Dartmouth students get e-mails from former teacher claiming disrespect

Foster's Daily Democrat ^ | May 1, 2008 | unk

[Past Your Eyes]

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — A former Dartmouth College teacher and medical school researcher sent e-mails to some of her former students saying she plans to sue them because they "harassed, compromised, abused or discriminated against" her.

Priya Venkatesan, 39, who received her bachelor's degree from Dartmouth in 1990, last week e-mailed the former students in her Science, Technology and Society course with the news that she is pursuing a federal civil-rights lawsuit against some of them.

Venkatesan, now at Northwestern University, said in an interview with the Valley News that she is still searching for a lawyer to take her case and would name as many as 15 students as defendants. She said Dartmouth itself and two professors also might be named.

[Past Your Eyes]

Everybody knows that the worst thing you can do to someone is to hurt his feelings.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Went to the link. Is the story still being written/editted?

[Rebelbase]

“She said the students had not made overtly racist or sexist remarks to her, but that she suspected the disrespect some of them showed her may have stemmed from her ethnic background or gender. In one instance, she said, a student contradicted her during a lecture on feminism and science, drawing applause from some of his classmates. Venkatesan said she was “horrified” and canceled class for a couple of days.”

ROTF! After this incident she should have been fired by her liberal-educrat institution for not understanding and using the weight of the grading pen when it comes to student “insubordination”!

[Tax-chick]

The source is a little garbled, but it appears she’s suing her former students for not agreeing with her, and not listening to her lectures with reverent Ooh’s and Aah’s.

Is observing that someone is dumb as a box of rocks a civil rights violation?

[dawn53]

When I went to the story at the link, half of it had been cross through. Anybody know why?

[G.Love]

Sounds like a student contradicted her in class and other students clapped. She doesn’t know why they disrespected her but thinks it might be because of her gender or ethnicity. So she is suing them. All of them.

Did I get that right?

[Izzy Dunne]

she is still searching for a lawyer to take her case

I thought you were supposed to do that BEFORE announcing your suit.

[Rebelbase]

Yes, you got it.

[Izzy Dunne]

In one instance, she said, a student contradicted her during a lecture on feminism and science, drawing applause from some of his classmates. Venkatesan said she was "horrified" and canceled class for a couple of days.

They should get an "F" in Drone class.

[t1b8zs]

Got an E-mail...to give a new meanning to discrespect

[mkjessup]

In one instance, she said, a student contradicted her during a lecture on feminism and science, drawing applause from some of his classmates. Venkatesan said she was “horrified” and canceled class for a couple of days.”

Pffft! Most 'feminists' are so stupid they would try using a plastic clothes hanger for their self-inflicted abortion.

[rod1]

The women is lucky the students are not sueing her failure to deliver on the paid for service (cancelling classes because she got a question in prior class).

I have taught at an Ivy league University for 31 years (undergrads, grad students and professions students in science/medicine). If your not ready to field questions and even challenges to points you make in a lecture...you shoudl not even set foot in the classroom.

[buffaloKiller]

Since calling anyone some name is NOT against the law or anything else.
Perhaps she should go back to India.
“Racism” or whatever the commies want to name as such is also NOT against the law.
Perhaps she should get a life and also some knowledge as to how America works.
Too bad her education here in America did not include civics.
Shish - what a whuss.
Yes I think she should return to India and start all over.

[LibLieSlayer]

Send some clinton-like goons over to “talk” with this P***y. He will back down. Deal with the left the way the left deals!

LLS

[t1b8zs]

Skid marks,panties,coat hangers,abortions.......?

[TheWasteLand]

So left-wing teachers don't just fail you anymore for disagreeing with their orthodoxy - they sue you now? I wouldn't have thought academia could get any worse, but here it is.

[Tax-chick]

Perhaps there’s no market for lecturers in “feminism and science” in India. Useful skills seem to be important there.

What’s really bad is how much the students’ parents (and the U.S. taxpayer) are paying for this kind of drivel. It would be fun if the students got together, found a lawyer with a sense of humor, and counter-sued her for wasting their time and money.

[mkjessup]

Skid marks,panties,coat hangers,abortions.......?

I see you're thinking in abstract terms, lol

[Rebelbase]

” So left-wing teachers don’t just fail you anymore for disagreeing with their orthodoxy - they sue you now? “

Wait until they learn there are some students who vehemently reject their professors orthodoxy yet regurgitate it on the exams and papers as if they’ve learned something.

[KosmicKitty]

There have been several articles published about this kooky dame. At one of them, there was a sample of her writing from a book she published on postmodernism. I never read more confusing garbage in all my life!!

[TheWasteLand]

All too common in my experience. It would be nice if a few more would stand up to their professorial bullies, but pragmatism is a harsh mistress.

[arthurus]

An affirmative action hire, I think, from a very limited field.

[MrB]

This proves it!

If you make comments perceived as “disrespectful” toward, ie, you disagree with, any non-white person in the world,

you are being racist.

Just like the DUmmies claim that calling Obama “Barry” is racist because it’s being disrespectful to a black man.

[MrB]

feminine => good
feminist => bad
elite => good
elitist => bad
piety => good
pietist => bad

In other words, don’t make too much of yourself.

[MrB]

I’m going to have to teach my kids two sets of “curriculum”.

Here’s the truth, your true education.
And here’s what you’ll be expected to write on your papers in college in order to get a good grade.

[MrB]

Postmodernism is intentionally confusing. It is meant to obscure the truth to the point that it destroys it even as a concept.

Once that is done, students are supposed to accept any sort of drivel coming from the mouths of those that seek to mold their worldview to some utter nonsense.

[Ezekiel]

Venkatesan, who is Indian

Apparently she had a cow, and her students weren't going to take it lying down. To her horror, they weren't even sari...

[Rebelbase]

My kid has learned that if he writes his papers from a liberal/socialist point of view he gets a better grade than if he wrote it from a conservative perspective.

He hates it but it’s what he has to do make the grade.

[Tax-chick]

I suggest eliminating the field of “study” entirely. All the PhD.’s in the field can become waiters.

[KosmicKitty]

Postmodernism is intentionally confusing. It is meant to obscure the truth to the point that it destroys it even as a concept.

Exactly why I gave up liberal arts and went for a technical degree :-)

[MrB]

Has he read Sowell’s “Conflict of Visions”?

That would give him some insight into the twisted mindset of a leftist.

I would suggest that and Evan Sayet’s lecture “Regurgitating the Apple, How Modern Liberals ‘Think’” (at Heritage).

[aculeus]

Apparently she had a cow

But not in the Steinian sense.

[dangerdoc]

When I was in medical school, we had an afternoon lecture given on birth control presented by someone from planned parenthood.

A women started the the lecture and after about three minutes left the topic of birth control and spent the next forty minutes ranting feminist principals.

She noticed the there were a group of men in the back and thinking they weren’t paying proper attention, pointed one out and screeched “what have I been saying for the last ten minutes”

He looked up and said “whaaa whaa whoaaaa”. The whole class erupted in laughter and she grabbed her things and stormed out.

Am I going to be sued?

[6SJ7]

Gawker has some emails from this professor as well as her picture.

[Clioman]

“she is still searching for a lawyer to take her case”

Clearly, she doesn’t understand the US legal system. You have to hire a lawyer BEFORE you can collect any money...having retained counsel establishes the technical but necessary difference between ‘pre-trial settlement’ and extortion.

[70th Division]

Well that fits Rush’s theory. All the radical feminists are really UGLY!

[Eroteme]

The class probably learned more from you in those few seconds about making accurate diagnoses than they did in most of their other classes combined. Way to go, doc! Bravo.

[Eroteme]

Clearly, she doesn’t understand the US legal system.

But she does understand the victimhood lottery. The great news about this incompetent's antics is that she is giving students a real-world lesson in how ridiculously these liberal orthodoxies play out when actually implemented--making it well worth the tuition shelled out for her nonsense class. The old "show, don't tell" technique does work, boys and girls. So, as it turns out, Priya Venkatesan inadvertently DID manage to convey one useful writing skill in her ostensible writing class.

Ironically, efforts to avenge the perceived assault on her tender psyche by a handful of freshmen has only resulted in Venkatesan opening herself to the ridicule of tens of thousands. If her widdow feewings were bruised before, wait til she googles herself now.

[dangerdoc]

It wasn’t me, but I was one of the evil men sitting in the back of the class not paying attention.

[Eepsy]

Perhaps the students would have been better off trying to curry her favour....

[cspackler]

I have taught at an Ivy league University for 31 years (undergrads, grad students and professions students in science/medicine). If your not ready to field questions and even challenges to points you make in a lecture...you shoudl not even set foot in the classroom.

You taught at this level for 31 years, and still don't know the proper usage of "your" and "you're"?

Sorry, could not resist...

[Enchante]

"a student contradicted her during a lecture on feminism and science, drawing applause from some of his classmates. Venkatesan said she was “horrified” and canceled class for a couple of days.”"

I smell an incompetent leftist who was tripped up by her own idiocy and a student who actually knew something about science???

[Enchante]

"Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric"

If we just think about how inappropriate it is for a writing program to offer a course on "feminism and science" then it will be obvious what kind of agenda she represents.

[aruanan]

"My intent was to do my job, but it got met with a lot of hostility," said Venkatesan, who quit her teaching post in March. "The way I read it is that maybe it has something to do with my ethnicity or my gender. Possibly both, I don’t know."

It could be, though, that it has something to do with being a feminist who believes that her measly Masters in Genetics from UC Davis qualifies her to make feminist critiques of science.

[rod1]

No problem. Thanks goodness for continuing education. and I had better pursue some more.

[Past Your Eyes]

So Dartmouth is a “bigoted place”. LMAO!!! Apparently it isn’t nearly liberal enough for this ugly cow.
I live in the county where Dartmouth is located (on the extreme other side, fortunately) and I can tell you that the place is plenty more than liberal enough for my tastes. Obama and Hillary campaign signs abound in the area.
They are bigoted against conservatives but probably not much else.

[Past Your Eyes]

I was going to let that pass but I did notice it.
“;^)

[Past Your Eyes]

"Perhaps the students would have been better off trying to curry her favour...."

Or, in her case, favour her curry.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Past Your Eyes]

"Perhaps the students would have been better off trying to curry her favour...."

Or, in her case, favour her curry.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

[george76]

Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. "My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful,"

After a winter of discontent, the snapping point came while Ms. Venkatesan was lecturing on "eco-feminism,"...

.