Rude advisors at Kennesaw . Smh pic.twitter.com/ugcX4gnIsp
— KB (@IamKB_) May 14, 2015
The video gets out, not the larger context. What is the larger context? Dawson can't get her side of the story out, and Bruce controls the narrative. Bruce knows that he is recording, and during the sequence that's recorded he's speaking in a calm, circumspect manner that makes Dawson look way out of line.
Bruce has explained that he was told his adviser would be available in an hour, and he decided to wait instead of leaving and coming back in an hour. How did that earlier interaction play out? Why did Dawson interpret the lingering in the office as harassment? Was her reaction part of some absurd ever-enlarging concept of "harassment" within the gender politics of modern American education? Is Dawson an abusive outlier? Or would this all be nothing if we could see the whole interaction on video?
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57 comments:
"Sitting here until someone is available, is harassment."
In the right light you can see the metaphorical mattress on her back.
I am Laslo.
My money is that she's an officious pain in the ass who feels that she must control her little fiefdom with an iron hand. She works in 'academia' because no one else will have her. The guy with the camera sounds black so she's probably a racist as well.
The idea that sitting = harassment is pretty bizarre all by itself. It would have to be some extraordinary context to make that reaction reasonable.
Shades of Dr. Strangelove "You can't sit in here, this is the waiting room!"
Ah, the things people try to get us worked up about on the internet.
She is toxic to the intellectual environment. Her immediate response is to call 'security' presumably because only she designates when to perform her job of advising. Stalin would be proud of her. Us? Not so much.
Steve nailed it in one.
What is the larger context?
Maybe this is the larger context.
His is adviser wasn't going to be available in an hour so her regular method of ridding the office of the students it serves failed. She then fell back on her instincts as an academic.
Had this been my undergraduate advisors office at class selection time there would have been a campus police officer standing by Abby Dawson's desk when she told be to bugger off.
At least Kafka's K had the right to wait at a door that was reserved for him alone...
This is the reaction you get from the receptionist when the boss gets caught outside the office when they aren't supposed to be.
Of course there's a larger context. We know that.
But even without it, any sensible person can see that the woman's behavior is rude. Unless he has been stalking her or was otherwise violent prior to the video, no amount of context will exonerate her.
We've all dealt with officious jerks and wished there was a camera to capture their rude behavior. Well now there is.
DMV people are like this too.
Is it really a waiting room for the advice office? I'd think that would define it as an OK place to wait for an hour. If, though, it's inside her office, say, that's pretty close to harassment.
What a rude skank! She fits right into the government-education complex. Sunlight should help disinfect this mess.
Not quite sure your headline is correct, Althouse.
It could very likely be a paid two week vacation for Dawson and a suspension of the student, depending on which side yells the loudest.
That being said, Dawson comes across as not an able people person. Maybe she should spend some time in retail for some re-education?
The video would be better if she was Hot.
And had a breathy voice.
And dressed less matronly.
And was eating a banana.
THAT video, I would like.
I am Laslo.
So I tried to come up with a reasonable scenario for this behavior and word choice....and found that it wasn't that hard,
I know nothing of the student or his adviser, so this could be off track, but here's a scenario:
The student is sitting in this office harassing a person/people and is asked to leave/stop and refuses. He just claims to be waiting for an adviser. Perhaps the adviser is the one who he is harassing and who is refusing to see him.
There's no one left in the waiting room in the video, so he decides to video tape this interaction.
What we see here is simply a woman walking out feeling very defensive, that this student is harassing OTHERS and that she is defending them and immediately escalating it to authorities.
I think that's interesting, because she's not saying she's going to get him in trouble or some such - she's saying his refusal to leave is cause for her to call in campus security. She's abrogating her role at this stage to campus security.
While she certainly comes across with poor word choices, let's assume this interaction has been going on for some time based upon the video starting as she comes back out.
I'd be curious to see the campus security write-up on this incident.
It should be noted that the videographer was wearing a Speedo and nothing else when he captured that moment for posterity. Even so, the woman should have been more sensitive.
Is it really a waiting room for the advice office? I'd think that would define it as an OK place to wait for an hour.
My question as well. It may not excuse her behavior but it can explain it. After all this is a college, which means that he is a potential rapist who wants to be alone with a woman for an hour.
If it is a setup, she is sure doing a good job of portraying the stereotype without benefit of artistic direction.
So I tried to come up with a reasonable scenario for this behavior and word choice....and found that it wasn't that hard,
I know nothing of the student or his adviser, so this could be off track, but here's a scenario:
Sure. Of course there are scenarios that make her behavior reasonable.
But all such scenarios involve him engaging in objectively anti-social behavior such as stalking, intimidation, etc.
If that's the case it will come to light quickly, and probably already would have been publicized.
Without a bombshell on that scale, her behavior isn't reasonable.
So, you can hold out for the counter-claim ("this video was actually filmed by my crazy ex boyfriend") but until that happens she's on the hook.
Dueling microaggressions.
She's an ass. This isn't the only student she has treated poorly.
I just can't imagine something like this happening at my small college in the 70s. I just can't imagine an adviser that wasn't helpful and polite. I can't imagine why a student wouldn't want to take advantage of a quiet hour to catch up on some reading or whatever, rather than spend the hour traveling to and fro "killing" an hour. I just don't get it, I admit it.
If you read the article, it seems other students have had similar problems with this same advisor...just sayin
My guess: Nobody was available to sit at the reception desk and watch him.
And she wasn't going to sit at reception. She's come to far with her master's degree.
It's not about race. Remember, she has a masters. It's that all academic environments must be controlled and monitored. He could tap into that computer or open those unlocked file drawers! And look at all those boxed-up university brochures he might open.
In a statement, the University said that Dawson was placed on administrative leave pending “comprehensive” investigation into the matter, which could take two weeks.
When the Baltimore Police Department said it might take ten days to investigate the death of Freddie Gray, a commentator here suggested that the ten days "sounds like a buffer period to organize a consistent lie."
I initially wondered why a university needs two weeks to investigate such a small incident, but perhaps that is now our entire society's necessary buffer period to organize a consistent lie.
Harassment?! The mind boggles... Ok, lets wait for the other side.
Federalas must take control. Everyone, ages two and up, must wear body cameras at ALL times!
Kevin Bruce, a rising senior at the Georgia school...
What is a “rising senior”?
“I’m not harassing no one,” Bruce said.
If the filmer lives a ways from campus, as I did, then staying is easier than coming back later.
Using this definition, patients harass physicians and surgeons daily!
It is quite plausible that the harassment statement along with the security call was a knee jerk response to get a very obnoxious person to leave her office. Nothing but a bluff. Was he harassing her and or staff by screaming at them demanding to see her now? We don't know what transpired before the video. I seriously doubt she treats everyone who comes in that way. We also don't know what happened after. Did she call security? I doubt it or we would have video. So she knew she was bluffing and had no harassment claim.
When I see short videos like this, I always run the scenarios that could have transpired before the video started. This is one that could have way too many possibilities. I will wait before forming an opinion.
"See me now bitch or I will f... you up!!!!"
A rising senior is a minority senior, or at least a non-Asian minority senior. Simply a case of learned substitution being awkwardly applied by the author's article. A young white athlete is simply called an "athlete" or a "linebacker" or a "shortstop". But a minority athlete will be called a "rising athlete" or a "rising wide receiver" or something along those lines. Just to get the reader in the proper frame of reference, you see. In this case, calling him a "senior" seemed too mundane. Wait! He's a minority - let's call him a "rising senior". There. That's better. Much better.
Sounds like he refused to fill out the form "just like everybody else". He must be young and gifted.
I read about this via Reddit over the weekend. I don't have time to go dig through that mass of links, but the larger context appears to be that the student had made multiple appointments with his advisor, who then cancelled every single one. On that Reddit link, he posted the emails showing the cancelled appointments. So, he showed up without an appointment to try and see his advisor on an as-available basis, only to be accused of harassment.
It sounds like someone in that office (or multiple people) resent actually having to do their jobs.
At some (most, I think) colleges, "rising [class level]" has nothing to do with race or athleticism of the athlete.
The word "rising" distinguishes between someone who, especially at this time of year, is a senior now and someone who will be a senior next semester (usually in the fall). Thus a "rising freshman" typically means someone fresh out of high school who has not matriculated yet.
"I seriously doubt she treats everyone who comes in that way."
Probably just the potential gang rapists.
"My money is that she's an officious pain in the ass who feels that she must control her little fiefdom with an iron hand."
Absolutely.
As someone else noted, other students have similar complaints about Ms. Dawson's behavior toward them.
She should be fired if this can be determined to be consistent behavior on her part.
It always amazes me what people will wear to the office. She looks like hell. I'm thinking $8.50 an hour, tops. She probably is wearing a ten year old bra.
When I was a student I had a math professor give me a lower grade than he had said he would do. He said if I got an A on the Calculus final, I would get a B in the course. I got a C. I made multiple appointments to talk to him but he never kept them. I finally saw him on the street on campus one day and called to him and started to cross the street. He began to run the other way. I decided chasing him would not improve my grade,
Is that kids voice the male equivalent of vocal fry? I can actually hear him slouching. I can't stand that stoner laid back manner of speech. Modulate your voice! Kid should have been tased.
The primary link is to the Washington Post? The Washington Post considers this minimal spat to be a National Story? A rising senior majoring in Exercise Science (whatever the hell that is) can't figure out from the course catalogue what classes to take? ... such that he is a regular in Ms. Dawson's office seeking advice?
Some people do not belong in college.
It's always smart to recognize the bias of the recorder, but I'm guessing the video would have gone nowhere if it didn't strike a nerve with the KSU students initially.
This is a tough one for a conservative white male like me. I'm having difficulty deciding whom I'd rather see oppressed. It's a real conundrum.
If nothing else, he should get an F in English.
Curious George said...
DMV people are like this too.
My experience at the South Carolina DMV is that they are much more polite than this. Illinois not so much when I lived there.
WOW,flashback, man. I thought I was back in the English department at Georgia State University, circa 1973. There as an officious eye rolling little bitch standing guard there, too.
A student in the department where I work recently became very upset because a course he wanted to take had filled and had a long waiting list.
Suppose that student had told the advisor: "I know where you work, and I can find out where you live, and if you don't get me into that class, I'm going to make your life a living hell."
The advisor (in this imaginary scenario) goes to her supervisor and says, "I feel threatened by this student."
The supervisor confronts the student as in the video.
If this were the context, would you say the supervisor is behaving badly?
right, because, obviously, the woman couldn't have done anything wrong, she was just made to look like a crazed SJW by the patriarchy, right Althouse?
H wondered: If this were the context, would you say the supervisor is behaving badly?
Isn't that "controlling the narrative" but in the other direction?
Harder to explain the suspension though. Oh well, I suppose you had to try.
Sorry, but "sitting here waiting for someone" is not harassment. Period, dot.
If he'd been actually bothering someone, then contra IGV ad TreeJoe she would have detailed the actual harassment he was engaging in ("standing in people's doorways until they agree to meet with you is harassment", for example).
Fire her.
It's time to let all the government bureaucrats know, they work for us, and they will respect us, or they will no longer get paid to work for us.
It's time to let all the government bureaucrats know, they work for us, and they will respect us, or they will no longer get paid to work for us.
How quaint. I respect that, but I think those days are long over. A college administrator will never admit that he/she is a public servant: "I work for the University, not the people!" Yet they will not hesitate to answer "whom does the university serve?" with "The People!" The disconnect is real.
If there were not dozens of other complaints from other students I might give her the benefit of the doubt.
But all the students at KSU agree that this is how she treats the students.
I have not heard a single witness come forward and say anything bad about this student.
Feminists sit around, inventing microagressions. You're manspreading! Look how you're sitting, you manspreader! And, worse, they start cramming words together, so I start getting red spellcheck on every microaggressive manspreading word I write. I feel like my entire post is being red-lined by a schoolmarm. And I'm manspreading! I'm manspreading right now! Oh the horror. And then the New York Times writes up an article. Manspreading! On the subway! And then readers of the New York Times are all, "oh yeah, manspreading, that's a thing, I got to put a stop to that." And then they're all, "Harassment! Just sitting there is harassing me." And it makes sense to them. It was in the NYT!
Back in the day, Candid Camera would run a streaker through a beauty salon, and capture the reactions. One blue-haired old lady would nudge another blue-haired old lady. "Did you see that?' And she would be shocked, but she wouldn't get up or anything.
You can't imagine Candid Camera today. "Our undercover operative is sitting there, doing nothing."
"I'm calling security!"
And if you tried to run a streaker through there?
"Nudity! On campus nudity! Potential rapist! We need SWAT teams, now! We need an AK-47 armed response!"
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