Dartmouth Students Rebel Against Feminist Professor, She Sues Her Students--Part II, Students' Evaluations of the Professor
May 12th, 2008 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & FamiliesBackground: In Dartmouth Students Rebel Against Feminist Professor's Manbashing, She Reacts by....Suing Her Students! (Part I), I discussed how a group of Dartmouth students rebelled against a feminist professor and her manbashing. The professor, rather than engaging in debate, pretended to be a victim, cancelled classes for a week, scurried off to another school to teach, and said she is suing her students.
Maureen O'Connor of the IvyGate blog checked and posted some of the student evaluations of the feminist professor. One wrote:
"Professor Venkatesan refuses to answer questions, does not respond to questions, and lectures by reading off her notes in front of her. She did not make me a better writer, she did not explain the concepts well, but she did manage to make my life a living hell."
Another wrote:
"She offered no help in class or in office hours for papers. When handed a hard copy she read the paper, said it was great, but then gave terrible grades to many students. Later on she began refusing to grade papers and gave the reason that judging by our peer editing abilities we didn't need her help on papers. She missed/cancelled 5 or 6 classes and as a result the syllabus was squished into 3 weeks and she changed the final project about 4 times. A TERRIBLE CLASS."
According to O'Connor, "last we checked, Venkatesan's course had fourteen reviews on the Dartmouth Student Assembly's student evaluations website, under the following titles:
Worst teacher I have ever had - Written by a 2011
Interesting - Written by a 2011
WORST PROFESSOR EVER DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS - Written by a 2011
save yourself now - Written by a 2011
a tad ridiculous - Written by a 2011
Interesting Material but Prof. is hard to follow - Written by a 2011
Terrible class, terrible prof - Written by a 2011
Interesting Material, Bad Prof. - Written by a 2011
If she teaches here... - Written by a 2011
WORST CLASS EVER - Written by a 2011
interesting topic, boring prof - Written by a 2011
Do NOT take this course - Written by a 2011
HORRIBLE - Written by a 2011
insecurity, ego, and more - Written by a 2011"
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May 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
It's amazing that we continue to fund this system via our tax dollars and sending our children. There are wonderful universities in South America, Eastern Europe, and even Asia that cost a fraction of these madhouses.
Ironically, just as feminism took over these institutions of higher learning for women they will price themselves out and make them irrelevent. Devry anyone?
May 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Considering that this story has been out there for awhile now, and considering how many "top feminist" sites have a very large college population, I find it curious that (my) google searches show that the name Venkatesan never appears at feministing, feministe, pandagon or at Salon.
(Searching for: Venkatesan site:shakespearessister.blogspot.com )
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
These top sites insist feminists are my best friend and I am just too dumb to realize that. And yet, perhaps ungraciously, I would expect my best friend to speak up on my behalf every now and again, especially when I've been wronged, or when feminism has made a mistake.
The silence is deafening.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I think Dartmouth students have come a long way since the co-ed transition days when many a Darmouth man was heard to refer to the female entrants as "quahogs".
Maybe they correctly anticipated that someday some female would consitute a real and present danger to Darmouth students?
But one thing I'm sure of -- Dartmouth men of those years never figured on a feminist nut suing the students over the ultimate crime against a woman: Criticizing her.
What an insult to whatever school ever gave this lady a graduate degree.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
For anyone interested, an interview with her can be found here:
http://dartlog.net/2008/04/tdr-interview-priya-venkatesan.php
Uh...interesting to say the least.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
If this lady isn't tenured, she's in heap big trouble.
If she is..well, I don't know what might happen.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
She isn't tenured. I came across this story independently a couple of days ago and have been boggling about it. She wasn't tenured at Dartmouth - there's an astonishing bit in the interview Jessy links to where she claims her superior told a student (in front of her) that the title of the film "Gattaca" was spelled with two t's because TT stands for "tenure track" and he wanted to reminder her she wasn't on it. She's a now research assistant at Northwestern.
To be honest, after looking into the story a bit deeper, I think this woman is, or was, in the process of having some kind of mental breakdown when this incident happened.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I am woman hear me roar / I am woman hear me whine. Just another example.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
The silence is deafening.
Now jerry there you go expecting a feminist to admit to being wrong. You have better odds of winning the lottery seven days in a row.
But the thing is with all those complaints if the school tried to fire her all of those "top feminst sites" jerry speaks of would be tripping over themselves to stand up for her as she does her part to "smash the patriarchy".
May 12th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Patrick Brown: "To be honest, after looking into the story a bit deeper, I think this woman is, or was, in the process of having some kind of mental breakdown when this incident happened."
In all seriousness, I believe that women who are attracted to feminism are more than a little troubled emotionally and psychologically -- it is not surprising that what we would consider a feather touch is enough to send them reeling. Feminism, like a cult, is their sword and shield. In their minds, but for feminism, they would be nothing, NOTHING, and would be ground mercilessly under the heel of the dreaded patriarchs. They NEED feminism, because at some level they recognize their own lack of worth. Then, when their precious ("My Precious!!") construct is revealed to have all the strength of a house of cards built on sand, they collapse themselves. Pathetic, but oh-so-satisfying!
May 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I Am Woman, Hear me Sue
by AP, 5/12/08
I am woman hear me sue,
It is my right -- it's what I do.
It's how I take just what I need
to make my world from your old seed.
So keep me happy Every Day,
Or my lawyers will make you PAY!
I am woman and I'm taking what I want!
I am woman forever more,
down on your knees and lick my floor,
I am woman and our judges work for me!
And if I deign to let you pass,
you know you still must kiss my ass,
'cause I am woman and I'll sue your life away!
May 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I might add ... those Dartmouth students who took a stand ARE MY HEROES!! Let's hope this is the start of something BIG! It will be a real sea-change when feminists can no longer start every harangue with, "And I can say withoug fear of contradiction that ..."
May 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I was lucky enough to build positive rapport with a women's studies professor, and she even let me give two lectures on the men's movement to her classes. I even passed around some masculist books that people could peruse and look at, such as warren farrell's "myth of male power," jack kammer's "if men have all of the power, how come women make the rules?", david thomas's "not guilty: the case in defense of men," roy schenk's "the other side of the coin," eugene august's "new mens studies," and herb goldberg's "hazards of being male." I am hoping that they all learned something from the experience. I wish more professors were as open minded as her.
I really do like the idea of gender-studies (the objective study of men and women). I also think it can be liberating for men and women to see how gender roles and double standards have the potential to limit us all. However, there is just too much corruption. There is no mention of female power or female privilege. Only how men can also be victims of "patriachy." I hear that many "gender feminist" studies programs are really just "women's studies" programs in disguise that still use the patriachal paradigm.
MXY
May 12th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
MasculinistXY: "I really do like the idea of gender-studies (the objective study of men and women). I also think it can be liberating for men and women to see how gender roles and double standards have the potential to limit us all. However, there is just too much corruption. "
I am really waiting for a Title IX lawsuit against "Women's Studies" curricula for being so one-sided. If one were to start a Men's Studies department at a school without a Women's Studies already in place, there would be hell to pay.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
From personal experience it is no fun to teach students who are ideologically opposite. I recall teaching a class in Technology Management at University where the students were very liberal.
Weekly the women dishonored their ex-husbands or boyfriends, while the men dishonored their fathers (One male student wrote in a paper that his dad was "abusive" even thought the assignment did not call for it - it was as if he wanted to win points with me or something).
Though I remained quiet the semester, I was offended by the open hostility against men. No. I have no plans to sue the students.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I can't find this Venkatesan on ratemyprofessor.com, but there's a different one up there.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
FLASHBACK: In 90' Black Studies programs claimed that ancient Egyptians, who gave us writings, temples, sphinx, art, and more, were black. Most scholars and even today's Egyptians still disagree with Black scholars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_characteristics_of_ancient_Egyptians
As the saying goes "winners write history." If we wait long enough, then electricity and the automobile will have been invented by a woman, and Jesus and Moses were black women.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
AP, you should take that to YouTube, maybe in a rap style? Done to the Soulja Boy dance? Performed by the Robert Palmer Girls?
(I still like Helen Reddy, I still like the original song, and who can forget Helen Reddy as the hot hot hot singing nun of Airport 1975?)
May 12th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Gender studies, political correctness, and multiculturalism as implemented by liberal humanities departments spelled the downfall of the American university. Thank God I graduated college before all this crap really kicked in.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I unfortunately have had an arrogant college professor like this before. The arrogance was only matched by one other profession I have experienced in my life, and that is the family court judges.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
This is what us college students have to live with. Feminism has invaded every part of academia. Every class has to pander to the feminists at the college I go to, and many colleges have a policy where every class has to somehow include feminist ideas or it wont be allowed. This includes mathematics and physics courses which have nothing to do with social science and politics.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Ha, ha! I actually tried to look her up on ratemyprofessors.com, but she wasn't there (a different Priya Venkatesan was there, but not this one). Dissapointing. It would've been entertaining, to say the least.
Patrick Brown: "To be honest, after looking into the story a bit deeper, I think this woman is, or was, in the process of having some kind of mental breakdown when this incident happened."
I think you're right. I alluded to this fact in my original post in Part I of this story. Like I said there, it's inevitable. When you put so much stock, emotion, and determination into ideas that are so weak and intellectually fragile, how can you expect anything less than tremendous emotional distress after watching what you believe in get crushed before your eyes? Not that it warrants sympathy: such is the price that you get by choosing to put so much personal stock into such crappy ideologies.
Like Count Dracula said to Jonathan Harker: "Do not put your faith into such...trinkets of deceit."
May 12th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
When I went to college we thought of college as a forum of free thought and constant debate. Different perspectives and clashing opinions were VALUED, not persecuted like they are on, apparently, campuses like Dartmouth.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Duy:
Check this movie: http://www.indoctrinate-u.com/pages/welcome.html
May 12th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
No debate only speech codes to silence the opposition. If you are against feminism you will be silenced.
http://www.thefire.org/
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5826.html
May 12th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Jorge Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
No debate only speech codes to silence the opposition. If you are against feminism you will be silenced.
= = =
Not me brother!
b
bernies blogs
May 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Nathan: I would be very interested in how feminist ideas have affected physics courses, since I'm going to university later this year to study physics. It just doesn't seem like there's anything that they could really change, since physics is by and large about facts and theories, which are invariably the opposite of the social science that feminism would impose.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
“PV: I wanted to be in the capacity to reproduce the positive undergraduate experience that I had.”
Apparently those plans didn’t go too well-chalk up another failure for the feminist movement.
If her use of the English language is anything to go by she either got into the Writing Department through affirmative action or she really is in the midst of a serious breakdown. The problem of course, is that differentiating a sane feminist from an insane one is difficult at the best of times.
“PV-“I’m not a doctor, but she’s not all there.”
I think that sums it all up. Now I just feel sorry for her. Unlike most feminists this one isn’t bad- she’s just crazy.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
....shouldn't she have been fired??...its easier to fire a man i guess...women are still the victims and will sue !
May 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
"I would be very interested in how feminist ideas have affected physics courses, since I'm going to university later this year to study physics. It just doesn't seem like there's anything that they could really change, since physics is by and large about facts and theories, which are invariably the opposite of the social science that feminism would impose."
I thought I heard of a feminist who once claimed that sciences like physics or chemistry were sexist because they are TOO logical and intellectual (after all, logic and intellect are stereotypically male traits). According to such feminists, there is apparently too little room for stereotypically feminine constructs like emotion to enter the picture.
MXY
May 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Quantum mechanics is very feminine. We have particles that think they are waves, waves that think they are particles. We can never tell where anything is or how fast it is going. Everything is uncertain and almost everything ends up inside a black hole (purse) where it will never return. There is entangled relationships and spooky action at a distance. Throw most logic out the door, we're playing by the rules of probability here. Just when you think you have a particle pinned down, you look again at the particle can have escaped by tunneling.
And clearly the official pet is in fact, a cat.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Postmodernism disrobed by Richard Dawkins
excerpt...
You do not have to be a physicist to smell out the daffy absurdity of this kind of argument (the tone of it has become all too familiar), but it helps to have Sokal and Bricmont on hand to tell us the real reason why turbulent flow is a hard problem: the Navier-Stokes equations are difficult to solve.
* Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont
Is it any wonder feminist "statistics" are always so dodgy?
May 12th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Every emotion has equal and opposite reaction.
Pankaj's fifth law of feminist physics.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Jessy Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
For anyone interested, an interview with her can be found here:
http://dartlog.net/2008/04/tdr-interview-priya-venkatesan.php
Uh...interesting to say the least.
I'll say, did she seem a bit manic to anyone else? She constently repeats herself "they're bullies, bullies I tell you, just bullies, they're bullies, bullies, bullies, and did I mention that they're bullies?!"
May 13th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Patrick Brown wrote,
" I think this woman is, or was, in the process of having some kind of mental breakdown when this incident happened"
I suspect that the reason the main P.C. fem brigade did not come rushing to her assistance immediately, was because they were worried she might become "discredited" due to something like this (psychological issues) turning out to be the case. I think they just stalled and waited around for the first few days, waiting to see what would happen . (Probably not a bad tactic, in general. It also gives them some time to get their response together, in cases where one is needed).
Thus the feminists have dodged another bullet - she is easily written off as "some kind of nut" (not a "real" feminist).
May 13th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Alright, so I was wrong. Apparently, she has been raised in the USA. It is interesting that there are entire fields of 'education' that "challenge" science - provable, observable science. It seems the only jobs these people can find is teaching. She sure would like that firing squad to take care of anyone that bullies her.
Don't, know - but I did balk at challenging a very higher up in an academic institution for making a misandric comment. Something about men always trying to control things. He is a man, maybe he was talking about himself only.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Jay R,
I think it's true that most women who are attracted to feminism tend to be weak or unstable. For a lot of women, feminism is a psychological crutch for all their failings and inadequacies. It is easier to believe that all your failings in life are the result of societal sexism, than to admit that you made lousy choices or were just never good enough.
Many women have invested much of their lives and energy into this stuff, that it's too hard to now admit that it is all nonsense. It's kind of sad that these women have chosen to waste their lives pursuing a dumb ideology and fighting fictional enemies, instead of enjoying the advantages women have.
The problem with feminism is that it is based on creating a culture of permanent victimhood and grievance, rather than making women accept responsibility for their own wellbeing and creating a better social order. So they have to keep inventing more spurious grievances in order to explain why feminism has not delivered the promised utopia. This kind of politics ultimately leads to a dead-end.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:37 am
PK,
regarding the low quality of education, it often amuses me whenever someone says that higher public spending on education would generate vast benefits in terms of greater skills and economic growth.
So long as schools and colleges continue to teach so much crap, throwing more money at them will be counter-productive.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:14 am
--------I thought I heard of a feminist who once claimed that sciences like physics or chemistry were sexist because they are TOO logical and intellectual (after all, logic and intellect are stereotypically male traits)-------
Wow..what a problem our feminists find themselves in. The entire world and its progress is based on logic. All the scientific marvels are based on logic. What a sexist we find ourselves in. I would recommend these feminists to find a different and a "kinder" world and let us live in peace.
I would like to quote Camille Paglia, an equity feminist, who is very much hostile with main stream feminism. Her quote
"If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts"
"Patriarchy, routinely blamed for everything, produced the birth control pill, which did more to free contemporary women than feminism itself"
May 13th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
NickS says: "regarding the low quality of education, it often amuses me whenever someone says that higher public spending on education would generate vast benefits in terms of greater skills and economic growth.
So long as schools and colleges continue to teach so much crap, throwing more money at them will be counter-productive."
PK: Because of the RE bubble popping, there's less money now for property taxes and, therefore, public schools. So a teacher's union commercial tried to claim, get this, that teachers were what made the region's real estate values high and she was "sold" on education (pun) (meaning, increase real estate taxes to offset the fall in real estate values because of great educators keeping RE values high...) Does that make sense to you?
In the meantime, property owners (thank heavens I'm not one of them!) in the region are being squeezed by falling RE values, illegal immigration, and lousy roads and this witch asks for mo' money for her union buddies. The gall!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Grow up, professor. Students will disagree with your views. Get used to it.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Know how my mom became a full professor? Let's just say it wasn't through research and publications or grants. She sued and they settled.
"Every emotion has equal and opposite reaction."
Pankaj's fifth law of feminist physics.
Akhi - And only one emotion is acceptable (the one the woman has) and the other is illegal (or grounds to sue).
Danny Says: "The silence is deafening.
Now jerry there you go expecting a feminist to admit to being wrong. You have better odds of winning the lottery seven days in a row.
But the thing is with all those complaints if the school tried to fire her all of those "top feminst sites" jerry speaks of would be tripping over themselves to stand up for her as she does her part to "smash the patriarchy".
Akhi - Yup, The matriarchy can demand that the president of Harvard resign, but the patriarchy is so weak, it has no power to force a crackpot to resign?