Dartmouth Professor Sues Students For Being Mean To Her

[Miranda]

A Dartmouth lecturer is suing her class for discrimination, as she revealed in a series of regrettable and bizarre emails that promptly ended up all over Dartmouth blogs. Priya Venkatesan (Dartmouth '90, MS in Genetics, PhD in literature) emailed members of her Winter '08 Writing 5 class Saturday night to announce her intention to seek damages from them for their being mean to her. The email, and so, so much more, below:

Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:56:35

From: Priya Venkatesan

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 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 eperiences as your instructor, which will "name names" so to speak. I have all of your evaluation and these will be reproduced in the book.

Have a nice day.

Anti-federal discrimination laws? That's serious business. Or whatever the exact opposite of serious business is.

The details of the discrimination and harassment? Students didn't pay attention to her, complained about her to her boss, and accused her of not "accepting opinions contrary to her own" and said she would "lower the grades of students her disagreed with her." In other words, the exact smarmy complaints all entitled college students level against inexperienced teachers.

From the Dartmouth News:

As an example of Venkatesan's rejection of views different from her own, the student highlighted Venkatesan's cancelation of class for a week after the class applauded a student who contradicted Venkatesan's opinions about post-modernism.

Venkatesan said the incident occurred when she was lecturing about "The Death of Nature," a book by Carolyne Merchant, and the witch trials of the Renaissance. The student went on a "diatribe" about the inappropriate nature of challenging patriarchal authority, Venkatesan said. Vakatesan respected the student's right to express this opinion, she said, but the manner in which he vocalized his views and the applause afterward were disrespectful and offensive.

"I was horrified," Venkatesan said. "My responsibility is not to stifle them, but when they clapped at his comment, I thought that crossed the line ... I was facing intolerance of ideas and intolerance of freedom of expression."

She was horrified! Horrified that an Ivy League undergrad bitched about hearing some academic nonsense about the entrenched power structures that got them where they are today! (No winners in this story, folks.)

The emails apparently started last Friday, when Venkatesan emailed seven or more students to warn of a "possible lawsuit" against them.

From: Priya Venkatesan

Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008

Subject: Class Action Suit

Dear Student:

As a courtesy, you are being notified that you are being named in a potential class action suit that is being brought against Dartmouth College, which is being accused of violating federal anti-discrimination laws. Please do not respond to this email because it will be potentially used against you in a court of law.

Priya Venkatesan, PhD

From: Priya Venkatesan

Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008

Subject: Class Action Suit

Dear Student:

Please disregard the previous email sent by Priya Venkatesan. This is to officially inform you that you are being accused of violating Title VII pertaining to federal anti-discrimination laws, by the plaintiff, Priya Venkatesan. You are being specifically accused of, but not limited to, harassment. Please do not respond to this email as it will be used against you in a court of law.

Priya Venkatesan, PhD

In a statement to Dartblog, Venkatesan reveals that she's retained an attorney from New Hampshire, and that she has absolutely no clue what a class-action suit is or how it works.

The students I am naming in this suit were mostly from Winter 08 term with a few from Fall. Essentially, I am pursuing litigation to see if I have a legal claim, that is, if the inappropriate and unprofessional behavior I was subjected to as a Research Associate and Lecturer at Dartmouth constitutes discrimination and harrassment [sic] on the basis of ethnicity, race and gender. This includes not just students, but a few faculty members that I worked with.

Possibly on the advice of her lawyer, Venkatesan is now making it more clear that she's suing Dartmouth for harassment by her superior in the writing program, but she won't let go of her brilliant idea to also sue the students who didn't like her very much.

According to her Dartmouth bio, Venkatesan's "current position is as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, which will form the basis of [her] latest manuscript, A Postmodernist in the Laboratory." We can't believe her bio leaves out the fact that this manuscript will "name names" (so to speak).

Putting the "Class" in Class Action. Also, the "Ligitious and Passive-Aggressive Book-Peddler" in Professor. [ivyGate]

[Msterbeau]

[Para Bellum]

So the tl;dr version would read like:

"BAWWWWWWWWWWW I IS SO BUTTHURT MAI STOODENTS NO LIEK MEEEEEEE!!!!11!!!1!1"

Is anyone else getting that vibe, or am I just an asshole?

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Took me awhile to read through all that.

Sounds like she did manage to get a large body of undereducated students all in one class, but her reaction seems just silly as hell to me, if I'm interpreting it right. Granted I've only just read this one time and know nothing about it outside this particular post.

[EAF (1)]

wow...just wow...did she REALLY expect EVERY student/person she comes into contact with to agree with her? Just wow...and she is supposed to teach others? XD I worry about society...A truely open minded person would allow peoples opinions but still be strong enough to stand up for their own not whine like an overdramatic bitch...

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I think its more about how she (thought) she managed to have a whole class full of (seemingly closed minded) students all at once that upset her rather than just a single belligerent student. I'm guessing it also wasn't just a "dissenting remark" but really rude, "attacking" sort of commentary. I can almost imagine the exact sort of "Screw you, you liberal bitch!" type tone it was probably said in. Which she probably felt she was justified in not having to tolerate. (The tone of the article suggests to me a heavy bias and some oversimplification of the story)

But yeah her reaction (again if I'm understanding it correctly) sucked bad.

[EAF (1)]

It could have been something like a, "Srew you you liberal bitch!"...but at the same time, unless the classes there are REALY small...I think they're would be at least one person who she could not say that about...and she did say it was only a few students, but still it concerns me about how it was said she supposedly knocked off points for dissagreeing...then again there are always two sides to every story...but rather than the majority of her class being assholes I see it as her most likely over reacting and is maybe an oversensitive person who maybe thinks her ideals are the greatest ever? I know a few people like that....unfortuantly lol XD

[Troy Spiral (13)]

students, but still it concerns me about how it was said she supposedly knocked off points for dissagreeing..

That part of the story there seems the least plausible to me. That sort of complaint has been hurled at teachers, from students, since time immemorial.

[EAF (1)]

Thus why I included "..it was said she supposedly..." lol But yeah...I don't know it's still worth looking into though if she is going to make the claim that her students harrassed her...which i'm not saying is not possible...just her whole story seems rather shakey to me...