If a Professor is Anti-Greek....
 

Good day, GCers.

An interesting situation has presented itself this semester with a professor on campus in a class that I am taking. This instructor is very vocal in his hatred about GLOs, calling us "cultists" and thinks that all "fraternity and sororities are nothing but cults" and uses a lot of the traditional stereotypes in his lectures, i.e. binge drinking, drug use, partying, hazing, etc. It borderlines on a strange obsession at times.

With a class of about 80 students, I estimate there are at least 30-40 Greeks in the class. No one is calling him out on his mis-information, as he is very strict in the class. This class is required of the particular major, so dropping is not an option for myself, and possibly many others.

One option that I thought of is that at the end of the semester, students can provide anonymous feedback, an "Instructor Evaluation" that is both itemized and there is a section for actually logging a written feedback. The instructors do not get this feedback till late in the next semester. Would it be proper to provide a professionally written feedback detailing this hateful rhetoric of this professor?

What would you do in this situation, or what have you done in the past with one of your professors that takes this road of GLO loathing?


Disclaimer: if this topic has been covered here before, please provide the link to the thread. Thanks.

Please, let's keep the discussion here professional and logical.

Yes, it would most certainly be proper and so would a well-placed word to the department head. The instructor has no right to go off on something at length that's unrelated to the class, especially if it's running people down.

I would keep my mouth shut and head down until after grades are posted, then voice my opinion through the appropriate channels. You're stuck in the class this semester, right? His commentary is inappropriate, but you still need a grade.

I think waiting until after the class is done is a great idea! I would document every single time that he has gone off on a tangent about GLO's so you have a solid claim. I would also suggest getting in contact with the other Greeks in the course as well, as there is always power in numbers. I hope that being Greek is not causing him to alter anyone's grades or anything discriminatory, because that leads to a different set of problems!

I would put it in the course evaluation. At least at my undergrad institution (haven't done any in grad yet), the prof can't see the evaluations until s/he's sent final grades out.

I would do ALL suggestions above:

1. Write up his behavior on the end-of-course evaluation, since he won't get these until next semester, it won't hurt your grade.

2. Document what he says. If you are allowed to record lectures, then I would start recording EVERY lecture he gives. That way you can show a pattern of behavior.

3. Take the recordings to the department chair. It would also help if every student in the class, greek or not, would go as a group to the department chair.

4. In the mean time, do keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything to him about his comments on greeks.

The only problem you may have is that if he is tenured, then it may be hard to really make any change for future students. And, if his department chair feels the same about greeks, then you will need to be prepared to take this to higher campus admins - the dean, provost, and president.

But, I'm sure that his department chair and other admins are aware of his behavior. If he is the kind of professor who is bringing in a lot of research money, and he has a lot of publications from your school, I'm betting that the admins won't do much to try to get him to change.

I'd also recommend, if you live in a one-party state (i.e. only one party need be consenting for a recording to be legal), recording a few of these rants. Digital voice recorders are small and concealable, if he also prohibits recording devices.

Please consider carefully, first, how much policy you're willing to except, because choices have consequences.

Don't wear letters to class, study hard and get good grades. Fill out evaluations accordingly when the time comes. Do not record without consent, and don't waste your time trying to make a "case" out of this with the administration. It's really not worth it.

It is certainly worth it. Students want to spend their hard-earned money in education, not being insulted. Should he next be allowed to make fun of the ag majors? Or the current-day version of the hippies? No, he should keep his mouth shut re: personal comments and educate his students.

Zeta Phi, if you want to wait until the course is over, that works--although you shouldn't have to put up with any more of it--and if his supervisor is reluctant to act, go to the next person up the chain and so on and so on. Of course, recording him and going to the supervisor in numbers should be the most effective if you can do that.

Good luck! I have no idea why it's supposedly okay to insult paying customers who are a captive audience.

As a professor, I agree with all of this. This is what anonymous course evaluations are for. There's no way your idenity will be revealed.

DO NOT record lectures without permission...this is explicitly forbidden in the student code of conduct on many campuses. Plus, then you'll likely lose your anonymity. If you make a big stink and out yourself, the professors in your major will label you as someone to watch out for...a loose cannon who secretly records profs and turns them in. People talk...even if they agree he's a goof, suddenly you're labeled as an upstart troublemaker.

Everyone probably already knows this guy is a goof.

If he was calling Catholics "Papists" and saying they are nothing but a cult that molests 8 year old boys, would your advice be the same? I completely agree with Carnation.

/hijack - tangent/


I have to disagree with this term. I know that this idea has crept into higher ed, but it is an erroneous way for students to think.

The idea that students are 'paying customers' implies that you can pay for what you want. That is to say, since students are paying, and they all want A's, then that is what they should be given - an A because they paid.

Students are paying for the opportunity to receive an education. The grade they get is the grade they earn through their efforts in the class. Not because they are 'paying customers'.

/end hijack - tangent/

I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that no one should pay to be educated and have to sit there and be insulted.

Oh, okay. :) That is true.

It depends on what they mean by it.

If they mean that they have a reasonable expectation that their professors will behave in a professional manner and maintain decorum in the classroom, in that sense, they are paying customers. I had a client, for example, who went to Southern in Baton Rouge. She had a professor there who would only show up to class when she felt like it and tell students that by having her job, she already "got hers."

It is not a privilege to be in a class with an unprofessional professor. It's a violation of the student's reasonable expectation that they'll get something worthwhile in exchange for their tuition money.