Expat Texan

As I mention on one of my introductory pages, I was a tenured professor teaching professional students in the classroom and teaching hospital before I went into the private sector.  One of the biggest things you had to grapple with as you pursued tenure was the concept of student evaluations - and the fact that some really horrible things could be said about you anonymously that would make their way into your permanent academic folder.  Here I am, teaching young adults who aspire to be Doctors, and yet feeling like I’m reading the tantrums of spoiled children whenever I got a packet of evaluations to review.

At my university, and I suspect most universities, student evaluations are strictly anonymous.  Giving professors access to information like who called them a “cocksucker” because they “tested too hard” would not be a good way to build professor:student relations.  I’ve seen junior faculty in tears over their evaluations - faculty who worked hard, spent hours on their teaching materials and curricula - only to be shredded because they weren’t funny, or compassionate (read: gave us what we wanted without making us work for it), or American.

And that’s why I left academia - I loved my work, but I hated the overwhelming sense of entitlement present in the majority of students we interacted with.  The fact that most students in the professional curriculum felt like they were owed something just for being accepted into a postgraduate program.  The whining, the crying, the pouting, the sulking when they found out that yes, you really did expect them to remember and apply stuff they had learned in clinical pathology to the case studies they were currently working on, even though this is a new semester and it’s just not fair, dammit.

Why do I bring this up?  Not for sympathy, not for agreement.  If you’ve never taught before - you can just as easily assume that I am a terrible professor, and that I (and other faculty) got such rude and nasty comments because we deserved them.  There certainly are a lot of terrible teachers running loose as well.  People with large egos, massively inflated senses of self worth, and a complete inability to accept or even hear from people with different points of view.  Is it the students?  Is it the professors?  The truth of the matter is probably somewhere in between.

I would, however, suggest that this is not the way to address your concerns regarding statements on student evaluations.  More importantly, since student identities are so closely guarded so that professors cannot retaliate against vulnerable students - one wonders how she is able to “name names” without breaking her and Dartmouth’s responsibilities to the students.

Priya Venkatesan, who taught writing this year at Dartmouth College, sent around several emails to former students threatening to sue them under Title VII, the “anti-discrimination” portion of the 1964 Civil Rights act. “Dartlog,” the weblog of the invaluable Dartmouth Review, published the text of her email, which is a classic in the annals of politically correctness fatuousness.

Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:56:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Priya.Venkatesan@Dartmouth.EDU To: “WRIT.005.17.18-WI08″:;, Priya.Venkatesan@Dartmouth.EDU

Subject: WRIT.005.17.18-WI08: Possible lawsuit

Dear former class members of Science, Technology and Society: I tried to send an email through my server but got undelivered messages. I regret to inform you that I am pursuing a lawsuit in which I am accusing some of you (whom shall go unmentioned in this email) of violating Title VII of anti-federal [SIC] discrimination laws. The feeling that I am getting from the outside world is that Dartmouth is considered a bigoted place, so this may not be news and I may be successful in this lawsuit. I am also writing a book detailing my experiences as your instructor, which will “name names” so to speak. I have all of your evaluations and these will be reproduced in the book.

Have a nice day.

Priya

I know I accused students of being spoiled children earlier in my little soapbox.  In this instance, it appears as if it’s Priya that needs to grow up.  Students are expected to engage in often childish, self indulgent behavior.  Conversely, the professor is expected to be the voice of sanity and reason.  Threatening to sue your students because they hurt your feelings on a teacher’s evaluation, especially using information that is supposed to be protected by the university, seems like a good way to ensure one never works in the Academy again.