Professor did something creepy

[Kassia]

4 minutes ago, Hunter said:

Maybe letting go of this guy would be a good idea.

I don't know...he's very well-respected by students academically as being tough, but a good teacher.  And he devotes a lot of time to his classes.  It's obvious he cares very much about student success.  I've always had mixed feelings about him - his personality vs. his teaching.  

[katilac]

5 minutes ago, Kassia said:

I don't know...he's very well-respected by students academically as being tough, but a good teacher.  And he devotes a lot of time to his classes.  It's obvious he cares very much about student success.  I've always had mixed feelings about him - his personality vs. his teaching.  

If he's a good teacher of the material, I wouldn't hesitate to take him again, I would just keep my new knowledge in mind. 

For those wondering about Discord, just think of it as group texting. Using an app (Whatsapp, Google Hangouts) can just make group texting easier when people have a variety of phones, plus you can often use your computer as well as your phone. Which is something college students likely don't care about, but I appreciate the bigger screen and keyboard.

[Jean in Newcastle]

30 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

If he's tenured, there's no way this incident would do it. 

My tenured friend was just let go yesterday. Her entire department is being shut down. No one did anything wrong. 

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Jean in Newcastle said:

My tenured friend was just let go yesterday. Her entire department is being shut down. No one did anything wrong. 

Whoa. That's awful 😕 . I'm sorry. 

[regentrude]

43 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

My tenured friend was just let go yesterday. Her entire department is being shut down. No one did anything wrong. 

Sorry to hear about your friend. Closing of a department is pretty much the only circumstance under which tenure can be revoked, unless there is a title IX violation - then they can fire you.

[Jean in Newcastle]

5 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Sorry to hear about your friend. Closing of a department is pretty much the only circumstance under which tenure can be revoked, unless there is a title IX violation - then they can fire you.

This department is very very heavily dependent on foreign students.  They were told that the school hoped to bring back the department some time after COVID.  But they might not be able to hire everyone back at once.  And she's close to age 60.  So it just sucks. 

[wendyroo]

3 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

Technically - he's spying on his students when they have an expectation of privacy from their professor.  After all  it's supposed to be a *specific* group of students and he lied in order to join.

 His baiting them is really low, but I will assume is because the guy has serious issues that would be better dealt with by a mental health counselor.

I don't think that is a good expectation for anyone to have in a public or semi-public digital forum.

I don't have a clue how the Discord chat was set up, but somehow the link or information was distributed among the students, and as soon as it was out there, they really had no way of knowing or verifying who was part of the chat. I think that is just a good life lesson.

Granted, I do think it was disingenuous for the professor to join and not disclose his identity (and it would have been weird and awkward if he joined and did disclose his identity), but without more specific information, I can't jump to saying that he outright lied in order to join.

To me, his behavior sounds more rude, intrusive, inconsiderate, insecure, and perhaps socially inept, than unethical. Though clearly it would be completely inappropriate for him to base a student's grade in any way on their comments (positive or negative) about him in the chat...and from the student's perspective, it would be incredibly difficult to prove he had done so.  Another reason for them to remember that nothing is truly private online.

[Bootsie]

4 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

Technically - he's spying on his students when they have an expectation of privacy from their professor.  After all  it's supposed to be a *specific* group of students and he lied in order to join.

 His baiting them is really low, but I will assume is because the guy has serious issues that would be better dealt with by a mental health counselor.

I think much of this depends upon if it is set up by the professor/university as a place for student communication or if it is set up by students where anyone is allowed to join  If there is an online group where anyone is able to join and can represent themselves to by anyone, I would not have an expectation of privacy; and I would be aware that other members of the group can easily share what I have provided in the online space with others.  

[Kassia]

8 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

My tenured friend was just let go yesterday. Her entire department is being shut down. No one did anything wrong. 

Oh, that's awful.  I'm sorry.  These are tough times for so many.  😞

 

 

7 hours ago, wendyroo said:

\.  Another reason for them to remember that nothing is truly private online.

Yes, this is certainly a good lesson!  I wasn't surprised that he was on there from what I know about him, but I was surprised he was acting as another student.  

6 hours ago, Bootsie said:

I think much of this depends upon if it is set up by the professor/university as a place for student communication or if it is set up by students where anyone is allowed to join  If there is an online group where anyone is able to join and can represent themselves to by anyone, I would not have an expectation of privacy; and I would be aware that other members of the group can easily share what I have provided in the online space with others.  

This was set up by the students.