Where have you been? I’ve seen that and worse when I went to school, and lots of people here can tell similar stories.
When I was in high school, I had a history teacher just like this. The last straw was when she gave me the Icy Glare of Death for noting that the Warsaw Pact countries constituted the Soviet bloc, not the Soviet block. Or maybe it was disagreeing with the point that the Prime Meridian ran right through Berkeley, California… or that Taiwan still represented China on the UN Security Council… anyways, it was some such nonsense.
So I went down to the counselor’s office and said I wanted to file a complaint about an incompetent teacher. He looked for a form for me to fill out, but the only one he found in the ballpark was a complaint about a teacher physically abusing a student. I remember crossing out the word “physically” and writing in “academically.”
I can’t rule out that there were not some discussions between the teacher and staff, but nothing I saw came out of my complaint.
Trader Vic’s has a grassy knoll?
Well, if Bush had elevating a sitting Justice to Chief Justice, there would have had to have been two nomination hearings and votes…the first to elevate the existing Justice, the second to pick a new Associate Justice.
Of course, this doesn’t help Bush, and, with the Senate as it was, would have probably hurt him…he had enough trouble getting Roberts confirmed as it was.
It’s 1.3X the cost of being misinformed by a teacher in Australia, given the current exchange rate.
In some of their mixed drinks, yes.
I think you did misunderstand. user_hostile is saying that there shouldn’t be a need for an audio recorder if the entire class has been taking lecture notes, as they would serve the same purpose.
To user_hostile, I don’t actually think they would suffice as far as concrete evidence goes. There’s a possibility that the entire class has decided to fabricate lies about the prof to get rid of him, and has decided to do so by writing down stuff he didn’t say and claiming he said it. Of course that’s a very tiny, tiny possibility, but depending on who is arbiter over the decision, it may be the difference between action or not. An audio recording is stronger evidence that he is saying the crap he’s alleged to be saying.
And piña coladas.
Where have i been? Apparently hanging out with professors and grad students who take their responsibilities as teachers seriously. And, despite anecdotes such as those given by the OP, i firmly believe that taking this responsibility seriously constitutes the norm, rather than the exception.
Sorry man. You have a responsibility to actually tell someone (department head? department vice chair of undergrad affairs?) about this guy. Think of his future students.
It won’t really trouble you anyway. Just give someone in power the same (except longer, of course) list you gave us. (Heck, send it anonymously, if you like) Even if said person doesn’t believe you, they will probably send someone to sit in on this guy’s course, or interview him personally just to make sure. Then, if he is as ridiculous as you say, it will be obvious to them that he’s not qualified to teach.
You’re certainly right that examples like the above are far from the norm, but they certainly exist. I’ve run across a professor or two that fall under the OP’s example of idiocy - and I’m still an undergrad. The fact is that the power of being a professor seems to sometimes cloud a weaker person’s reasoning, thus producing an idiot like in the OP; it’s far from the norm, to be sure- but definitely in existence.
Actually, it’s entirely possible that recording the lecture might be a violation of a student code of conduct or classroom policies. I remember many professors who had it written specifically into their policies that no audio or video recordings were allowed. One moron even added “without the express permission of the commissioner of baseball” or some such nonsense. Oh, how I wish I had the balls back then to write the commissioner with what might have seemed like an odd request…
My understanding is that, legally, a lecture is considered the intellectual property of either the professor or the school, and that’s why they can get away with not allowing someone to tape it.
That said, the guy’s a damn fool.
Nobody was saying that this sort of behavior was the norm, mhendo, but you seemed to be in denial that it happened even as an exception.
Most of us encounter enough assholes in our lives to know they are represented in all professions, and university faculty most certainly are not immune to this.
If I came on here and complained about a specific asshole mechanic, or asshole plumber, or asshole doctor, chances are you would not see it as an attack on an entire profession nor see the need to defend the lot of them. And yet you felt the need to jump up and defend university faculty when they were not being attacked as a group yet in the thread.
Captain Amazing:
Nitpick, but Bush had no trouble whatsoever getting Roberts confirmed. Check out Supreme Conflict by Jan Crawford Greenburg.
I did that specifically because, in response to a post where i said that i, personally, had never run across such behavior, you asked “Where have you been?”
A question like that implies that anyone who has been in the university system and not seen such behavior must be an exception.
I’d go straight to the Dean.
I did mean an audio recording and yes the lecture is the professor’s intellectual property. You should check your syllabus and the school’s code of conduct about it; I was remiss to not say that. You might want to consult with someone in Academic Affairs to point you to the appropriate info (if you want to pursue this route)
A bunch of student complaints with dated notes would help, but as somebody else said, it could just look like a group pile-on. But any documentation helps. If the guy is anything other than already tenured, many places require a peer-review of teaching at least once a year. If you bring it up to the Dean, they might be able to nail him there.
All that being said, I wouldn’t let this go with without making some sort of comment other than on the end-of-semester evaluation form. I say this as someone who’s very early on the tenure track at a different PA university (we’re not going on strike like PASSHE). Academia as a whole can’t let this kind of crappy “teaching” stand.
Good luck if the PA Higher Ed. system goes on strike.
IMHO, if doors plays the dean a recording of professor Beavis rattling off a long list of inaccuracies and chews doors out for intellectual property violations, then I think the problems at the university go a lot higher than one dipwad professor.
Well, yeah, there’s that too. 
Thank you, Scruloose
You just made my day. Now my coworkers are wondering if I am all right in the head for bursting out laughing and choking on my spit.