Evil Professor from hell

[FoxLocke]

Over a year ago, for my own personal growth, I enrolled back in school. I am presently doing very well with all of courses, thus far. I hold a perfect 4.0 average, and I will be graduating(hopefully)this time next year...

 

However, I've hit a road block. My World Literature professor. To make a long story short he is the epitome of evil, and I think he deserves to rot in hell. I want to cringe when I hear myself saying it, but I can't stand him.

 

Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this way as he is reported to the Dean every single semester for his unorthodox teaching methods, and the fact that all of his students either drop the course or make F's. My guidance counselor told me that she never recommends students take his class because it is virtually impossible to pass...Silly me I enrolled for the course online. Being that English is my favorite subject(and major)I thought I would be different. My belief was that he was just a challenging teacher...Long story short he is not a challenge. He is an egomaniacal jerk who gets off on being a tyrant(under the guise of trying to be a hardnose professor)...

 

The reason why I am angry and seeking advice is because of an incident that happened today.

In his class we are required to write IN CLASS research papers...over a three day period. Okay, so, for the last two days I have been writing mine(after preparing what I was going to say for the last few weeks) without any hinderance until today. To make a long story short he required that we have a "secondary" set of notes to accompany the paper. I turned those in...However, one copy he stapled to my paper and After class was over I turned in more of them. At first I didn't think he would care.

I decided to turn in my notes to push my grade over the top...Today he handed the papers back to continue writing on them. He gave mine back, with no issue...

Then he starts going around the room and checking people's sources(I will elaborate more on that later)..He gets to me and suddenly there is a problem. He starts going off on me because the papers are not stapled to my paper. I told him I turned them in with the paper the previous day, for the grade. Then he started trying to insinuate that I was trying to "dupe" him. I'm sitting there not knowing what in God's name he is talking about, and then he writes a big question mark on my paper(that I am still writing, IN CLASS, that he hasn't even read yet)...Before class ends I go up and ask him why he did it. The entire time he is rolling his eyes and catching an attitude and he asked, "Do you want me to tell you now or later?"

I shrugged my shoulders and asked, "What are you telling me?"

"Do you want to know?"

I said, "Okay, sure..."

"I'm giving this paper an 'F'"

To say that I was pissed off would be an understatement. I turned away and walked out of the door, and then he follows it with this snide and condescending, "Go ahead just walk away!" As if he was expecting some big confrontation...

I was prepared to report him to his supervisor and a dean and then one of my friends told me to try and talk it out with him.

So instead of going to his supervisor I went to my guidance counselor. She told me that he is one of the worst instructors on the campus, and that I should have come to her before enrolling(I wish I had)...But she said that I could either A.) Talk to him first, (B.) Do what alot of students do and report him and or (C.) Drop the class.

I don't want to drop the class because that could effect my funds for school...And I don't want to act too rashly and report him, So I wrote him a letter and left it on his office door.

 

So presently that is where I am at with this situation...

 

But before I conclude I just wanted to give insight on him. When I registered for the course I continually heard horror stories about him. No students have ever passed his class with a grade of higher than C-...And those were rare. The majority of students either flunk his course or drop it. Furthermore, as I stated previously, counselors put their students in other instructor's classes before his...He has been reported to the dean on several occasions, so much so that they put him under contract to write out a syllabus for the class.

At first I thought it was all overexageration...But it is all true. In class he is a horrible teacher. His lectures extend past the allotted time period, and he always goes off on tangents about the events going on in his personal life instead of teaching. Moreover, he may have given me an F on my paper but over half of the students will not receive a grade. Just because they did not bring a source material into class--for a paper that we are writing off the top of our heads ANYWAY--he threw them out of class and gave them a zero.

He has a very big ego, and I think what happened with me sorta humiliated him. I don't know...

 

But I am so afraid of failing the course and messing up my GPA. I don't know what to do. This is the worst semester that I have ever had in college. ](*,)

 

I need advice for this situation.

[Scout]

I hope someone has some innovative advice for you, because my first impression is that you're in a real bind. Especially if the school is aware of this guy's mode of operation and refuses to do anything about it. But the one thing you have in your favor is that school officials - in this case, a guidance counselor - has outright admitted to you the problems they've had with this guy. She said some very negative things about him to you.

 

If I were you, I'd talk to the teacher one more time, be respectful and listen, explain your case briefly, and see what he does. If he refuses to change your grade - and make sure you clearly get him to state it's because of this silly stapled notes issue - then head right to the Dean of the English department. Stay respectful, stay calm, but explain that there's clearly proof the university receives continuous complaints about this guy, and you shouldn't pay for their refusal to do anything about it by losing your scholarship and/or having a lowered GPA.

 

Stay respectful, calm, focused - and firm in your resolve. This is a prime example of bureacracy refusing to do anything about the bad apples in the system. Go get 'em!

[Jinx]

Talk to him first

Those that seek arguments will continue on, and I doubt he will budge if he is trying to be such a pain, few seem to. Filing a complaint may be the only satisfactory thing, aside of potentially dropping the course and going over someone's head on the whole issue. He seems like one of those professors which have been there far too long and needs the boot. Certain professors can take the several years teaching without a negative side effect, others become burnt out to say the least, and if no one causes any major rumble his ego will only continue to grow.

 

If he has an ego as problematic as it sounds, he will conclude that he is above all others and carry on with his own business until something serious is done. I think the supervisor would be the key, or in general an individual which has importance on campus or to the campus which can make things happen.

 

I could very well be wrong, the whole point is he may want you to challenge him and thus giving him the satisfaction of challenge may please him, individuals like that are hard to predict, but if you've wrote a letter all you can truly do for the moment is first wait to see what he says or does and go from there to who ever will have something done. Even if that means only having a complaint filed against him.

[red10]

He sounds aweful...i agree with Scout - I would try to talk and listen to the teacher, see what he has to say...maybe 1 on 1 might get him to soften up on you, and the rest of the students.

 

but yes, definitely stay calm and focused - you at least need to try

 

best of luck!

[CarnelianButterfly]

One of my roommates had a Prof that refused to give any grades above a B for a grad level class, which is bad because C's are failing at my school. He (my roommate) is a genius and had a 4.0 as an undergrad and was a 4.0 as a grad. He took the class and did astounding, the final project was a very difficult programming assignment, my roommate was the only one in the class to get it to work and it did exactly what it was supposed to. The Prof instead of admitting he had met his match accused my roommate of cheating and failed him. At my school cheating is grounds for expulsion, but even though he made the accusation the Prof wouldn't take part in any of the hearings and meetings my roommate had with the Dean. The Prof refused to do anything but fail him. My roommate got a lawyer and the school is even pressing the Prof to drop it, but its not yet resolved. Universities are weird little communities, if you can I suggest you talk to the dean and any student organizations like a student council or the like, if it comes to it, talk to a lawyer.

[renaissancewoman101]

FoxLocke, is the professor a tenured professor there? Reason I ask that is if he has tenure, he can teach the class any way he wants to w/o worrying about losing his job. From what my dad told me (my dad is a college professor), once you get tenure, it is very hard for the university to get rid of you even if you teach badly and the students hate you. Once you get tenure, the only way you can lose your teaching position is if you commit and get convicted of a criminal offense.

[Scout]

Universities are weird little communities

 

This is so true. Quite frankly, dealing with college bureacracy was way harder for me than my subsequent dealings with the suits in the professional world. A lot of these schools are staffed by people who were afraid to hack it in the real world, so they never left school. They basically just became teachers after they were students and they can rule their own little empire that way. Grrr. I had some great profs, but they were generally the ones who actually had worked for years in their respective fields before they came back as teachers.

[CarnelianButterfly]

This is so true. Quite frankly, dealing with college bureacracy was way harder for me than my subsequent dealings with the suits in the professional world. A lot of these schools are staffed by people who were afraid to hack it in the real world, so they never left school. They basically just became teachers after they were students and they can rule their own little empire that way. Grrr. I had some great profs, but they were generally the ones who actually had worked for years in their respective fields before they came back as teachers.

Most of my fav profs are still in the industry, teaching is just a joy to them.

[Shadows Light]

ooohhh had one of these profs myself. And I know where you are coming from. Mine was a re-occurring nightmare. (((( big HUGS 2 u)))))

 

I had him at a local community college for an introductory course in Business. He critiqued my paper and left me with a paper full of red pen that looked like someone had bled all over it. When I approached him to discuss it he told me that a "Pretty face and a nice set of legs isn't a FREE pass to a better grade... that I'd better wake up and smell the coffee sister because there is NO PLACE in the business world for women"

 

He's soooooooo lucky he had me in his class when I was still young, vulnerable and would NEVER challenge the authority of a prof. This was blatent sexism. It had NOTHING to do with discussing the merits of my paper.

 

I dropped the class.

 

YEARS later.. wouldn't you know it. I ran into him again. I'd gone on to a 4 year college and was pushing to graduate. Somehow my counselors had missed a Business Com class. And in order to graduate.. I had to get one in. So, I went to the local community college and enrolled. You can imagine my discomfiture when in walks in my nemisis. It was as if I HAD come full circle.

 

The paper for this class had to be on a pre-approved topic. He approved it. He even graded me on the outline. I went on to write what looked more like a graduate level paper... a diseratation. All my sources marked. I went all out on this paper. And what did I get at the end. A big fat "F"... why??? he said it wasn't a pre-approved subject. hmmmmmm I told him that I needed the class to graduate. It didn't matter.

 

Finally, I wheedled through the deans of both colleges a few days time to write a paper on a totally different subject. Guess what? He lost it. And then finally gave me a "D". Which would have ruined my Grade Point Average.

 

In the end. The deans of both colleges read both papers and critqued them. This is when I was told the first paper was first rate. And Graduate level quality work. The gave me the credit. I don't know what ever happened to him.

 

OK... advice to you. You already NOT to listen to gossip about a profs reputation. I've taken courses with Profs that were said to be Terrors... and I learned a lot from them by keeping an open mind. This guy sounds like his reputation is truth. He's got tenure.. thats why he will NOT get reprimanded or get fired. Its horrible.. I know but its reality.

 

I would talk to him about your paper and about what his expectations are. To difuse a bad situation.. use as many "I" statements that can.

 

"I want to talk to you about my term paper."

"When you gave us the assignment... I understood it to be XYZ. I feel that I have put forth the effort of writing a paper that deserves to be read, deserves consideration, and deserves a grade. When you put an "F" on my paper without reading it. It makes me feel that you are NOT giving me a "fair" opportunity to show you that I have learned what you have taught."

 

Something of that nature. If you use "YOU" terms...its like poison arrows and puts them on the defensive.

 

Now.. walk in with confidence, not arrogance. He is your "EMPLOYEE" it his "JOB" to teach you. YOU pay him to teach you, to impart information to you. IF he is failing the majority of his students.. it tells me he is an ineffective teacher. When he hands you a syllabus in the beginning of the semester.. this is a contract. He is telling you that he is going to teach you XYZ and your part of the contract is to show up, complete assignments and show him you were listening. If he did NOT take the time to READ your paper, he is breaking his CONTRACT. Keep that in the back of your mind. When you go talk to him.

 

Which books was he teaching this semester??? Machiavelli perchance?? Aristotole???? grin. Then he wants a well constructed argument. His methodology of teaching might be for you not to SHOW HIM.. but LIVE IT. Does that make sense?? I had a prof who taught this way... he didn't want me to regergitate and site others thoughts on papers. He wanted to see MY thought process. He wanted to know my opinion. If I sighted others works I've read to back me up. It gave me credibility.

 

So... gather up your courage. Consider your argument. And KNOW what you want from him. "I want you to read this paper and give it a fair grade... I feel I deserve consideration becuase I have fufilled my half of our contract. I have a well written consise term paper."

 

And if he's still an A## and he gives you snide comments. Do NOT walk away as you did from him. Just say.. "I"m sorry you feel that way. I WILL take this matter up with the dean. Thank-you for your time."

 

Be proffessional. And then you go to the dean. And you present your argument. AGAIN.. just make sure you have a TERM PAPER that is IRON CLAD.

[Artiste19]

That is a really frustrating situation you are in, and I definitely had a similar experience with a Prof that considered a solid 'C' an amazing mark in her class. That was in studio, though, which is extremely subjective.

 

As for receiving an undeserved 'F', I know at my school you can always go over the Prof's head and contest your grade. I have never done this myself, but one of my Profs last year was saying that if we got a paper back we didn't feel we were graded fairly on, we could submit it (and he wouldn't ever know, as it was kept confidential) to the faculty to be re-assessed objectively. That was the gist of it, but I don't remember the exact procedure. You might want to look into it at your school, to see if this is an option. If not, then good luck with dealing with your Professor!

[Shadows Light]

As for receiving an undeserved 'F', I know at my school you can always go over the Prof's head and contest your grade. I have never done this myself, but one of my Profs last year was saying that if we got a paper back we didn't feel we were graded fairly on, we could submit it (and he wouldn't ever know, as it was kept confidential) to the faculty to be re-assessed objectively. That was the gist of it, but I don't remember the exact procedure. You might want to look into it at your school, to see if this is an option.

 

I don't know if every college is put together this way. There was a HUGE difference between the community college and my 4 yr college. The community college had more red tape and beauracracy. Go figure.

 

I have to agree with a few of the posts above. ACADEMIA is a world of its own with its own rules.

 

Stay calm. Above all else. This is just small speed bump. Maybe a lesson for the future that in the work place... no matter how much your bust your behind and what a bang up job you do. You just very well may run into an egomaniac who's gonna pee in your soup, just like this guy.

 

Do the best that you can. And hon.... I know you worked really hard for your GRADE POINT AVERAGE... but "out here..." I will tell you.. Grade point averages are hardly ever looked at.

 

Here's a riddle for you....

 

"What do you call a Doctor who graduated with a 2.5 pt average????"

 

 

 

Answer: "Doctor"

[FoxLocke]

Thank you all for your advice. I have never been through something like this, and it is really a pain. Last night I didn't even sleep that well, because I had nightmares about him.

 

I just don't understand how "tenure" can save a professor as bad as this one. If over half of his students are either failing or dropping every semester that is not a good turnover rate. I would think that the university would fire him to cut losses...I just find that apalling.

 

And I never knew about the "closed community" amongst universities, but I can see it happening. Everyone has each other's best interests, EXCEPT the best interests of the students...absolutely ridiculous.

 

I would drop the class but I am so afraid of it effecting my scholarship, loan, and grant. I wish I had paid attention to what the other students were saying, but it is too late now.

 

However, I am going to take all of the advice and goto the Dean as a last resort.

I wasn't even allowed to complete my paper before getting an 'F.'

 

Stay calm. Above all else. This is just small speed bump. Maybe a lesson for the future that in the work place... no matter how much your bust your behind and what a bang up job you do. You just very well may run into an egomaniac who's gonna pee in your soup, just like this guy.

 

So true, infact I delt with a boss like this when I worked for a newspaper approximately three years ago. All of his employees quit the job within days of each other...Finally, I was the only one left(still trying to hang in there), and I had to shoulder all of his verbally abusive behavior. Finally, after only five months, I told him where he could go and quit.

 

P.S.

 

How do you go about getting an attorney? I cannot afford one at this stage. Are there special attornies for students?

[Goodfun88]

If you go and talk to him again bring a small tape recorder and record your conversation and if he continues to be ridiculous you have some concrete proof.

[Shadows Light]

A small tape recorder would be a GREAT idea !!!! It would serve 2 purposes. You would remain calm and in check. Second, if he turns into a butt wipe... you have it on tape. Yeah yeah yeah.. I know the drill.. inadmissable in the court because you didn't have permission to tape.

 

You can say something is inaddmissable...but get a person to LISTEN to it just once... they will HARDLY erase it from their mind and Not let it affect them in a decision making process.

 

Before you cowboy up though..... You are probably not the first person or the last to have thought of "taping the conversation"... but its worth a try.

 

As I said... the world of ACCADEMIA.... the rules and achieving tenure, just doesn't jive with the outside world.

 

NOTE: You mentioned you'd dealt with an egocentric maniac before??? Your newspaper job. YEP.. you did. Kind of sort of. You didn't change the situation... you just held on longer. Kind of like bull riding.. grin. You cowboyed up.. and stayed on longer than anyone else... but you "Never" did tame the bull did you??? and if you at all believe in karma, life lessons, etc.... this just very well may be a life lesson that keeps coming back to you over and over and over again. Until you master it.

[renaissancewoman101]

In the university (academia) world, tenure is everything. It is like the nirvana that every professor hopes to attain because it means job security and also that you can concentrate on what YOU want to do, instead of having to teach x amount of undergrad classes a semester. Most professors see teaching undergrad classes a real chore or just something that they have to do. From what I know from my college days and from talking to my dad, who has been a college professor for 30 years, most profs live to do research and write papers and books. To them, teaching is a byproduct of being a professor, not the central thing. Although, I have seen profs liking to teaching class, mostly the graduate level classes because there, they know the students are into the subject material as much as the profs themselves.

 

Getting tenure is based on how much research you do, how many papers and books you come out with, and how you are received by the academic world with the stuff you publish, not how your students like your classes and how fair or how good a teacher you are.

 

Academia is a world in itself.

[FoxLocke]

The thing is, our class is a sophomore level World Lit class and he treats it like it is an advanced Grad school class. And if this is what Grad School is like then I want nothing to do with it.

 

I think it is a travesty that a Professor can be such a tyrant, on MY money, and not suffer any repercussions. Well, I guess life is unfair in that way.

But I am going to do what I can to atleast pass the class with a 'D'. I think he gets off on the fact that he has a reputation...Once he walked into the classroom and called himself, "Dr. Death." I wanted to respond to him with a "F__K You."

He is a creep.

 

I may try the tape recording thing though! He has this habit of trying to turn things around on the student, but he has been complained about numerous times.

 

Well, I know better for next time. I will never go near a class with his name attached to it.

[renaissancewoman101]

My best friend, who is an electrical engineer, in his sophmore class, he took a circuits class in which the professor was known to be a killer professor. The circuit class was a weeder class to weed out those who would continue in engineering and those who would drop out. The professor was the only prof that taught the course. Most people dropped the couse half way through it, a bunch failed, and my best friend squeaked by with a C and he went through hell and high water to get that C.

[Shadows Light]

Did we take the same class???? at the same school.??? I had a "Dr.Death" prof for "Great Books"... he too said he NEVER gave "A's"... and I'd never gotten anything else before that. I ended up with a "C" in his class. I busted my behind in that class.

 

Grin. OMG.. I think I know Hamlet by heart. But I could never ever get into RICHARD III... dry dry dry dry .

[FoxLocke]

Update!

 

Alright, instead of going straight to the dean I, instead, wrote him a nice(kiss butt)letter and left it on his door.

Of course being the honery old goon that he is he couldn't just accept an apology. He had to analyze the hell out of it, and get in one last jab at me in the process(I believe it was his ego that was hurt more than anything)...

To make a long story short he allowed me to continue writing my paper, but he deducted five points(from the final grade) and "confiscated" my unstapled notes...That I had turned into him in the first place.

 

What a malcontent moron.

 

Anyway, I got revenge by giving him low ratings on link removed.

[Scout]

Lol, you sound like someone who doesn't typically take being pushed around, but is yet wise enough (and has a healthy self-esteem) to recognize the times when extending an olive branch is easier than dealing with a drawn out hassle. Sounds like in this case, it was the smart thing to do in terms of just getting on with your life as quickly as possible.

 

This professor sounds like a true...well, I can't say it here. You get the idea.

[FoxLocke]

Sorry to dig up this old Fossil, but I just wanted to say that I made a "B" in my professor from hell's class...

[Scout]

Hey, that's good news! I remember how stressed you were about this situation. Glad it all ended well.

[Holiday]

My guidance counselor told me that she never recommends students take his class because it is virtually impossible to pass...Silly me I enrolled for the course online. Being that English is my favorite subject(and major)I thought I would be different. My belief was that he was just a challenging teacher...Long story short he is not a challenge. He is an egomaniacal jerk who gets off on being a tyrant(under the guise of trying to be a hardnose professor)...

 

Well, I guess now you'll think twice before stepping the dung when you don't believe somebody else when they claim it's dung. Smart people like you are always skeptical. It's healthy, but sometimes, it's painful. Anyway, with a B from this guy, you should consider it an A+++! Glad you made it to the other side of the cliff.