One solution in intermediate courses (e.g. pre-calculus, non-calculus physics) was to offer the opportunity to those hardly able to hack it, to do extra work, a lot of extra work, to pass with a D. But I would never never compromise on an exam.
For those who are unfamiliar with the college academic environment these days, it is routine to get battered on testing from reading material, as opposed to just spoon-fed lecturing in class. This is corroborated by many instructors.
My view has always been the instructor/professor has a whole lot more experience than an eighteen year old mother pampered college juvenile, and should be trusted with the teaching responsibility.
In management/human relations the Dean here was absolutely wrong in overruling the professor publicly. You do not do that in the arena of juveniles. If there was a true issue then you ease that instructor out of that duty, absorbing the student hit for that period.
This reeks of the very atmosphere of pandering to the student.
Having taught in a college for 12 years, my perspective is a little different. College instructors tend to be some of the most naive people I've met. Many of them go from undergrads to grad students to professors, never having lived in the real world.
In my subject matter, fire technology, many students come in with a questionable academic background. I view it as my job to take them where they are and adapt my course to make them reach for the next level, but not kill them. You can't take a junior high football team and having them line up against an NFL squad. You have to start at their level and push them to the level they need to be by graduating the steps in ways where they have a reasonable expectation of success IF they work hard. It frequently takes a couple of steps to get them to this level. I start with 100 question multiple choice tests, and graduate by degrees to 300 question tests. Not everyone makes it, but the PATH to success is clear.
If the student doesn't learn, the teacher hasn't taught.
As to the eighteen year old pampered juvenile, yep, they show up. My job is to get them past that. Body slamming them doesn't work that well. I have better success pushing them to handle their own situations and attempting to guide them in that direction.