I received a text from the girl who was given a highly inappropriate essay question on her final exam. No one else in the class, to the best of her knowledge, was given the same question, and all other students received exams identical to one another. The professor of our Psychopathology class left the class to be proctored by a teaching assistant and walked with the girl to the appropriate dean's office so as not to lose valuable time. (I assume the student got out of taking the final exam, which was probably appropriate, as she was likely not in any mental state to perform at her optimal level on any test at that point.)
What the professor is alleged to have done is, in addition to an obvious violation of university sexual harassment policy, is apparently a violation of both Title IX and Title VII. I don't really know anything about Title VII (I'll have to look it up) but Title IX is the initial piece of legislation that banned, among other things, sexual harassment in educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance. (The wording is, I believe, "No person in the U. S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.") Since then, numerous school and workplace statutes have been enacted, further prohibiting sexual harassment. In educational settings, I believe the laws apply beginning in fourth grade.
The dean immediately contacted the school's attorney who handles sexual harassment cases. She was told she had the authority to confiscate all exams from any and all sections of the professor's course in question without seeking a warrant because they were not the property of the professor but of the university. She was told to, before going to the professor's office, obtain a class list of all students enrolled in the particular student's section of the course. She was told to check the stack of finals to ensure that the exam of the student in question was not being withheld. If it was not included, security was to remove the professor from his office, lock the door, and not allow him to remove anything, including a briefcase or container of any sort,other than his own body. She was to ask for all exams from all sections of the course that had been given up to this point, in addition to blank copies of future exams that were to be distributed later. If she failed to gain access to that for which she asked, she was then to contact the both the county sheriff, who was already on alert, and the university attorney, who was already in the process of typing a warrant for search of the professor's office, home, and car (home and car might very well be denied, but it wouldn't hurt to try). If the professor was not in his office, she was to have security block access to the door until a warrant could be obtained. Even though the office is university property, an erratic judge could rule that an illegal search had taken place, and even though it would probably be overturned on appeal, it wasn't worth the argument when just waiting a few minutes for a warrant would take care of the problem. It would be the best practice in the long run to err on the side of caution.
It ended up not being necessary. The final exam of the student in question was open on the professor's desk. The chief of security reached for it as the professor did likewise, it was torn at the staples, but the chief of security was successful in securing the student's complete final exam as well as the stack of all finals from the course. The professor would not produce the finals from another section of the course that had yet to be given, but they were found when the warrant was obtained and the search took place.
The student learned all this after the fact. From this point on, the matter will likely be handled confidentially, although the student has the right to know how the issue is resolved, and if the university itself doesn't wish to be sued by the student in question, it will keep her apprised to the maximum extent allowed by law. She hasn't yet learned for sure that no other exams confiscated contained the same essay question as hers, but even if it were in a few others, and all belonged to females, the charge would still stand. The professor is, in addition to being a sexual deviant, an idiot.
Because she's not working much, I'm going to ask (because the student has asked me to do so) my pseudo-aunt to represent the student's interests as representation is necessary in the early stages. All that would be necessary now would be firing off a few letters to ensure that the university discloses everything it is legally allowed to disclose to the girl. Additionally, a motion should possibly be filed to gain access to the horny professor's personnel file to determine if a pattern existed of which the university was aware. Beyond that, if it becomes full-blown litigation, the student will want to turn the case over to a Gloria Allred-type.
My pseudo-aunt has been ill and is going on a brief vacation starting tomorrow afternoon and will be gone until the weekend. I took the liberty of typing out an initial letter for her to look over, make necessary changes as she sees fit if she's up to it, and fax to the university administration. I wouldn't even ask her to involve herself in this except that she totally gets off on this sort of thing. It's right up her alley. The student has given me permission to involve my pseudo-aunt and to give my pseudo-aunt her cell number. My pseudo-aunt won't send a letter without talking to the student personally.
If there's no history of this sort of behavior with the professor that the university has ignored or covered up, the student will be satisfied with appropriate discipline of the professor, which would ideally be termination or transfer to another campus with both formal warning and/or censure to the professor and proper notification to the administration of the professor's new campus.
Tomorrow I study all day for my monster class. On Wednesday I take my first final early and my second final late in the morning. Then I am blessedly finished with everything academic, except to the extent that one considers peering into a microscope academic. If the truth is to be told, I'll probably do a whole lot more delivering slides from one office to another and mixing the right additives into various workers' coffee than peering into any microscopes. At some point between July and mid-August, I'll become such an expert at preparing all the various coffees, espressos, lattes, and whatever else there are that I'll be qualified to work at Starbucks before the summer is over. My new name will be "Alexis, the Latte Girl."
Wow... that professor really is an idiot!
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