Level 100 courses

Ok, so not that level 100 courses are supposed to be easy, however, i am taking intro to sociology, and we have 4 exams not including the final, we have to write 28 articles on topics from the new york times, on how those articles relate to society, on top of that project, we have a research paper that is due at the end of the semester. I haven't done this much work in my level 200 courses.... And those two projects that we do on top of exams, the projects are barely worth a combined 20% of my final grade. The final is worth 40% and each other exam is worth 10% of the final grade. Really what is this man thinking? On top of all of this, he flunked 80% of the class for midterm grades and speaking with students who have previously taken him,  they say this is common and at the end of the semester he curves it a lot and makes the projects worth more. Can he do this? I mean obviously he can, but i mean 80% fail at the beginning and then at the end he makes sure everyone passes? Kind of silly.