rearrival of the petulant demand: the bitcher is back
Music: Siouxsie & the Banshees: Hyaena Last March I posted about the increasing, confrontational style of students who understand education only in terms of the customer service model (and the shift of teachers from their role as parental surrogates—and therefore authorities often afforded some degree of respect). In my post titled "the arrival of the petulant demand," I provided an example: a nasty email from a student who cut corners (you know, plagiarized himself) in a journal assignment, and consequently, received a grade that compromised his desire for graduate school. I won't rehash the story except to say there is something of a "mental case," or a case to be made for mental instability (well, mine is well known; this guy seems to tempt violence).
Apparently he's not willing to "let it go and move on." He emailed my dean early this week; the dean responded as deans are wont to do (with sympathy toward the student, but punted to the chair). Of course, I contacted my chair and the college dean of students after I had a phone conversation with this student and he metamorphosed from a smart, if not petualnt, guy to a raving hysteric (I told my chair I had a slight worry this guy might go "postal"--just a slight one). I'm having dinner with the dean this week, so hopefully if the issue comes up I can detail the whole blow by blow saga. Regardless, as further proof of the Notorious Ph.D's thesis that I am (however wittingly) a "weird shit magnet," I present exhibit B:
Fwd: Re: In regards to Dr. Joshua Gunn
Doctor______, my name is _____ and i was a student in Dr. Joshua Gunn's rhetoric of popular music class last semester. I am writing you this email to express my displeasure with him as a professor. I'm sure you've gotten many emails about his "anti-establishment" behaviour and his propensity for foul language during lecture, these are not where my concerns lie. In fact, i think those characteristics make him an entertaining and effective lecturer. Dr. Gunn demonstrated a complete lack of ethical principals in my personal dealings with him, the details of which are long and arduous and will be provided upon request (my aim is not to get my grade changed or anything like that, simply to voice my opinion that he is not a professor of the caliber that the college should be employing) He is perfectly willing to flat out lie to his students (only to unwittingly reveal his lies when he calls your home to rudely dismiss your problem wiuthout even knowing what it is and then hang up on you),and in fact, his general attitude seems to be to coast by without actually doing any work on his was to a nice fat tenur. Which, by the way, he actively campaigns for during course evaluations, encouraging students to give him good evaluations so that he may make tenur quickly. This, i believe, is not only extremely unethical but also presumptious and highly premature considering it was his fist semester at UT. This email is already long enough and you no doubt are a very busy man, so feel free to contact me if you would like further details about his unethical behaviour, otherwise i would just like to reiterate my extreme dissatisfaction with him as a teacher. Thank you, --petulant student.
Now, the dean is a very smart man and skilled at reading rhetoric, so surely he smells the nutty-goodness here. When you tell students that evaluations are important because they are used to make tenure decisions, and that if they evaluate me poorly, they should take time to explain why and the reasons for lowballing so I can improve, that's usually not construed as an active campaign for good evaluations. It's a smart kid making snide. Surely this student knows about the pizza or donuts on the last day routine, which, I have never done. Surely the guy realizes spell checking is a good idea with missives to the dean? Regardless, this is an attempt at character assassination . . . um, five months later? He must've not gotten into grad school.Clearly his plagiarism is my fault. I have no ethics or morals. I'm a complete fake, a pretend anti-establishment sham. Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain (he was always a little man; the student has made a false assumption from the get go)!