he was thrown under a bus
Music: Angie Davis: Black Diamond Some of you have asked about my colleague at LSU and what has become of the situation orbiting a student's attempt to blackmail him with publicity. So far the outcome is not surprising, but certainly disappointing. Unquestionably, the student who slandered my buddy in the student newspaper (via proxy) created a situation in which she could no longer be evaluated fairly. To make it go away quickly, my former chair apparently cut a deal behind the scenes so that the petulant student will be able to complete the course with another faculty member as an "independent study." She called a meeting with my friend, the student, and the student's advocate/advisor on Tuesday. In this meeting, the advisor of student was allowed to aggressively interrogate my friend with impunity, while the chair looked on stone faced. In short, my friend was—as he puts it—"thrown under the bus." No one was there to advocate for him.
Of course, the best resolution to this situation is a withdrawal, which would force this "C" student to take the class over with another instructor. Having taught at LSU for three years, I know what will happen: the student will emerge with an "A" or a "B" just to shut her up.
Meanwhile, my friend has received no support from his chair. Even if he is a spitfire at times, as an employee of his department he deserves a modicum of respect and some defense against snot-nosed demands from students with an overblown sense of entitlement--most especially because his teaching record is stellar! Instead, he was called to a meeting, torn a new asshole, and sent out into the wilderness with no confirmation of his value or worth to a department for which he has served for almost a decade.
From time to time folks have asked me why I left LSU. There are many reasons, and sometimes (as is human) I second-guess my decision, especially because I had to leave a community of colleagues that I love very much. Sometimes when I am feeling lonely I think about my friends there, and wish I could just snap my fingers and be at the Chimes having some brews and talking it up. High on my list for leaving, however, was a general feeling that the current chair didn't value my contribution and that junior faculty were not supported emotionally. The department is still pretty much a monarchy, and the chair is pretty much a benevolent dictatorship—which means there is an awful lot of decisions that are made executively that effect the lives of juniors there. I had a number of similar instances with students—one with a student who threatened me with nasty, misogynistic emails—in which nothing was done to protect my interests (or ego!). This student, which I affectionately term "Mr. Bigot," harranged me in the hallway one day and then sent a series of threatening emails. I demanded the guy be removed from my class. The chair refused, and the guy sat in my class for the rest of the semester staring at the ceiling (he received a "D" and, fortunately, he didn't protest it). I was miserable then. This incident with my friend, while predictable, only confirms a longstanding pattern: make the problem go away, even it means ostracizing or abusing a junior faculty member (who has been your workhorse for almost a decade!).
There is nothing worse than feeling that the person most in position to help, protect, and advise you doesn't give a shit. Until the chair at my former department realizes that supporting your junior faculty—not just with money, but with emotional support--in times of stress and controversy is part of her job, LSU will continue to lose its junior hires. I guess I am past getting angry, I'm just generally mournful—for my former department and for my friend.