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Galveston, oh Galveston…

… you’ve produced a species of cheap irony:  A management professor who cannot manage his management class.

 

Whatever the back story, UD would argue that a professor who sends his students a long rant denouncing them and puffing himself up, and who announces in the same email that he’s failing every last one of them and deserting the class (he seems to have handed it off to someone else on the faculty) is un p’tit peu out of control. Texas A&M Galveston has a strategic management problem on its hands.

Sure, some professors occasionally walk out of their classes in the middle of a lecture or discussion. Scott Jaschik reviews a few such cases here. In these examples, however, it’s about something very specific — students texting, or watching films on their laptops. In the Galveston case, the professor’s email (assuming the paper covering the story has published the correct email) shades off into the paranoid, with talk of whisper campaigns against him and his wife, and of needing police protection to teach the class.

UD doesn’t doubt that this guy’s got some shitskies in his class. You’re not supposed to deal with them by going nuclear.

Margaret Soltan, April 25, 2015 5:51AM
Posted in: professors

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5 Responses to “Galveston, oh Galveston…”

  1. Dom Says:

    This sounds less like an educational issue and more like an incipient mental condition. Here’s more of the email:

    […] been a professor in university settings for over 20 years now. I have been taught managerial strategy by Michael Porter himself at Harvard many years ago, and have taught the course and published in tangential areas for my entire career. I have […] class at many academic institutions, undergrad, graduate, nationally and internationally. This includes addressing the entire body of students and faculty at Annapolis’ Foreign Affairs Conference on C3I(?) research, the University of Maryland (where I […] Navy maritime undergraduate students from the 7th Fleet in Yokohama Naval Base in this exact course in Business Strategy), University of Minnesora, University of Texas School of Public Health, Baylor College of Medicine, the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. Additionally, I served an Executive Directorship and Interim Chair of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas to assist them successfully attain AACSB accreditation—which institution that was (and is) run by an ex-General […] the West Point Honor Code was used, and is the same as your own, so it is a code of honor that I am intamitely familiar. All that said, until now, I have never in my capacity as an academic ever encountered a class as completely disgraceful and disrespectful as this. Not even close.

    Briefly, but not a complete set of examples, since teaching this course, I have seen cheating, been told by students to “chill out,” “get out of my space,” “go back and teach,” refuse to leave the room after being told to do so following inappropriate conduct, called a “f*****g moron” several times by a student to my face, had gone through numerous student hearings, had to change exams because students were using the testing center to take photos of make-up exams and share with tgheir friends, have had students frequently cheat by signing in for another; students not showing up but claiming they did, listened to many hurtful and untrue rumors about myself, my wife and other colleages in MARA, been caught between fights between students and student groups, felt the need to have police protection in our class and another following it, had grades given with the most careful of analysis first attempted to be rebuked to Dr. Mileski, and when turned down, to Dr. Louchouarn.

    […] of you were very proud to flash those new Aggie rings upon reaching the graduation stage. However, Texas A&M holds students to a very high Honor Code. It is the very backbone and represents the principles that bond Aggies for a lifetime and […] so special. Unfortunately, I have seen no such “honor” in my class. Just the opposite. Backstabbing, game playing, cheating, lying, fighting. In my 20 years of teaching I have never seen nor taught a class with less honor that this. This class is an embarrassment in general, and fully out of line with the Honor Code purported by Texas A&M. The work in the class has been sub-par, and students set to graduate cannot even demonstrate the competence of being able to figure out how many apples […] […]ed to break-even from a driveway operation. I have given a surprise quiz in class, and no one passed, not one, due to a lack of study. When asked, it is clear that no one has read the assigned readings as required. The stress from this class has […] my back injury to the point of needing to begin regular therapy again.

    […] of you, in my opinion, given the behavior of this class deserve to pass, or graduate to become an “Aggie” as you do not in any way embody the honor that the University holds graduates should have within their personal character. It is thus for these […] am officially walking away from this course. I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass […] a grade level. I am still receiving emails for me to allocate my time to “help” as there are many who have realized that with a week left they may not receive a passing grade an class merit. Therefore, I refuse to take any more abuse from this class […]soever. It is my professional opinion based on experience that there is no one in this course that deserves to pass. This is most unfortunate becuase I prided my entire career in seeing how my students went on to succeed, and help them along the […] legacy as a teacher—far beyong any publications or academic honors that to me were always secondary to my students.

    […] above reasons I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade. I’m sure many of you will line up to appeal, and claim the above “unjust” “unfair” and the other such terms in your victim lexicons, just as you did when […] grades you do not like (“didn’t deserve.”) And from what I’ve seen, the school pays but lip service to their honor code, so it’s likely many of you will attempt such appeals. I don’t care as I am completely removing myself from the circuit that you all […] made for yourselves. It is beyond my imagination that any single one of you can look back at this class and take pride in your work—it’s all about the instrumentality of receiving your degree not the intrinsic meaning of it as a real measure of […] accomplishment, but to that end, I refuse to play a part. This is a complete disgrace to your school, the A&M Honor Code, those honorably holding A&M degrees, to your families who supported you, and ultimately to yourselves.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Dom: Yes.

  3. Jack/OH Says:

    I defer to profs and teachers on this. But, I somehow feel for the guy.

  4. Steve Lucas Says:

    This takes me back to my undergraduate and graduate programs in business.

    In an undergraduate stat class we were all having problems understanding the instructor. He would later in the year be arrested for getting into a fist fight at his son’s high school basketball game.

    I questioned my instructors teaching style, having the students do all the work, in my first graduate class. The instructor marked me down as payback. Later he would admit he was not prepared to teach at this level despite having a sterling resume. This was also his first job after a business failure.

    The ultimate was a graduate level marketing class taught by a go, go guy whose job hopping and performance promises had caught up with him. He was a drunk who was failing at his job and marriage. He did not show for class and when he did the material was wrong. I had had a number of marketing classes as an undergraduate and this stuff was not even close. Ultimately we were graded by a fellow classmate who I did not get along with and the Dean’s only comment was I had a problem.

    Dean’s are not quick to look at instructors since they are “their guys.”

    Steve Lucas

  5. david foster Says:

    I wonder how much support the guy was getting from the Administration if he needed to remove troublemakers or blatant cheaters. My guess would be, not much.

    Nonetheless, obviously no excuse for the way he handled it. More proof, if more was needed, that understanding “management” at a theoretical level does not automatically make someone an effective manager in practice.

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