Prof threatens lawsuit against her students

TheDartmouth.com ^ | 04/28/2008 | Allyson Bennett

[MrLegalReform]

Priya Venkatesan ‘90, a former Writing 5 lecturer and research associate at Dartmouth Medical School, is threatening to name seven of her former students in a potential civil rights lawsuit against the College, DMS and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Venkatesan announced Friday. Venkatesan also plans to write an autobiographical book that will include details of her experience at Dartmouth and name the seven students in question, all of whom were members of her Winter term Writing 5 class in 2008, she said.

[Ron Jeremy]

heh.. her students must have gotten together and decided to rate her hot as a joke.

[spunkets]

"— a shithole is just a shithole, and that’s not illegal, and I know that,” she said."

Ah, but it's illegal in WI miss Venkatesan. Don't you love the planet miss Venkatesan? Oh, I see your hotness rating is zero, so you're doing your part to cut global warming and you do love the planet!

"Venkatesan took a position at a large research university on April 14. She said she was uncomfortable naming the institution."

Don't be shy miss Venkatesan, Pasadena City College is a nice community college.

[Billthedrill]

Vakatesan respected the student’s right to express this opinion, she 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.”

A train of "logic" only a pomo could love. Disagreement is intolerance. Intolerance bad.

This being Dartmouth, however, one of her defendants is going to be able to afford an attorney and a counter-suit. If this ever sees court I'd be amazed.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Didn't I see this guy playing OF and batting third for the Tigers organization, down at the AA level...? ;)

[RJS1950]

That attitude seems to run in English profs. Mine thought Faulkner was the greatest author ever (her dissertation was on Faulkner).

When she asked why I thought Faulkner wrote a particular novel during a specified time period my reply was that he wrote it for money, like many authors of that period, to buy his next bottle of booze.

You would have thought that I had thrust a knife into her.

I went on to say that Faulkner was a highly overrated perennial drunk who cranked out cheap dime novel trash during his few periods of semi-sobriety. Class for that day ended pretty abruptly.

[JRandomFreeper]

If I take off my glasses and squint, she still looks ugly. I'll do the beer test and determine how many beers it takes to make her look good while not wearing my glasses and squinting.

Can I borrow $200 for beer? Better make it $300.

/johnny

[happinesswithoutpeace]

lol, ya I fought it through to the bitter end. I kept expecting there would some juicy details in there somewhere. This article however, did not deliver.

Also, this prof is writing a book about all this? Weirdo.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Can I borrow $200 for beer? Better make it $300.

Better just cut directly to the chase, and spend the $300 on black tar heroin. She looks like Ned Beatty in a pageboy. ;)

[AnAmericanMother]

Now, now, you were just pulling the prof's chain.

Faulkner is not the Second Coming of William Shakespeare, but he wrote some pretty good stuff.

He also wrote some junk, but most writers do.

[Kimmers]

You proved my point......

My sons complaint in college is having a professor from another country and they cannot understand them because of the accent, this may be part of the problem with her.....

[longtermmemmory]

Such student rebellions to incompetent professors are not that uncommon.

you are right, they paid money for an education and she mistook her position as professor as instant validation of her views.

[MooseMan]

anti-intellectualism??

There's not enough paper for my lawsuit.

[Nailbiter]

WTF
Nutty professor
ping

[E. Cartman]

Didn't I see this guy playing OF and batting third for the Tigers organization, down at the AA level...? ;)

I think that's Madeline Albright's daughter. With a few wrinkles and mom's five o'clock shadow, you couldn't miss the resemblance.

[dead]

As I said earlier, clearly they are both guilty.

The real guilty chick is guiltier than the mistaken-identity guilty chick, though she is clearly guilty of some lesser offense.

[Jaded]

mark

[ConservaTexan]

...all of whom were members of her Winter term Writing 5 class in 2008, she said.

She is suing for “inappropriate and unprofessional” behavior that hasn't happened yet??? Doesn't the winter term begin in September?

[allmendream]

“The student went on a “diatribe” about the inappropriate nature of challenging patriarchal authority, Venkatesan said.”

Yeah, I am SURE that is what the student said, and what the other students applauded. Oh those young Dartmouth students, so entrenched in their obeisance to patriarchal authority. What a laugh.

Post-modernism is such a joke.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

The headline doesn’t match up with the first few lines of the story. This woman wasn’t a professor; she was a lecturer. I wonder why she is only a lecturer 18 years after graduation? Or am I nominating myself for the Captain Obvious Award for 2008?

[denydenydeny]

The student went on a “diatribe” about the inappropriate nature of challenging patriarchal authority, Venkatesan said.

LOL! I'm sure he said it exactly like that. "How dare you challenge patriarchal authority!" Cause that happens all the time at Dartmouth, which is known as a bastion of patriarchy. *eyeroll*