mad professor

[molly the mushroom]

My political science professor is a horrible old man who's finally snapped. He'll be retiring soon, much to the relief of the school. Apparently he's been single all his life, has few friends, and has held a grudge against the University for years. This is because the natural sciences faculty received much more recognition and funding than the social sciences department, and his protests for changes were largely ignored.

Anyway, after this year he'll be able to quit his job and live comfortably off his retirement benefits. Knowing he doesn't have to suck up anymore, I think he's intentionally trying to scare off his current students so they'll quit his course and he won't have to grade any more papers. Every week his assignments get more difficult, and another dozen students drop out. He keeps making "updates" to the course syllabus. Currently he's making us read through seven text books, only two of which were originally assigned. Next week he's giving us a huge exam (worth 15% of our grade) that tests our knowledge of various selected material from these books. By the end of the semester we have to write a dissertation on global economics of at least 80,000 words, and I'm scared I won't be able to complete it.

I'm really upset because I was looking forward to the class for a long time, and this asshole is ruining my life. He's the only one teaching this course right now, and I don't want to transfer to anything else. Should I report him, drop out, or try to endure his assignments and prevail against his cruelty?

 

[aoeu]

Report him IMMEDIATELY. They will assign the course a new prof ASAP.

At the universities I've been to, the prof is not allowed to change the syllabus after two weeks... He might not even be allowed to be doing this.

 

[andyc68]

hi molly, great name by the way.

well there's only one thing you can do and i think its the one you want to do and thats rise up to the challenge and beat this jerk at his own game, prove to yourself that this person can't beat you down, go out there and pass this exam.

 

[Sadeyes]

I think you should do the best u can...I was an adjunct at an Ivy U and the classroom, the course material, etc. were my domain and could not be controlled except under highly unusual circumstances...do the report and you will have the confidence that you can do just about anything at the U...J

 

[wibble]

report this gimp. Seriously.

There is a difference between reasonable changes (like changing a couple of modules) and unreasonable, which is what this professor is doing.

Universities will take student complaints very seriously, simply because students pay the bills. Best course of action is to speak to your head of course or faculty director. Also, most universities actually have a reporting structure for things like this, so speak to your student union about this issue as well.

 

[worlds edge]

By the end of the semester we have to write a dissertation on global economics of at least 80,000 words, and I'm scared I won't be able to complete it.

That's close to 200 pages, isn't it? :ohmy:

I'm under the impression that that is about the expected length of a master's thesis these days.

 

[aoeu]

By the standard page/word conversion we use here, that's 320 pages. That's ridiculous.

 

[resistance]

i think you should report him, the more manpower the better so talk to your classmates and make the report together, or multiple reports. what he is asking you to do is rediculous, this is your education, your future, he is playing with, don't let him.

 

[kenny]

I had a lecturer who was almost as mad as that. his standard paper grading techique was to throw them all in the air, and whichever ones landed face up passed...

Looking back I'm fairly certain he had some sort of depression or something. he was very unpredictable. in fact our final grades reflected how much of a dislike he took to students thoughout the courses... fortunately I passed.:wink:

We all knew there was a problem, and I'm fairly certain that rest of the department, staffwise all did, but there was nothing they could do. its very difficult to get sacked in the public sector, and the college, to the best of my knowledge wasn't self funding.