Arts & Ammo

Professor Threatens To Sue Students

It should not surprise us that the paranoid world of academia has produced a professor who is threatening to sue her students for discrimination. Dartblog has the story. Priya Venkatesan sent this email to her class:

Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:56:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: Priya.Venkatesan@Dartmouth.EDU
To: “WRIT.005.17.18-WI08″:;, Priya.Venkatesan@Dartmouth.EDU
Subject: WRIT.005.17.18-WI08: Possible lawsuit

Dear former class members of Science, Technology and Society:

I tried to send an email through my server but got undelivered messages. I regret to inform you that I am pursuing a lawsuit in which I am accusing some of you (whom shall go unmentioned in this email) of violating Title VII of anti-federal [SIC] discrimination laws.

The feeling that I am getting from the outside world is that Dartmouth is considered a bigoted place, so this may not be news and I may be successful in this lawsuit.

I am also writing a book detailing my experiences as your instructor, which will “name names” so to speak. I have all of your evaluations and these will be reproduced in the book.

Have a nice day.

Priya

Dr. Venkatesan taught writing, so maybe the students should consider a counterclaim for malpractice. (This may not be news, but Dr. V gets feelings from the outside world. One can hardly wait for the book, so to speak.)

It’s hard to imagine what discrimination the students could commit against a professor, other than failing to give her high marks in their evaluations. Dr. V’s email should be a complete defense to that claim.

The last word has Dr. V headed for greener pastures at Northwestern University. What is Northwestern thinking?

April 30th, 2008 Posted by Fitzroy | Education, Law | no comments