Althouse: "I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched. I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused... am about ready to hire a lawyer."

March 8, 2015

"I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched. I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused... am about ready to hire a lawyer."

Wrote the professor who saw what her students were writing about her in Yik Yak, quoted in a NYT article about an app that displays anonymous comments.

I think this is the kind of thing professors should simply ignore. There's meaningless, mindless chatter out there. Getting mad or hurt about it is pointless. It's like worrying about every last thought that might be rattling about in the students' head. Chalk it up to freedom and move on. Teach better classes. Count yourself lucky to be a professor in the first place. Take advantage of the opportunity to grow a thicker skin. It's quite useful!

28 comments:

Achilles said...: "Getting mad or hurt about it is pointless."

Not true. It is a career path for people who work at universities and call themselves feminists.; 3/8/15, 8:04 PM
Humperdink said...: Anonymous attacks are gutless. Ignore them and move on. You'll go nuts otherwise.; 3/8/15, 8:12 PM
Big Mike said...: Oh dear! Prior to Yik Yak none of the students ever talked about their professors. Nope. Never happened. Uh, uh. Not ever.

Just now it's in the open, along with so much else.; 3/8/15, 8:28 PM
chickelit said...: From the linked article: Yik Yak was invented by two frat guys named Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington.

You can't make up stuff like that.; 3/8/15, 8:43 PM
RecChief said...: but if the professor ignores it, how can she get her 15 minutes of VictimFame?; 3/8/15, 9:45 PM
Michael K said...: Dartmouth got all exercised 25 years ago about student ratings of professors. The professors hated it, especially those whose classes were rated dull and worthless.; 3/8/15, 9:45 PM
glenn said...: Try being the Quality Manager in a manufacturing company. And STFU.; 3/8/15, 9:47 PM
Johanna Lapp said...: Reminds me of Miss Balbricker at Angel Beach High School. She had a strategu for identifying anonymous evildoers.

They need to clone R. Lee Ermey and make him legal counsel to every college HR department in America.; 3/8/15, 10:08 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Ann Althouse said...Take advantage of the opportunity to grow a thicker skin. It's quite useful!

That's just what the patriarchy wants you to say, Professor. People made comments about a woman, bad comments. She has been verbally ABUSED, sexually HARASSED (even though those comments were likely about her and not to her). Your suggestion is that she simply TAKE this abuse, that she ACCEPT this VIOLENCE? How can anyone feel safe in such an environment? If the woman feels UNSAFE, for any reason, someone must be punished.; 3/8/15, 10:10 PM
Paddy O said...: preach it; 3/8/15, 10:40 PM
Rob said...: I've been cheated
Been mistreated
When will I be loved?

I've been put down
I've been pushed 'round
When will I be loved?; 3/8/15, 10:47 PM
halflight said...: Let's get down to brass tacks.

Professor Crouch's biggest problem is that she is a professor of philosophy at . . . Eastern Michigan University. Now, don't get me wrong, Eastern does somethings well, but philosophy? Meh. If anything has besmirched Ms. Crouch's reputation, it's landing in the EMU philosophy department.

Here's the grad course catalogue (with a whopping 12 courses):

http://www.emich.edu/historyphilosophy/philosophy/grad.php

Note that the august scholars have the wide range of choices between "Social Justice"and "Methods". The "Social Justice" track is as eyerollingly bad as you'd think . Apparently the philosophical questions of justice are answered by feminism, environmentalism and "food justice" (whatever the hell that is).

And the only core course that all philosophy MAs must take is that most important field of . . . feminist philosophy. Not ontology, or epistemology, or history of philosophy, or any of that oppressive European phallocentric crap.

EMU's philosophy department just bleeds intellectual seriousness, no?

To make things worse, she's just a few miles east on Washtenaw Avenue from Ann Arbor, where there's a REAL philosophy department, and women philosophers who aren't stuck in a feminist intellectual ghetto.

So cut her some slack, and let her publicly stew in her feminist outrage. God knows she'll never get any attention for her philosophy.; 3/8/15, 10:59 PM
Aussie Pundit said...: I don't like these anonymous review sites about individuals. They are have the potential to cause enormous damage.

Why stop at professors? Why not just review everyone, by name, anonymously? Review anyone you know, or in fact that you don't know. Review that person who you wanted to bully in high school, for example, or the person who bullied you! They're out there somewhere, after all and in need of a review.

The only reason we tolerate these sites is because they are focused on professors, so they are currently introducing more accoutability into a sector that has had too little accoutability. They are allowing short term and specific redress of a long term problem, and we like that.

But the whole concept is highly pernicious, and we shouldn't laugh too much at people who are targeted on such sites. It could be you one day, or your family. And it may have nothing to do with your job.; 3/9/15, 3:46 AM
RMc said...: I attended EMU back in the 80s, and most of the kids I knew were too busy getting drunk to be philosophical.; 3/9/15, 5:57 AM
Humperdink said...: My take is the more you make a big stink about it, the more you feed the beast. This will get worse for Ms. Crouch before it gets better.

These apps are not going away.; 3/9/15, 6:01 AM
tim maguire said...: She hasn't been sexually harassed or verbally abused. None of the statements were made to her, this was a semi-private conversation that she got wind of.

From her reaction, it sounds like she deserved some of the disrespect.; 3/9/15, 6:33 AM
Brando said...: Anonymous review sites such as Yelp are useful in theory but are so prone to unreliability that you really get nothing from them. It's easy for the person (or business) being reviewed to flood the comments with fake praise or for competitors (or trolls) to flood them with fake criticism.

Freedom is great, but the price we pay for it is those who abuse it.; 3/9/15, 6:57 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Every dormitory; every fraternity; and every sorority--or any other social group or club on any college campus in the country is a place where information is exchanged about members of the college faculty. And that's been true since colleges existed. Professor Smith will "bore you to tears". Professor Jones's classes are a snap and she passes out high grades to anybody who shows up.

Yik Yak or Twitter or any social media is simply a continuation in a different form of discussions that have gone on, are going on, and will go one forever on college campuses.

The professor is perhaps too much of a delicate flower to put up with criticism. As for being "sexually harassed" by comments she hasn't seen, I'd say she's also a bit lacking in the intellectual horsepower department.; 3/9/15, 7:15 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: She should wear Hillary's Green Housecoat of Protection. It is a bit bulky and ungainly, but it seems to work for her.

I am Laslo.; 3/9/15, 7:56 AM
MarkW said...: "It's easy for the person (or business) being reviewed to flood the comments with fake praise or for competitors (or trolls) to flood them with fake criticism."

But it's not quick and easy to create GOOD fake reviews that invent specific details, are written in different styles, and are by users who've reviewed multiple businesses in different places over a significant period of time. Because of this, it's really not very hard to recognize the fake reviews (if they're bland & vague and are by new users who've reviewed little else -- they're probably fake).; 3/9/15, 8:09 AM
iowan2 said...: From my grandmother, I think.

"Your wouldn't worry so much about what other people think of you, if you realized how seldom they do."; 3/9/15, 8:11 AM
MadisonMan said...: As I read this, I envisioned the subject matter that this hurt professor teaches.

I ruled out Math, Physics, Engineering, Biology, Statistics, Computer Science, Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, Foreign Languages.

Then I clicked the link.

Huh. Philosophy. Who could have predicted that.; 3/9/15, 8:13 AM
pm317 said...: Does she have tenure?; 3/9/15, 8:26 AM
Peter said...: Isn't this sort of like what was once said about Puritans, that it drove them crazy to know that someone, somewhere might be having fun?

It's not as if she has to install the app and look at it, is it? But if she doesn't look then she'll go crazy imagining all the nasty things students might be saying about her?; 3/9/15, 8:35 AM
sinz52 said...: With any kinds of popular reviews (of professors, books, auto mechanics, etc.) there is a self-selection bias factor operating, of course.

Those who are upset over having had a bad experience are much more likely to post a review (to get it out of their system) than someone who was satisfied and put it out of their mind.; 3/9/15, 8:57 AM
DanTheMan said...: There are more slurs in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy department...; 3/9/15, 9:35 AM
ken in tx said...: Does she go in the student toilets and see what's written on the walls? That ought to really piss her off. She should have Dean Wormer order an investigation.; 3/9/15, 4:16 PM
Bob R said...: This kind of communication is more transitory and inconsequential than graffiti on a men's room wall. I can't imagine it would ever be mentioned in a promotion or tenure case. If it were, I can name a couple of lawyers who would be quite happy to take that case.

The only anonymous comments I have seen taken at all seriously in P&T hearings are teaching evaluation administered by the university under conditions that make stuffing the ballot box difficult. (Selection bias is another story.) Yik Yak is no substantial threat. Just unpleasant. Don't look.; 3/9/15, 4:35 PM