussion may be subjective to a minor extent. However, if a student cannot let go, it means that "being right" discussions will happen when it comes to corrections in papers, scientific arguments, thesis write-up etc. This signals trouble in a supervision process, and if the prof now knows this about you, the letter of recommendation might reflect that potentiality. It has nothing to do with the integrity of the professor - even the opposite, namely, he is warning his colleagues of a potential problem.

@MorganRodgers, I agree. If the student obviously doesn't deserve any additional marks, then their presence at your office again definitely says some negative things about them, and including these in the letter is your right. However, if their arguments are good, then their presence in your office doesn't say anything negative about them; indeed, within reason, the unwillingness to compromise on matters of truth and morality can be viewed as a virtue, albeit a frustrating one. And, it's important to reward frustrating virtues, because no one else is.

As a professor, I encourage you to reframe your thoughts: you didn't "miss just enough points to change [your] grade from an A+ to an A"; rather, you earned enough points to rise to an A but not quite enough to rise to an A+. It's amazing how this one detail can result in a huge shift in perspective.
--- Comment by Greg Martin

This comment by Greg Martin
 is so good, and so important here, that I want to highlight it here as an answer, and make some broader points about this type of situation.  This is somewhat tangential to your specific question, but I will come around to the connection with your question at the end; so please bear with me.

In university-level teaching, it is very common to encounter intelligent ambitious students who have got high grades throughout their schooling and are used to performing at a very high level.  Some unfortunately adopt an annoying way of framing their work, where they speak in a way that sets 100% success as the implicit default position, and any derogation from this constitutes "missing out" on points.  This is a somewhat natural way that elite students come to speak of these things, since they have always obtained high grades throughout their schooling, and they are sufficiently talented to realistically shoot for 100% on a piece of assessment.  In these cases it is somewhat natural for these elite students to frame things as "missing out" on this mark or that mark, since their focus is in weeding out remaining errors in otherwise high-level work.  Unfortunately, over time, these students get sloppy with the way they talk about learning, and their language reflects the implicit view that perfect knowledge is the default position for them, and anything less than perfect performance constitutes some aberration, often in need of arguments over grades.
The other thing that is common to encounter in elite students is an implicit reversal of the relationship between learning and grades --- the elite student often considers the formal grade to be of paramount importance, and the learning as a method to increase grades.  In reality, learning is of primary importance, and formal grades are merely an imperfect tool to assess the degree of success in that learning.  In extreme cases, one occasionally encounters intelligent students who are so concerned with their grades that they allow opportunities for self-reflection and learning to bypass them entirely.  Most university lecturers have had at least some experience of a situation where they attempt to impart some broad lesson to the student during a discussion over grades (e.g., pointing out some broad deficiency in their work that is a "soft-skill", which is not easy to quantify), where the student shows no interest in learning from that situation, but is only interested in arguing for a higher mark.
These kinds of attitudes constitute deficiencies in understanding the process of education and assessment; they reverses the true nature of what is going on.  For ambitious and intelligent students this generally do not hamper learning too much so long as that learning is done in the confines of a formal course with a fixed scope and assessment structure, and with formal assessment of grades.  However, once you come out of that environment, into situations without formal grading, these attitudes tend to stunt learning.
Most PhD programs are focussed primarily on training a student to be able to conduct independent scholarly research.  They require students that are proactive in learning, and are hungry for knowledge and improvement outside of their formal courses.  Some PhD programs have courses in the early years and others don't have any courses.  If coursework is required then you're expected to get good grades in these, but they are merely considered as preparatory work for the real meat of the program --- the main focus of the program is on your ability to learn outside your courses, and to be able to advance your research work under supervision, without getting marks as feedback.  Hence, when writing a letter of recommendation for a PhD program, a professor will assess your subject-matter knowledge, as reflected in your grades, but he will also try to assess your ability and willingness to learn independently beyond your formal coursework.  If your focus is on making arguments to advance your own grades, to the detriment of self-reflection on your own performance, and opportunities for broader learning, this bodes poorly for your ability to succeed in a graduate research environment, where grades in courses are secondary, and self-driven learning is primary.
I mention these things because they are the background to assessments of a student's ability to engage in self-learning in graduate school.  I'm certainly not saying that you have these deficiencies, but please bear in mind that your professor has probably encountered some students with these deficiencies before, and he is trying to figure out if you possess any of these problems yourself.  You say in your question that you already made the case for a higher grade and you received an explanation for your marks.  Ideally, that would assist you to reflect on how you can improve your work --- not improve your grades, but your work.  Anything that reflects a willingness to self-reflect and improve your own work is going to reflect well on you in a letter of recommendation.  Anything that reflects an attitude of focus only on formal grades, and a resistance to self-reflection will come out poorly.

To some extent, I think I disagree with ... not the quote, exactly. But some of the things that might go with it. I'll make the following point; people want the quality of their work to be reflected in the grade they get, because it is this grade and not the quality of work that will ultimately determine the opportunities that are available to them. If so, then there needs to be protocols available to assist students who believe there's a mismatch between these two things. Such students aren't always right, but if and when they are, that's an injustice unless an alteration is made. Thus...

... although the point of view advanced in that quotation is a valid one, if it reduces the probability that students who really have suffered such a mismatch will do something about it, then that's imo a problem. And, if this reframe reduces the probability that the administration will create protocols and policies to facilitate change of grade when the arguments in favor of such a change are strong, that's also a problem. And if this reframe influences staff to think negatively of students merely for making an argument in favor of a change of grade, or a rebuttal against one of their...

... arguments, that's also a problem. So, although the reframe is valid, it could potentially have negative consequences for justice through a variety of means.

I personally would let it go. Most of the time people (this does mainly depend on personality) think they're right and if you attack (i.e. challenge their views) them they get extremely defensive and unresponsive. If you are going to argue in favor of those extra points make the professor himself admit they are wrong; without you outright saying it. Perhaps explain the benefits of those extra points to him? Anyways that's my 2 cents.

I agree with this. Furthermore, although those higher up in the academic hierarchy are more likely to be capable to scrutinizing their own beliefs and responding to evidence (this is part of academia, after all), there's also a counter-current that cuts the other way, which is that people typically don't like being challenged on issues they consider themselves expert on. In practice, then, those high up in academic hierarchies tend not to be very much more reasonable than anyone else when they're challenged in their specific field, especially if the challenge isn't characterized by the kind...

of "respectful hesitancy" they're looking for. There's exceptions, of course. Some people - and they're more common in academia than elsewhere - think about such things ahead of time, end up deciding that the default reaction can interfere with basic principles of morality, and specifically decide to regulate themselves to avoid this. But even in academia, such people are pretty rare, and in practice the probability that rebutting a professor's argument with your own argument will lead them to decide you're attacking them is pretty high.

There should be an appeal process, that bypasses / escalates beyond the professor's purview. If you successfully make the appeal, you may be able to get a recommendation letter from one of the board members rather than the professor whose judgment (or that of his TA) was found wanting.
Alternatively, you could take the course again with a different professor or opt for a different elective.
You are obviously between a rock and a hard place. Write your own assessment of the professor in ratemyprofessors.com to allow other students to decide whether they want to risk their careers by taking a class given by that professor, eat your losses, and then move on.

I agree with allo.
Some further thoughts:
It's frustrating when you haven't even gotten the chance to make your points, and a good university should develop protocols and procedures to make sure this is possible. This isn't always done, and depending on where you live and what expectations/rules apply, it might be risky to mount an objection. The fact that mounting an objection is likely to be a risky act is fundamentally not okay, however I'm not all-powerful and neither are you, and I recommend being strategic here. As buffy said, the recommendation letter is a lot more valuable than the grade. For the same reason that risking 10 thousand dollars for a chance at obtaining 1 thousand dollars is a bad idea unless the chance of losing the 10 thousand is very low, I do not think you should mount an objection.
And, please, if you're ever in a situation where you can influence the direction that university policies take, please please please influence them in the direction they need to go. Students shouldn't be punished just for making an appeal to fairness and offering some arguments in favor of their work, or for rebutting a weak rebuttal to their arguments. Nothing about this is okay.
For myself, I'm currently doing my 3rd university degree, and I've been teaching and grading for 10 years, I'm keenly aware of the deficiencies of the current system. More specifically, I live in Australia, and here universities make it their goal to make making the process of disputing a grade as hard as humanly possible.
I've seen so many examples of this. Here's one example:
A friend wanted his grades on a math assignment increased. His arguments were as follows:

The questions were vague and the lecturer's expectations were vague, and yet the lecturer did not respond to emails or requests for clarification, of which my friend sent many.
Some of the "errors" he had been penalized for were actually errors on the lecturer's part.
The lecturer did not give reasons for any of the grades, and there were no published marking criteria for the assignment, which was contrary to university policy.

Dot points (1) and (2) above constitute a good argument for increasing the grades, or at the very least a remark. Dot point (3) constitutes a good reason to refuse a remark until proper grading criteria have been published.
So, what happened? He met with 3 professors - the lecturer and 2 others - to discuss the issue. They essentially conceded all of his points, yet offered no grade increase, only the chance for a remark. They did not offer to publish objective grading criteria, despite that university policy required it. He explained that without such criteria, he would not accept the offer for a remark, and would only ask for a grade increase. After another meeting, they decided to decline his request for grade increase, despite a variety concessions to the effect that the lecturer had made numerous mathematical errors in his marking.
So my friend took it higher. His arguments were very strong - I would know, I helped him write the appeal. He ended up making his arguments in front of a board of university staff. A lawyer that was provided by the university union sat next to him, partly to keep notes on his behalf. At the end of the meeting, the lawyer told him that he had destroyed the opposing arguments. A few weeks later, he received their final decision. His grade would not be adjusted. Literally hundreds of scarce hours were wasted on this appeal "that could not possibly fail", at a time when the burden of difficult Master's level subjects meant that every hour wasted was a serious cost. And yet at the end of it, my friend had nothing to show for it, other than a bruised ego.
This kind of thing, I'm under the impression that it happens a lot. For myself, I never took things quite so far, and yet I too have had similar experiences. I will give the most recent:
To object to an exam grade at my current institution, you have to do a lot:

You have to work out how to go through the process. It turns out that "applying for feedback" is how you do it objection. But nobody tells you this. The phrases "object to a grade" and "dispute a grade" do not appear on the Monash website, nor on the specialized faculty subsites. Mainly what you get is endless talk of "feedback". If you email the relevant customer service team and ask them outright if this is the right way to mount an objection, you receive a cheery non-answer that specifically does not answer your question:

Hi [name omitted]
Thanks for your enquiry.
If you've already completed Stage 2 of the exam viewing process and
  have further questions, you can proceed to Stage 3 for further
  feedback by completing the online application form, giving reasons to
  support your request.
We'll go through all the submitted requests and forward them on to the
  respective chief examiners if we determine the reasons are strong
  enough for further feedback.
Have a good day!
regards
[name omitted]

Once you've worked out that "applying for feedback" is the way you make such claims, you're faced with clicking a checkbox that says that if you miss your exam you viewing session, you will forfeit the right to see your exam script ever again, no matter what. It doesn't matter if your Dad died, your car broke down, or you had a stroke - nope, it's your own fault.
When you get into the exam script viewing room, you have almost nothing to work with. You get to see what answers you submitted. But often are not told what the actual question was, or what you were graded out of. You are NEVER told the reasons for the grade you got. You're not allowed to take the exam script out of the room - all you can do is scrawl your objection on a bit of yellow paper they give you. That's assuming you've worked out at this point that you need to be building a case. If you think this is just the feedback stage, and the mount-an-objection stage will come later, you're in an awful lot of trouble.
In my experience, the extent to which your comments receive fair consideration is based almost entirely on whether the lecturer likes you. If the lecturer likes you, they will consider your points carefully, and your grade will change by 4, e.g. from 91 to 95. If the lecturer does not like you, they will ignore your points, and your grade will change by 0, e.g. from 91 to ... well, 91.

I also think the voting patterns here bolster my point. In the original version of this question, I commented that universities try to make objecting your grades as hard as possible...

... and you're forced to put up with the stubbornness, small-mindedness
  and stupidity of human nature, essentially by design. And, though most
  professors are far from stupid, they can be every bit as stubborn and
  small-minded as anyone.

This is so true! Just look at the voting here. Because my answer offended some people, I ended up at -6, despite that my points were strong. Well, this is exactly what happens at university! If the lecturer likes you, your marks go up. If they don't, your objections are ignored. It's roughly the same pattern that plays out so frequently on this website.
Long story short, universities need to implement controls prevent this kind of thing. In my opinion, the average professor simply cannot be trusted to grade (or vote, for that matter) based on the strength of someone's argument, as opposed to their feelings about the other person's tone or character.
And, with that in mind, I'll leave the Addendum from my original post as some final food-for-thought.

Addendum. I think the voting patterns here bolster my point. For example, note that I fully addressed the points made in Ben I.'s first comment, yet the comment continues to be upvoted and the rebuttals ignored, essentially because I ruffled a few feathers. This is small-mindedness in a nutshell, and really emphasizes the importance of my final point, which I'll repeat again: Students shouldn't be punished just for making an appeal to fairness and offering some arguments in favor of their work, or for rebutting a weak rebuttal to their arguments. Nothing about this is okay.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

I’ve upvoted your answer – even though I disagree with its gist – because (a) I think you made a fair point and (b) I want to oppose the downvoters. Technically speaking, downvotes just mean “not useful”, but according to help center, they should be given for “an egregiously sloppy, no-effort-expended post, or an answer that is clearly and perhaps dangerously”. This answer is none of these things. What’s happening: People downvote because you indirectly insunuate they are stubborn or small-minded, which they, in turn, find rude and unsubstantiated.

That’s at least my interpretation. So my impression is that downvoters are downvoting because they disapprove of your tone or even take offense. It seems exaggerated to me to downvote this answer for its content, even if one disagrees with it. Anyway, you probably have had really bad experiences with grading? I found most teachers and graders to be quite understanding and amiable. In my case, disputing grades also wasn’t made “as hard as possible”. (Might be the German system, though.) Maybe you could tone down your answer a bit …

On an personal note: You seem like quite the formal guy from everything I’ve read from you here and on [math.se]. At times, being formal misses the point. For example, when you analyze others’s arguments with respect to formal fallacies. To me, it’s been clear that Ben didn’t mean any harm. (But even if he did, a short witty comeback is way more effective and fun in exposing it than any analysis.) And introducing more formalities to control grading objections may only make things more tedious and annoying. The answer here is to adopt a more laid-back perspective regarding grades, I think.

@k.stm "Anyway, you probably have had really bad experiences with grading?" --Yes indeed. "I found most teachers and graders to be quite understanding and amiable." --I'm moving to Germany.

@k.stm, and, I've edited my answer. I'm not sure it's toned down, and I didn't want to tone it down. The hypersensitivity of the academic community to people's "tone" is an important part of the overall problem, and refusing to soften my tone is an important way of saying: "This is fundamentally not okay." But anyway. I've fleshed it out, and made it even stronger.

@goblin Also, I very rarely found people to be hypersensitive to tone. And being respectful and mild in tone is no custom special to academia. Maybe I am wrong to think that you come off too strong. However, if several people in one way or another address your tone, they might just have a point. I’d say that, if you talk about having to “put up with the stubbornness, small-mindedness and stupidity of human nature”, you look spiteful and that’s no good way to start any conversation. Toning it down here is not about weakening your case, but about lessening your reproach.

@goblin And maybe a Buddhist approach to injustices like these is right. People that treat other people unfairly turn themselves to unfair people. Thus, they bring themselves bad karma, under which they inevitably suffer spiritually, as one suffers from having bad character just as one suffers from having pain. Being treated unfairly, you have the freedom to take the injustice and not letting yourself be affected by it emotionally or spiritually. You may fight it, of course, but you do have the opportunity to be free from it, as the wrong-doing is not yours.


text:
Accommodating whiteboard glare for low-vision student
A reduced-vision friend faces challenges with whiteboard glare in a new classroom. To further complicate the matter, the teacher uses only colored markers, typically blue, green, or red, which makes the text even harder to discern. The teacher says she cannot do anything, as the glare is caused by the room lighting and windows. Could you suggest what we can do about it?
I list the potential solutions I already identified:

My friend uses a cell phone camera to capture the material and reads it at home. Yet the use of cell phones and cameras is prohibited by the organization, and attitudes toward cell phones in class are worsening in the country and worldwide. I am not sure if she has received official permission from the teacher, but this seems like a temporary and sub-optimal solution.
Buying the teacher a big, thick black marker. Some teachers and disadvantaged students find  purple work better, could be a good option too. I am considering a few brands, perhaps Asian Artline. Yet perhaps any above-average brand could be just good enough.
Special translucent films for windows, light sources filters, sprays  work great, yet I'm not sure if the teacher and administration would agree to that or how long it would take if they will.
My friend tried to find a better seat in the classroom, yet they turned out to be about the same or worse either due to glare or other reasons.

This question is on its 35th revision, the primary effects of which seem to be (1) making it progressively longer, and (2) keeping it on the front page. I have made some edits to control the length. You can fix anything I botched, but please keep it short. After that, let us leave the question alone; it has run its course.

Thanks for tidying up, cag. Serge, I think it would be fine to put the update in an answer.

Ethically, the teacher must make an accommodation, independent of any laws that might apply. It is unethical to disadvantage a student because she "likes" to use difficult to read markers or there is a "policy" forbidding cameras.
If the students can't convince her to behave ethically, hopefully the department head/chair or the dean can.
To make it clearer, I hope, the OP here can join with their friend in asking the teacher to make it work. Failing that, they can complain to the department or the dean either on their own, with the student at risk, or with a group of classmates. Only the student can request accommodation from an office designed for such but that is likely to take time and effort that should not be needed. The teacher has an ethical responsibility to make learning available to every student. Likewise does the university. Make them understand their responsibility if they don't already.
The university accepted this student and allows them to take this class. The university has a responsibility to allow the student to be as successful as anyone else on a "level playing field". Simple.
The disadvantaged student can request the accommodation in various ways, from the teacher, the department, an office that manages policy, etc. But I have little respect for a teacher who won't make it work with a simple ask. And if they resist, I'd complain to the department even if I wasn't that student.

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"that is likely to take time and effort that should not be needed" - approaching the issue by complaining to the department head/dean/etc will take just as much time and effort, if not more. I strongly suspect that the first move of such a person would be to refer the issue to the disability office, so why not cut out the intermediary?

I'd like to point out that while glare on whiteboard and/or faint whiteboard markers are a serious problem for the student in question, they are also not good for all other students. While there may be personal accommodations that make the class workable for the student (camera, polarized filters may help?, ...) in this particular case improving readability fist of all for the student in question but as a side effect also for everyone else is IMHO the way to go. Iow, anyone would be right to ask for better markers and lighting.

Maybe the teacher should even have realized themselves that the setting doesn't provide a proper learning environment and solved this without waiting for any complaints. Iow, this is IMHO a situation where the student should likely not be required to reveal their disability - because proper classroom environment would (hopefully) be sufficient accommodation.

@cbeleites It is good idea to try polarised glasses. Actually I own some old polarized 3D glasses, yet my student friend though did not like it particularly, I suspect of fear of looking too cool

First of all, any action involving the university or professor needs to be initiated by your friend, who is the student. There is no role for a student's friend in getting accommodations, except perhaps in moral and research support. It may be unfair to place the burden on a disabled person, but that's the way the system works.
You make a couple of suggestions for your friend, which I'll respond to.

Take photos surreptitiously. Please don't do this, some people are uncomfortable being photographed; and this is a sub-optimal way of consuming a class. We can do better. However, your friend might ask for an exemption to the policy, explaining their disability.
Modify the classroom windows/lights. I am doubtful a university can move fast enough to do that this semester.
Sit somewhere else. You mention your friend tried this, and none of the seats are any better.
Bring markers. Other answers and comments have provided details, but this would be odd. You, a friend, should certainly not do this. Following a polite email (see below), it would make sense for the affected student to do this but it is not their responsibility to bring these materials as an accommodation for their disability (see also this answer). I'm not really sure this would work well, either.

Next, I would take the following steps.

Ask the professor to change markers. I mentioned in a comment she may be reluctant to do that, since she's presumably using multiple colors for a reason. But maybe she's willing to change. You don't say whether your friend has emailed and asked politely "I have poor vision and have trouble seeing the (yellow/green/etc.) markers. Could you avoid using those?"

Next, your friend reaches out to the disability office. In order to reach out to the disability office, they need some sort of documentation of their low vision. Probably they have this already, but a letter from their primary-care provider would usually suffice. Because this might take a while, do this, while asking the professor directly about what she can do.
a. The disability office might be able to move the whole class.
b. Direct the professor to use suitable markers and allow an exception to the no-photos policy.
c. Get window film added quickly.

Notes on emailing the professor:
It's easy to imagine a context where the student simply wrote "I have a hard time seeing the whiteboard because of the glare from the window." and the professor, with a lot else to do said "Dang, sorry" and moved on.
Your friend should write an email, explaining they have a medical condition, that they are working with the disability office, but in the meantime, is there anything she can do, like using different pens.

I assume the main reason of prohibiting cell phones is to prevent students from engaging in social media, photographing other people, taking calls and other unappropriated activities. The laptops seem to be more tolerated though. The real situation can be, of course, more  nuanced

@Serge There's a lot of guesswork in this post, since this is about your friend. So I'll reply once and leave it at that. If cell phones and cameras are banned, then OP should not violate that policy without getting permission from the prof, or accommodations from the disability office. I also believe it's a bad solution.

You might also ask the professor to take pictures of the whiteboard and email/upload them for the whole class to use

@aherocalledFrog Without knowing the topic or format of the class, it is impossible to say whether that's a workable solution (in terms of stopping class, and managing the photos). I also do not think that doing that is good for learning, so I will not suggest it.

Have the student in question go to the school's accessibility office and tell them about their problem.
That office is the dedicated contact point for solving problems like these (individually and immediately). Doing anything else is over-complicating the situation and likely to be a waste of time and other resources.

In the US (not sure about Canada), usually such things are handled by official channels. Check out accommodation services or anything related to disabilities, and work something out. Those official channels should be able to recommend.
Buying markers yourself is "nice", but is not how to properly do it at my school -- or I imagine at most schools, and should be ideally considered as a secondary resort.

thanks, but it takes time and effort to identify that channel, communicate, and even more time  for them to react. It proper action taken it will help consequent student, but my friend first of all concerted of present situation

I think some people would take buying markers as much less than "nice", it's a rather indirect way of communicating a point that is not often appreciated, unless one was aware that the principle concern preventing use of that marker is finances/supply. Similar faux pas would be giving deodorant to someone who you think smells bad, or buying your in-laws a cookbook because you didn't like the food they served you.

@BryanKrause So could placing marker(s) quetly near the board be a safer move? The teacher might guess who done it but unless there is a rat in the class she would never know

@Serge That would be even worse.

@Serge: Accommodation services offices are accustomed to dealing with immediate individual needs, that's their entire point. You're making this more complicated than it needs to be by not turning to the dedicated solution point.

@Serge Problem is, it's the department's task to provide these essential equipments and the teacher's task to make sure they have them ready. If you unilaterally take over this responsibility, it suggests that they so utterly failed these basic function of theirs that a "random student", i.e. you, had to step in; that you got so annoyed by this that you were willing to spend your time and money without prompting to "fix their incompetentness". This is not a point that's appreciated. If you really want to do this (I wouldn't), at least discuss it with the lecturer beforehand.

Apparently, some time ago same trick was done with impunity in a classroom that lacked white chalk though I am not sure of full details. Perhaps teacher considered it as a gift to school rather then him personally.

Universities are bureaucracies and that requires a certain way of communication. Learning that is probably one of the most useful skills a student can acquire at a university.
I suspect that your friend asked something like: "Can I take pictures of the whiteboard, because ...?" In a bureaucratic context this means that the teacher has received the following task: "decide whether pictures can be taken or not". Once that teacher decided (or applied university guidelines) and communicated that decision, the task is done and no further action is necessary. If your friend started with "I cannot read the whiteboard, because ....", then the task for the teacher would have become "find a way such that the student can read the whiteboard". The common mistake students have when communicating with bureaucracies is to start with what they think the solution is rather than the problem that needs to be solved.
Another thing about proper communication in a context like that is gifts. This is culturally specific, but in Western Europe, where I am from, a gift from a student to a professor would be a huge problem. There is no way I would accept such a gift directly or indirectly, however small, practical or otherwise it may be. It does not matter what the intentions are of the involved parties. This is not going to happen. Absolutely no exceptions. Buying markers for me falls in that category. So that is one problem with your proposed solution on top of the pretty mean implied insult that gift represents as indicated by @Neinstein .
So effectively navigating a bureaucracy like a university can be quite tricky, and many students need a "translator"; someone on the inside who is willing to take the time to explain who to talk to and what to ask. All the departments I worked for had such a person. This could be either a person with a job-title like "student-advisor" whose only job is to help students navigate the university or a regular teacher/researcher who has that as one of her/his/their many tasks. So finding that person and talking to that person would be a place to start. Alternatively, if you can find the disability office at your university, then the people who work there could play that role for this particular problem.

"The common mistake students have when communicating with bureaucracies" - This is a far more common problem than that, it's known as a general problem in communication and commonly encountered on Stack Exchange.

In my town small gifts, like chocolate bar are often accepted. I have seen also teachers offering sweets to students. In one establishment I attended collecting money for a prepaid credit card at the end of semester was customary, and teachers looks disappointed if for some reason they got a lesser gift.  And in many aspects that establishment was better then many other, perhaps, because teacher tried to keep students happy to make sure they will get their tips.  I am fine with that not all educators are paid equally well.

Teacher put it in the box, so more like donation to school.

This is one of the many reasons I dislike whiteboards--I have the same problem.
In general, the lecturer and the university is responsible for making reasonable accommodations.  I teach a large section class every other term and I encounter just about every accommodation request. Most are pretty reasonable since they have to go through the students with disabilities office before I will approve them.
My workaround for this is to use MS Notes and Teams and write my lectures using an Apple pen on my iPad.  I started doing this during the pandemic and it works.   Also, I find it a good practice to avoid certain colors. A good friend of mine is red/green color blind, so I try not to use red/green combinations and avoid using a laser pointer.

We decided to gift the teacher a big new thick 10mm chisel 'Big Nib' marker from a premium brand, Artline. This is the thickest I found on Amazon, though other respected brands, like Pilot, offer even thicker models.
I'm not sure if it was a calculated strategy or if things just happened this way, but my friend waited until the teacher's marker started to dry out by the end of the class. At that moment, my friend offered her the new thick premium marker.
My friend allowed the teacher to keep the marker. Both the teacher and students are happy with the new marker so far.
I understand that some teachers might be offended by such gifts, but it worked in this case. Also the teacher keeps the marker into a desk drawer, so, perhaps, it counts as a gift to the school rather than the teacher. And school administration knows nothing about it, I guess.
Update. There is a minor backlash, the teacher mentioned that she would like to get more markers of the same brand ... because she likes the quality of the marker and uses markers a lot.

How about asking the teacher if their whiteboard writeup is based on written notes and if they'd be willing to share those with the student having accessibility issues?

I am going to assume that the bureaucratic obstacles have been cleared (perhaps with the help of the school's accessibility office, as others have suggested) and all that remains is the technical issues.
A few suggestions:
(1) Rearrange the classroom so that the teacher stands at the other end and uses the whiteboards at the other end.  (This obviously only works if the room does have whiteboards at the other end.) This will reverse the angle of the sunlight on the functioning whiteboard, and may fix the glare problem. (Source: a teacher who unofficially flipped a classroom so that students entered and left from the rear, to make late arrivals less disruptive.)
(2) Close the window shade or shades that block the sun.  (Source: an office where throughout the day we close the shade on the one window with sun glare and open the others.). It may be possible to request that shades be installed to make the room more universally accessible; this will also likely lower utility bills.
(2a) Get a portable shade (photography websites have instructions to make cheap light shades and backdrops) to block the worst of the sun glare.
(3) Buy a large set of whiteboard markers.  Pick the two or three colors that are most visible for you, and ask the teacher to use those.  (Source: a few decades playing board games with colorblind and low-vision people.)

Those are interesting suggestions, I liked the idea (3) of buying a large set and then find out, yet I did not want to overwhelm or spoil my friend and the teacher. I bought a 4 pack, kept the green and the red one, and offered my friend a thick blue and black markers. So teacher can rotate - I have heard if not well shacked markers tip might get dry and need   recharge. My friend gave the teacher only the black one, and returned the blue marker. Apparently it was enough

A portable blackboard could probably be found for close to free.  They're more environmentally friendly anyway.

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I'm a PhD student, my supervisor is a complete bully. Should I take legal action?
If a PhD student has been bullied by their supervisor, should they take legal action and sue for damages? Taking legal action could prevent the supervisor from subjecting others to this treatment in the future. But could it also damage the students reputation and chances of pursuing further in academia? This is an edit to an original post that is a personal account relating to this question:
Original post:
"She made a lot of false allegations and claims to defame me, the university is not firing her and has been protecting her which was why she could continuously making untrue events. Can I sue her?
I actually filed an appeal where she failed me without any solid evidence; I won my appeal. I filed informal and formal complaint with substantial evidences. She also filed a complaint but full of untrue events.
If you have not been bullied and in this situation, I appreciate it you move along. I considered to sue her so that she has less chances to continue to ruin the other students' life!
During the process of my formal complaint, she also made a complaint after me which the Student Union considers mischievous and inappropriate. In the complaint and many other meetings, she said so many untrue events, examples: I made the lab instruments dysfunctional; I said I want to publish papers with only my own name; the external advisor is very surprised that I didn't send the data to him however on the supervision log it clearly stated he was very aware of my tasks; I said her comments on something I wrote were not useful and not helpful; I made offensive languages etc etc...just so many so many! She also tampered my email in her complaint.
I have supervision log, email communications, recordings to support that she's made many untrue and inconsistent comments. I was following everything discussed and logged in supervision log, she completely ignores all communications and she uses her own law randomly.
It's her topic. No, I'm not considering to continue anything related to her."

The only part of this rant which is a question seems more of a legal question than an academic one; and a proper answer would require more precise details, to justify a lawsuit

In order for us to help, we'd need some examples of the specific instances, and how much evidence you have.
At the first glance, it sounds like you may have a case since you say that you won the appeal, but also as a professor, I know that the university administration usually sides with the students unless the faculty has concrete evidence (an easy example is when I know that the student is cheating; unless the student confesses himself or we catch him red-handed, there are virtually no ways to get the student in trouble).
So, can you sue her? Maybe. But winning a university appeal and winning a lawsuit are two completely different things.

@LeonMeier I did say usually; never intended to make a blanket statement.

There are so many untrue events and inconsistencies. She has no respect for the supervision log, email communications, even the recordings where certain things did not happen and she said it did, of course to make me look bad. Just too many...

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Is it acceptable for a professor to ask post-doc student to babysit for free?
Like the title says, I have a friend who is a post-doc and her professor is asking her and another post-doc to baby-sit for him.  He does not pay them, he simply expects them to baby-sit for free because they work for him.  It is not clear whether this happens during the day or in the evening, though by my understanding it makes little difference in academia.  It is also not clear just how common it is for him to ask, but apparently it is at least semi-regular.  To me this seems like an abuse of power and there should be rules against it.  Is this kind of thing normal?

That's doesn't seem normal unless they're close friends. I would recommend that friend say no anytime this came up.

Actually, think how much weirder this would be if a male professor offered to pay a female post-doctoral researcher (i.e. a highly skilled scientist) to watch his kid. What's he going to give her, 10 bucks an hour? He probably sees this as a favor from a friend, which would be reinforced by the fact that postdocs are often not quite employees of the professors that run their labs. Still not cool at all, but her response could be completely different if this is true.

Occupation and gender don't really matter. I would only consider babysitting family friends for free, and normally the expectation is that they'll repay you down the road when you need a favor.

I've seen this in situations of professor and grad students as well. It makes everyone uncomfortable.

Utterly inappropriate, unless they are friends. (And given the power imbalance involved, I'd say it's still unprofessional even then.) Does the professor expect other students of his to wash his car? To trim his lawn? For free? Should I expect my manager to ask me to help his kids with their homework? I'd say the relevant question here is how can my friend extricate herself from this situation? There's a bit of a difference between declining the first such request and breaking a habit on the professor's side that appears to have been going unchallenged for a while.

Short answer: no it's not normal.

@Compass [...] gender don't really matter it most likely does. I suspect said professor is not asking male postdocs to babysit his kids.

@CapeCode this is in the United States

No Not normal. Your friend work as a postdoc not babysitter. The professor need to understand the fact that working for you does not mean being a slave.

@CapeCode As far as I can tell, this is not "On standards or conventions specific to the United States higher education system" (it would be equally inappropriate in any academic culture I've ever been part of), so I've removed the tag.

@ff524 agreed. I asked because I thought of the legal aspects to this question that are country dependent.

Is this really a question? Is the answer not common sense? I feel like I've started seeing way too many rant-questions on this site lately.

@Tim actually, it would not be so weird. You want someone you can trust to watch your kids.

A small amount of research would show this is not OK.

I would love to know the country of origin of the professor and the post-docs. The professor's culture may make him think this request is normal--not that that's an excuse.

It's sketchy, since the circumstances make it a bit awkward for the postdoc to say no. Still, I've seen it happen myself, and so I wouldn't say it isn't normal, just not OK.

@StephanKolassa: and if the professor were saying that it's a favour between friends then you could flip your examples around. Can the postdocs expect the professor to wash their cars any time they ask? No? Well then the power imbalance and non-reciprocity of this so-called friendship is clear. But it doesn't sound like the prof is invoking friendship, he's just saying it's part of their job "because they work for him" (and is wrong so far as common practice is concerned, and quite possibly wrong so far as their specific terms of employment are concerned).

One possible case I haven't spotted mentioned anywhere is that some people might actually like babysitting. It doesn't sound like that's the situation here, but I wouldn't much like there to be 'rules against it' (where 'it' is babysitting; usually I'd think there are rules about trying to force people to do things a long way outside their job description). It's not entirely uncommon for women (maybe men too) who are not in a position to have children right now to be quite pleased to have a baby to cuddle of a bit.

@CapeCode I'm male and it happened to me too. I said "no". It was an awkward situation.

Stackexchange won't let me write a comment that just says, "No!"

Your friend's advisor has made a very unethical request because, as a supervisor, it makes it harder for the postdocs to feel like they can say no. And they should feel free to say no, since the request is not normally part of any university employment contract I've seen.
Now, if the request were at the workplace, incidental and of brief duration (something like "Could you watch her while I take this call from the doctor's office?", for instance), then it wouldn't be so problematic (although still less than ideal). But anything more than that—anything that involved a regular arrangement, or was of extended duration—should be handled as a separate business transaction, so as to avoid exactly the coercion problem that you've raised.

Further, with a request made at a workplace (by, for example, the company owner in a small company) it's usually clear that the time spent babysitting is paid, via one's salary.  (Even then, it's still suspect if this task wasn't specified as part of the job duties.) The OP has stated the professor does not pay for the friend's babysitting services.  Quite a sense of entitlement on the part of the professor.

"And they should feel free to say no". I agree that it's totally unethical to ask, but adhering to this advice may be complicated.

@Sparhawk: I wasn't clear enough overall. I agree that the postdocs are put in a position where they feel they may have to say yes. That's what makes the situation so unethical.

@aeismail On re-reading your answer, it makes more sense flowing from the first sentence. (It was "feel free" that threw me.)

@SandraWalters, every employment contract I've seen includes the phrase "and other duties as assigned".

+1 for including practical emergencies at the workplace which will happen once in a while and which are the one situation where I can think of this request as neither weird nor unethical.

@Mark Perhaps it depends on the industry.  In my field (software development) I haven't seen that line in years.

@SandraWalters my employment contract as a Software Developer definitely contains that line.

Not only very unethical but also very unprofessional -- unless there are other circumstances that explain it. Given that the OPs description was vague, the easiest thing would probably have been to ask the friend, not the forum, what those circumstances are. The friend might get something in return, for example.

@Mark: there's a couple of ways that might become irrelevant. (a) the clause might not be upheld to mean literally anything regardless of JD; (b) even if the clause is upheld it doesn't follow that the prof, who is not the postdocs' employer just their manager, can use their time for personal gain. The organisation that employs them both might have something to say about that.

It's completely inappropriate.

If a postdoc is an employee, there most certainly is a contract with a job description that, for sure, does not include babysitting.
If a postdoc is funded with a personal grant (sometimes called 'soft money'), the grant proposal describes the work for which the money is to be used, and that, for sure, does not include babysitting.

Even though postdocs are often in an administrative gray area, expecting them to do non-research work for the convenience of their professor is wrong, regardless of the type of employment they have.

I have a friend who is a post-doc and her professor is asking her and another post-doc to baby-sit for him. He does not pay them, he simply expects them to baby-sit for free because they work for him.

Oh hell no.
This is neither normal nor remotely appropriate.  Postdocs are first and foremost professional colleagues.  Just asking postdocs to babysit is insulting, even if the PI offered to pay them.

"professor asks post-doc to baby-sit" can mean a huge range of things, from totally inappropriate (as outlined by other answers, no need to reiterate that) to totally appropriate. I find it very difficult to judge the situation from scarce second-hand information.
I'll try to delineate in which situations I consider it appropriate.

Professor asks post-doc to baby-sit can range from baby-sit as in go to their home and look after the kid (inappropriate unless under very, very special circumstances - no question there) or as in "emergencies" happen so that the kid has to be at the workplace, and then the postdoc is asked to look after the kid while the parent is e.g. in a meeting or has to talk to someone in a lab where the kid should not go for safety reasons.
Let me give examples of situations where I think it appropriate:

When I was a kid, it would happen that I had to be at my parents' workplace. I think I spent a fair amount of my first months sleeping in my mother's office. I'm sure she asked someone to look (or rather listen) after me when she had to do something outside the office (parental leave was not yet invented).
Later on, it has happened that neither babysitter nor grandma were available and both parents had to be at work/meetings at the same time (including late afternoon/evening). Even later, school closing early lead to a few occasions when I was told to come to the work place.
I seem to remember that the kid of one of our elementary school teachers joining the class because the kindergarden was closed for whatever reason.
I have a colleague with a 6-months-old kid (working part time). But she is a group leader so she has to attend meetings. Usually the dad (also working at our institute) takes the kid, or graddad comes. However, it happens that someone is needed to look after the kid for a while.

All these situations have in common that unless you seriously ask that one parent should quit their job as soon as there is a kid, these are "emergencies" that will just happen, and they need to be dealt with in a practical fashion. A solution is needed and that's IMHO all - no need to make a fuss.
Depending on the actual circumstances like meetings are often sheduled at short notice, school closing early whenever holidays start, no relations/close enough friends in the city to guard against babysitter being sick (the professor may have moved with their family to a distant city in order to become professor) this may happen "semi-regularly".
There are obviously also here situations thinkable that are inappropriate (professor is saving the hassle and money of getting a baby-sitter). I think the line is between the professor openly and mainly trying to benefit and the professor being awkward because they are in a situation where they need to rely on help from the postdoc. ("It is not what you say, it is the way you say it.")

Offering payment would be really weird. A more normal way in my experience to "pay" for unusual favors in general would be to bring, say, a cake. However, in the "nice" scenario the parents are probably under so much stress (e.g. by the baby-sitter they really rely on being sick) that they are at the limit of barely managing to catch up with absolute necessities (and may not even think of buying cake even if they'd usually do something the like).

I'd also like to add that there is a huge difference between baby-sitting as in the postdoc's time being completey taken up playing with the kid and baby-sitting as in having a sleeping baby in the office, or as in making sure that a kindergarden/elementary school kid is drawing mainly on the supplied paper while going on with office-type work. Or with having the kid running alongside while the postdoc does all the burocratic errands that anyways need to be done.
There's also a huge range in what the asking of the professor actually means: it may be as harmless as the postdocs offered to look after the kid and the professor taking this offer by asking one of the postdocs to babysit.

Last but not least, I think a postdoc should be grown up enough to know when to point out limits to their supervisor.

On a not-quite-serious sidenote, the hippocratic oath contains this passage:

I will reverence my master who taught me the art. Equally with my parents, will I allow him things necessary for his support, and will consider his sons as brothers. I will teach them my art without reward or agreement; and I will impart all my acquirement, instructions, and whatever I know, to my master's children, as to my own.

This could cover babysitting (as long as the children are male). But mostly it shows how what is considered appropriate changes over the centuries.

Thank you, and welcome to Academia.SE.  You may find, however, that the community on this tends often tends to look for more serious answers to questions.

The simple answer is "no, it is not acceptable if the relationship between the two are strictly work related".
For example, my advisor and our old postdoc were family friends, their wives were in same social circle etc. So they were doing favors for each other, professor to postdoc, postdoc to professor.
On the other hand, I and my advisor are strictly work related. He once asked me whether I can drive his daughter to a nearby school on Sunday morning for an event where she presents a high school poster; and he or his wife could not take her due to family emergency and being out of state. I did it, and made no big deal out of it. Yet he apologized me for inconvenience and offered me to pay for gas, food and all that I spent.
Another example, I live in a townhouse owned by a professor at the university. Whenever something is wrong with the house, let me give simple examples I've encountered here:

Kitchen incinerator is broken.
Lawn should be mowed.
The outer door should be painted because homeowner's association said so.
There is a wasp nest to be removed in the backyard.
Showers upstairs drip water to the one downstairs.

These are a few problems we had, and the professor never called a professional to solve the problem. Whenever we email to the landlord/professor, he ccs me and my roommate, sends it to his students to go and fix. Most times the necessary tools to fix are also bought by the students. Funny thing is that those PhD students and one postdoc are our friends.
We asked them whether they get paid, they said no. And we were like why do you do that? Simply tell him you won't do. All answered that they would like to keep a good relationship because the professor implied that there may be consequences regarding their stipends, funding resources, and graduation status. This is clearly an integrity and ethics problem, and should be dealt with accordingly.

The professor is acting incredibly inappropriate by asking that. Really, what makes it that way is because of the reasoning, which sounds much like that of the manager of a retail store asking an employee to stay late off the clock and help do inventory - "because you work for me".
If the professor is just 'offering', or perhaps they have a close relationship and the professor is simply being sarcastic, that's another story, but I'll not assume.
Simple solution - two one-syllable words, "no thanks".
If this is a recurring situation, and especially if the 'because you work for me' reasoning gets pulled out of the holster on more than this occasion - your friend may be dealing with an ethical situation, in which I'd recommend first of all for your friend to simply try to sit down with the professor and attempt to clear things up (such as reminding the professor of the nature of their relationship and the duties of her work under him - do they include babysitting?). If that doesn't work, there's always a board you can talk to (another user mentioned an ombudsman).
Of course, your friend could always just tell her professor she'd love to watch the kids - for a fee, of course.

It could be normal because some people abuse other people because they think they are more superior than them. However, it is not fair. At least he could have properly asked in where he shows that a 'no' could also be an answer. Moreover, if this is to be more than once, then he is to offer some kind of compensation.

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Retyping some material to obscure source of a textbook with a solution manual?
This is my first time teaching mathematics. I've been giving lessons based on a certain textbook which contains excellent exercises (not just the exercises, but the order in which they appear leads one to discover mathematics for yourself). However, the textbook has a solutions manual, and I am certain that if the source was revealed, then students would purchase the manual and defeat the purpose of the course. I am wondering if it is ethically acceptable to retype myself some of the exercises and exposition from parts of the book in order to obscure the source (and perhaps reveal it at the end of the course)?
My intentions are solely to create a joyful mathematical experience for the students. There is no intention of plagiarism.  My only worry is that the exposition is so good that I don't see how much I can deviate.
Clarification: The course is not intended to have students master a technical subject and then solve problems under a time pressure.  This is not a mathematics course for engineers or scientists.  Rather, problem sheets are given each week, with the requirement that at the end of the week the student turns in 10 solutions to their favorite problems.  The focus is on quality of writing and clarity of though.  In fact this entire issue is now resolved as I have communicated with the author.

I can of course buy the manual, but why should I, when I can just copy the homework from my mates!? The only way to catch all ways of "gaming the system" is by having a test in a controlled environment, and let only that controlled test count towards grading.

I have been searching for such a textbook for self study and to teach my daughter. Might you mention the name of the textbook? If you would rather not mention it publicly, then you can message me from my website. Thank you!

ArtofProblemSolving.com

I would like to thank everyone.  I have gained great insight into teaching.

Does the textbook give you the legal right to doublicate it's exercises in the first place?

Even if you keep the source from them and only reveal it at the end of the course, you can do this exactly once. Every following year of students will manage to get the information from their seniors.

I can think of the following potential ethical issues, some more easily mitigated than others:

Misleading others into believing that you have created the exercises yourself - You can easily avoid this by explicitly noting that the material is adapted from another source (without specifying the source). In most cases, there is no expectation of originality in teaching materials anyway - see Is it considered plagiarism for a professor to use uncited sources in teaching materials?
"Stealing" professional credit or similar benefits that would otherwise be due to the original authors - If you are redistributing the materials to colleagues for use in their courses, or otherwise using the materials in a way that would earn professional "credit" or goodwill (not just assigning the exercises to students), then you should definitely cite the source. Otherwise, I don't see a problem here.
Withholding a potentially useful resource from the students - If the book is genuinely helpful, I don't like the idea of preventing students from finding out about it. (Surely there is some more content and other exercises in the book that you aren't rewriting and giving to your students, that they might benefit from?) If you judge that the educational benefit of preventing some students from finding the solutions is really much greater than the benefit of some students buying the book and using it to learn more effectively, fine; but think that through very carefully.
Suppressing sales of the textbook - Presumably if you did not obfuscate the source, some of your students would buy the book (because it is such a helpful learning resource), and the authors of the book want people to buy it (or download it, if they have made it available in that way). I suppose you could mitigate this by getting permission from the authors.

Personally, I would prefer to tell students about the textbook, but remind them that if they don't actually do the exercises themselves, they will probably do poorly on the exams. If that was not an option, my second choice would be to modify the exercises so that students who had the original text and the solution manual would only be able to solve them if they understood them.

my second choice would be to modify the exercises That's probably hard to do. Obviously the original exercises were well designed so not just the exercises, but the order in which they appear leads one to discover mathematics for yourself Nonetheless, I agree with the ethical issues presented. +1.

I have emailed the publisher and the author responded giving me permission.  Everything is fine!

@scaaahu I think this whether it's likely hard or not depends a lot on the nature of the material/exercises and the background of the instructor.

@scaaahu Being an instructor means also being able to produce well-designed exercise, either from scratch or by modifying existing ones. It might be hard, but it's part of the duty.

@MassimoOrtolano I understand. My thought is that why making so much efforts to modify existing exercises if they are already well designed.

I lost a lot of respect for teachers when (pre-Internet age) I went to the library, availed myself to the librarian and was able to find both, the book and the answers, for their teaching material. If you don't put in any effort, why should they ? (Yes, I know, for their own education, but this doesn't exactly fall under 'leading by example'.)

@Marianne013 If you don't put in any effort - I can assure you that there is a lot of effort that goes into teaching a course even if the instructor doesn't make up new homework exercises. (And why should they invent new exercises, if they have no educational benefit over existing exercises? I write new assignments if I am unsatisfied with the existing ones; if there are already good exercises, I could almost certainly be doing something else with that time that would be of greater benefit to my students. Also see this answer).

Revealing the source to your students at the end of the course would go a long way to mitigating many of these points.

Indeed, if asked I would certainly reveal the source.  Also I would not expect anyone to assume I created such high quality material myself.

As far as effort, over 10 hours are spent each week working directly with students.  Mathematics problems have been created for several thousand years.
"Being an instructor means also being able to produce well-designed exercise, either from scratch or by modifying existing ones. It might be hard, but it's part of the duty." I disagree entirely.  If a course uses a textbook, should the professor not use any problems from the textbook?

You should not be handcuffed in a fragile position of only being able to use exercises from a given book. If you're having trouble with that, consider getting a utility like Pearson's Testgen and their subject-specific testbanks which can automatically/randomly adjust the values and options in each question.

@Marianne013 finding good exercises is pretty much as difficult as making them yourself. There are a lot of bad books that one has to shift through, good books but at the wrong level, books with a different focus than your course...

My intentions are solely to create a joyful mathematical experience for the students. There is no intention of plagiarism.
  (...)
  However, the textbook has a solutions manual, and I am certain that if the source was revealed, then students would purchase the manual and defeat the purpose of the course.

I want to challenge this perception. I think you, by removing the opportunity to use the solutions manual, are making this a less joyful experience for your students.
When not having access to the solutions you remove the possibility of easily getting help when stuck, and gaining confidence of having done a exercise correct after giving it a go. Possibly why the solutions are available in the first place!
To expand on this from my own experience when I was a student: It's not fun to get stuck on hours for a problem, when you just don't see the solution you're supposed to find. Having to go to the lecturer for help is a big obstacle, and would make me dread doing exercises for that course. The help from the lecturer would anyways be a simple "look at using this method" which I could have found for myself in the solutions manual.
Secondly, even when not being stuck, if faced with several similar tasks in a row that build upon each other, I would like to be certain I have understood the first ones correct before moving on to the more advanced ones. A solutions manual allows easy access to verify that, thus gaining confidence and making solving the next tasks more motivating.

The purpose of my course is not to harshly grade students on exams for perfect technical skill, but rather to have students collaborate in groups or with myself and the TA to solve problems and hand in solutions at the end of the week.  It is a sort of mathematics for social sciences type of course, not an engineering course.

My answer is similar to Matsemann's:
An enjoyable mathematics experience is one where the student learns the subject and becomes confident in their ability to perform the techniques.
Arguably, you could try to get all of your students to have this experience, but it's also likely that a majority of your students simply aren't interested in learning (as ghastly as that sounds to most of us).
The best thing that you can do for your students is provide opportunities for them to actually understand the material so they can later apply it. One of the best ways to understand the material is universal to all disciplines - careful practice.
Engineer your class and grading style to promote the kind of practice that helps them understand.
I had two fantastic math classes in college - Calculus 2 and Linear Algebra. In the former, to teach us the different series and whether or not they converged, each day he'd put a series on the board, ask the name of it, and then show us several examples of the series and integrating the series. The homework supported the problems, and then ultimately the tests were against the material that we covered. I think we may even have had a practice test to ensure that we had all of our questions answered before the actual test.
Linear algebra was similar. We had to prove different things, like a certain matrix was an identity matrix. After teaching us how to do the proofs, we had quizzes every day where we used the proofs that we learned. Maybe one day we had to prove that this was some kind of matrix
0  1
1  0

And then the next day it was
0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0

By changing things around he made sure that we actually understood.
Were there kids who dropped out of those classes? I'm sure there were. Were there some who still failed or got D's? Yeah, probably.
But if we wanted to pass the class, and wanted to get an A, it was totally possible.
They also emphasized working out the problems because we could get at least partial credit if we were doing something right, even if we made a little mistake or took things in a wrong sort of direction.
You will always have students who will try to get something for nothing, and you will always have students who will actually try to get something from your class. You can decide how much you want to gear your class towards punishing and rewarding these individuals. Me? I'd design my tests and grading schemes so that people who pay attention and do the work have no problems passing the tests, and those who just phone it in end out choking on the tests.


text:
Submitting thesis without supervisors' reviews
I am a Ph.D. student, about to finish my thesis draft. My case is a bit special as I didn't receive any guidance from my supervisors. It is very unlikely that they know details about my work, results or even what I propose in my research.
I have submitted three journal papers but I will receive reviews, not before my thesis submission. As, I don't have the official approval of my results, so I have second thoughts about my work. Although, I have worked hard enough and was honest in my research.
I request the suggestions about how can I proceed? Is it ok to submit my thesis to reviewers/reporters without my supervisor's reviews?
Thank you a million in advance

Even if they know nothing about your research, or your research area, presumably they do know what a well-written PhD thesis looks like, and will be able to provide you guidance on how to improve your thesis.

Just reading this makes me a bit sad. How do you go 4+ years on a PhD without discussing any aspects of your research work with your supervisors?

Is there anyone who was in contact with your work/results/you in any scientific manner during your time as a PhD student? Are you sure you don't need some kind of approval of you supervisors to be able to submit?

Vote to close as off-topic because whether the OP can submit his thesis without supervisor's review is up to his school. We have no way to know the answer. Maybe the school would allow it, maybe not. (Although my guess is no, what if the student submits thesis containing only garbage?)

@scaaahu: what if the student submits thesis containing only garbage? – then they will fail. When I submitted my thesis, no involvement of my supervisor was required in the official process. Of course, not talking to your supervisor is still inadvisable.

Is there any communication between you and your supervisors? Have you tried to inform them that you intend to submit your thesis? If yes, how did they react?

I am from France, here in the administration, there is no way to keep track of supervisors and their involvement in the thesis. I can do it!

As Uwe said, much depends on the exact protocols at your university. But even if it is technically possible, the supervisor will likely be present on the defense, will be able to influence your score and probably has a rather good contact with at least some members of the jury and/or the responsible committees as well. And it's not a good thing when the jury finds out you didn't consult your supervisor prior to handing your document in, unless there is a very good reason for that.
Now this doesn't mean your supervisor has to review it before you send it in (although he/she would be stupid not to...). You can politely ask your supervisor if its OK you hand in the PhD without waiting for his review. But sending in your PhD without your supervisor being aware of that, is a very bad idea, even if your supervisor didn't make any other contribution to your work.

I don't find any such formal requirement in these PhD regulations. You need a declaration of consent of some faculty member who agrees to supervise your thesis in order to be admitted as a doctoral student; but in principle you might submit your thesis without your supervisor's consent (even though that's usually unwise).

@Uwe You're right, updated accordingly. I checked again, and also at my university that is technically possible.

I am wise enough to ask my supervisors. But unfortunately, I met some assholes who don't seem to care. My collaborative lab from Spain has helped me a lot.  I have followed the protocol, I kept proof of all the email records which are sufficient to prove that they don't want to do their job. Nevertheless, I can not jeopardize my career, so I kept working, publishing papers (without their help although their names are on it). I have thesis corrections from the lab from Spain. I don't want to get stuck just because my profs didn't do their job. I did mine and honestly.

@TejaswineeDarure I feel your pain, and I'm sorry you have to go through that. If you notified your supervisor you are going to hand in and he/she didn't react, just hand it in so you can take the next step in your carreer. I wish you all the best.

That depends, first of all, on the PhD regulations of your department or your university. The conditions that have to be satisfied in order to submit a thesis vary from one institution to the other.


text:
It seems my advisor doesn't trust me, but why?
Even though my advisor is reasonably friendly with me, it feels like he doesn't 'trust me' as much as he trusts the other grad student (let's call him X) in the lab. A few examples:

I joined a lab a few weeks before X and we both worked on the same project until recently, and both made significant contributions to the project - but I was first author on the paper. Without telling me, my advisor asked X, the second listed author, to present our work at a local conference, instead of simply asking us both who would be available. I did not even know about it until X asked me to review his presentation.
He asked X to review an article in his name, about something that I know more about: the manuscript is focusing on something very similar to what I was working on during my Master's, whereas X is unfamiliar with some fairly important notions in this sub-field. One again, I learned about it by chance.
Both X and I have moved on to different projects now, and are both working full time on these. A collaborator suggested a new side project that would quickly and easily lead to a paper. Guess who was offered the opportunity to join that project (despite not having more relevant experience)? That's right: X again.

I don't think I mentioned anything along the lines of "I have so much work I can't do anything more" but I also don't think I came out as idle or unproductive. I show initiative (or at least I believe I do) so I really have no I idea why I'm not given these opportunities to learn and/or build an academic record.
I'm afraid that asking if something is wrong would make my advisor defensive, and make me appear like a negative person - which obviously does not help. But if I'm doing something wrong (or not sending the right signals, or anything like that) I have no idea what, and I would like to fix it as soon as possible.
Any idea about how to approach this issue diplomatically?

Are there any differences in your expressed goals post-PhD? I have observed a lot of favoritism of this type toward students targeting academic careers over industry careers.

i've nothing to say about your particular problem but your advisor asing anyono to review a paper over his signature is problematical. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/108525/what-should-i-do-if-someone-submit-a-review-of-a-manuscript-in-journal-system-so/108575#108575

Are you sure that your advisor isn't giving half of the candy to you and half of the candy to X and every time you get candy, you don't notice that anything happened because it's normal, whereas when X gets candy, you think "Damnit, X is getting candy again!"

@DavidRicherby that's a good point. Obviously I wouldn't know, and I can't rule it for sure. As far as I know I was never offered any opportunity (presenting work, leading a project) that wasn't also explicitely offered to him. Basically, anything that I would do beyond my day-to-day research would have to come from my own initiative, and things that flow through my advisor are channeled to student X

@EthanBolker True, but that is very common, and not only in our lab (even if that's no justification, I agree)

I will say that, from a faculty perspective, these first two items are “service” or thankless busy work. Faculty may think they are doing you a favor by not asking you. The last item is an actual opportunity.

@Dawn How is being sent to a conference, where you can network with other people in your field and get known by them, "thankless busy work?"

@Agnew I guess that depends on what is meant by a local conference. In my field, there are local conferences which are basically presenting stuff from the university to the community. More about recruiting students than networking in my field. Maybe the OP could clarify.

@EthanBolker: If “review it in his name” really means the supervisor is passing the review on to an editor without acknowledging he didn’t write it himself, then indeed it’s unethical (although not uncommon, as others note).  But there’s nothing wrong with having X do the review, so long as he tells the editor what he’s done; that’s a common and perfectly reasonable situation.

You may be misinterpreting and actually getting it backwards. Of course, I don't know the prof or the other interactions, but much of what you write here could well be explained by your advisor trusting you completely to get it right and the other student needing more help and practice to get up to where you are.
Student X may need all the help they can get, whereas you are trusted to make it without the need for extra intervention. It could also be that some people know you already have enough to do.
I could be wrong, of course.
But it would be worth having a face to face conversation asking your advisor for advice on your progress and, especially, any advice on what to do to position yourself for a great career. I'll guess that if there are any reservations about you that they would become obvious in such a conversation without having to directly ask whether you are trusted or not. And if you are trusted, the advice would probably be pretty valuable in the future.

I think this is a very reasonable interpretation of the situation and one more likely.

I actually think that the interpretation of the action is a bit overly optimistic. But I think the solution is correct, and I at least think that it will make the situation clearer. As part of the conversation, make sure to be clear about your ambitions and goals ( as long as they are goals your advisor would like).

+1 for the solution, but I don't think X is perceived as a student needing extra guidance - he is very capable, and I think he is perceived as such. Even if your interpretation was indeed correct, should I not be concerned about being de facto deprived of opportnuities to speak at conferences, publish etc (which, beyond the education aspect, are also nice additions to a resume when applying to postdoc positions)?

I'm not sure you are being deprived, just because the other is being invited. But  you are in a better position to judge that than anyone here. Volunteer. Get in the game.

This answer applies to the workplace in general btw.  I've seen this before for exactly this reason.  That doesn't mean for sure that's what's going on here, but it very well could be.

both made significant contributions to the project - but I was first
  author on the paper ... Without telling me, my advisor asked X, the second listed author, to present our work at a local conference

Based on your own judgement, is your contribution is much more significant than that of X? If no, then maybe your advisor is trying to balance the credits. You are the first author, but then X is allowed to present. Would you choose the other way round, i.e. to present the paper with X as the first author?

He asked X to review an article in his name

Not sure what do you mean by "in his name". But reviewing an article is often considered as an exercise to get familiar with the field. As you already worked on this topic in your Masters, X was the one who needed to do this exercise.

A collaborator suggested a new side project that would quickly and
  easily lead to a paper.

At the end of the day, your advisor needed to make a choice. If he chose you, perhaps perhaps it were X to ask this question. Maybe the next opportunity is your turn. Maybe you are closer to your own paper, and your advisor wants you to focus on your own project. I would not too fast to jump on the conclusion that your advisor favors X. From what you have described, I do not see any problem with the advisor-advisee relationship. It seems to me that you just overthink it.

It is a field (and a journal) in which it is OK to add a note "authors Y and X contributed equally to this work" when it comes to first authors, it is something we often do in the lab. Based on that I can say that the difference in contributions was large enough to justify the fact of not adding such a mention (it's not an omission). Regarding the review I meant that, being extremely busy, he asked X to have a first look and do the bulk of the work for him - ie he trusts him enough to critically analyze a high-level research report at a professional level

Regarding the last part, advisor could be also looking at this from perspective "student A has a paper already (the one from point 1), while X still needs it".

I would at least bring it up since it is on your mind.  But I would not escalate it to an ultimatum.  The story rings true and I have seen similar.  Some people you need to at let them know the objection or they continue to walk on you.  But again, I would not expect satisfaction.  But at least get it off your chest and get the guy on notice.
Oh...and take care of yourself on papers going forward (take first author, write stuff up before discussion, etc.)  Continue to include X and the advisor, but stay in front on the papers.  Most important thing.  Oh...and finish up and get out of there ASAP.  Sounds like you are a self sufficient as a researcher and the relationship is turning competitive.

There are 2 questions here:

Should you (i.e. is this really evidence you are not trusted) broach the subject.
Can you do it tactfully.

The first one, has already been weighed in on. The answers sound very reasonable to me and while they may not be right there is no substitute for knowing those involved directly, there isn't anything I feel qualified to add .
Secondly (if you want to proceed anyway) is tricky. Effectively it boils down to you telling your supervisor:
Either you have underestimated my ability or have systematically treated me as such.
It's hard to put a non-confrontational light on that. You might avoid out-right hostile but...
On a case by case basis you might get further. If you know there is something coming up you would like to be considered for and you show enthusiasm for it, you might get better odds irrespective of trust issues.

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