<p>That interview was actually difficult to read. Painful.
I didn't even consider that she could be doing this due to a mental condition, but I think it is pretty clear..</p>
<p>her further response...</p>
<p>from Joe's Dartblog...</p>
<p>"Writes Priya Venkatesan to “Jodi Cohen, who is a Chicago Tribune
reporter/newswriter that [sic] covers higher education:”</p>
<p>Dear Jodi:
I emailed you earlier concerning my “miserable experience” as both Research Fellow and Lecturer at Dartmouth. I wanted to let you know that I am trying to pursue a legal claim against Dartmouth College, including the Medical School and Medical Center there.</p>
<p>I wanted to inform you of Dartblog and the link below consists of an interview I had with a Dartblog reporter. This interview, at the beginning, has a link to an article written by a member of the Dartmouth community, who I believe is associated with the Dartmouth Review (if you know what I mean). I think if you read this article you will get a sense of the hostile, nasty and anti-intellectual environment at Dartmouth, and the malevolent atmosphere I had to endure there.</p>
<p>In short, I would like to interview with you as soon as possible since I think this needs the attention of a credible news source that is respected on a national scale, such as the Tribune in the interests of justice and fairness. I am a member of the Chicago community (I am a Fellow at that great campus on Lake Michigan!), a community I believe respects the values of pluralism and diversity, and would not tolerate this deprecating, demeaning and obnoxious behavior as a result of the misguided ideals and attitudes of a bunch of arrogant brats and egotistical academics who are full of themselves. Please contact me at [redacted] at your earliest convenience.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your time.</p>
<p>Priya"</p>
<p>HILARIOUS! Worst. Prof. Ever.</p>
<p>The Dartmouth Independent weighs in with another interview and lots more details.</p>
<p>The</a> Dartmouth Independent: A Postmodernist in the Laboratory...and Courtroom?</p>
<p>warning - it is very, very long</p>
<p>"...Doing possibly the most damage to her credibility, though, is the on-again-off-again nature of the lawsuit. In addition to frequently changing her mind about who the subjects of the suit are, she issued a statement to The Dartmouth saying that she was withdrawing her claim, but then retracted this statement only hours later. Before she retracted her statement, I e-mailed her asking if she had anything to say to wrap up the case. She e-mailed me back soon after, informing me that she had changed her mind and was pursuing legal action after all. Nine minutes later, before I could even reply to this turn in events, she sent me another e-mail, the full text of which was, "Who are you?" Confused, given that I had been interacting with Venkatesan over the phone and e-mail for several days, I responded simply with an ellipsis ("..."), the online equivalent of a blank stare. A couple hours later, I received one of the most cryptic, confusing e-mails that I have ever gotten, where she accused me of helping her case against Dartmouth and "reporting" (with the quotation marks). I later learned that she was apparently reacting to an off-handed remark I made about the Review's unfavorable coverage of her. I still am at a loss for why she reacted the way she did to a tongue-in-cheek comment that was unquestionably harmless, even though I would not repeat it if I had the luxury of going back in time armed with the knowledge I now have. The final line of the e-mail, which is the last thing I have heard from her, seems to encapsulate her entire story in a nutshell: there might be a point in there somewhere, but she isn't doing any favors to anyone trying to figure out what it is. Here it is:</p>
<p>You have helped my case tremendously. Now let's hope the Attorney General doesn't come after Dartmouth, but lest we forget, they are appointed by Bush, so you may have an ally in corruption. The sorry state of our world:-( Cheers, Priya"</p>
<p>Her bio in Dartmouth Medicine</p>
<p>Dartmouth</a> Medicine Magazine :: Priya Venkatesan, Ph.D.</p>
<p>"Priya Venkatesan, Ph.D.
After obtaining a BA from Dartmouth College, I have an MS in Genetics from UC Davis and a PhD in Literature from UC San Diego. My first book, Molecular Biology in Narrative Form, was just released. My current position is as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, which will form the basis of my latest manuscript, A Postmodernist in the Laboratory."</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but have to agree with those questioning how someone who writes like this gets a gig teaching writing at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>From the Dartmouth Independent:</p>
<p>"The students did eventually get the option to take the course for "credit" (meaning the grade Venkatesan assigned would not appear on their transcript), an extremely unusual occurrence at the College.</p>
<p>They were granted a review of their final grades because the college made the rare judgment that the grades were arrived at in an unfair manner."</p>
<p>I'm sure Northwestern is just loving this.</p>
<p>presumably now that she is at one of the best research (emphasize research) universities in the country, she doesn't teach much.</p>
<p>ahah.</p>
<p>also, don't know if people are aware, but dartlog and dartblog are two different blogs and are both worth reading if you're interested in the dartmouth community and the politics of the Board-packing lawsuit, etc... sometimes people don't realize they're different, but dartlog is run by the Dartmouth Review and dartblog was started by an '08 and writing duties are now shared between him and several underclassmen, so they can continue it after he graduates.</p>
<p>Pretty much the same bent though.</p>
<p>fair enough, but in the interest of actually making arguments, they are different sources.</p>
<p>This is sad. The "tt" in Gattaca as a coded reference by the student and administrator to the fact that the professor was not "tenure track" is about as paranoid in its thinking as can be found in print.
I wish this individual well, with help for now and happier days to come.</p>
<p>Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have the next John Nash! (minus the credentials, of course)</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is sad. The "tt" in Gattaca as a coded reference by the student and administrator to the fact that the professor was not "tenure track" is about as paranoid in its thinking as can be found in print.
I wish this individual well, with help for now and happier days to come.
[/quote]
What kind of student ask this kind of question when the head of the department was there?
I mean, this isn't first grade. I seriously hope you do not go and ask your English teacher how to spell.</p>
<p>If it's an unfamiliar movie it's a perfectly reasonable question. This isn't asking "how do I spell 'watermelon'?" or even "how do I spell 'onoematopoeia'?" (probably spelled that wrong). Proper nouns are fair game for spelling questions, if you ask me.</p>
<p>middsmith...
This is PV's version of what happened. Who the heck knows what the real exchange was?</p>
<p>Well, Gattaca is the name of a hit movie for god sake. Anyway, I'm not sure if she made this up, but I'm just surprised that a lot of people think it's ok for any student to ask her professor how to spell silly thing like Gattaca in front of the department head. The class ended with B average and Dartmouth let everyone retake again because the grade was too low? Umm... grade inflation?</p>
<p>Hit movie or no, it's definitely not a word that everyone can spell. And it doesn't matter if there's grade inflation or not. These students were graded unfairly and were put at a disadvantage compared to their peers in the other writing classes. The school did not "let everyone retake"; it gave the students a pass/fail option if they feel they weren't graded fairly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Anyway, I'm not sure if she made this up, but I'm just surprised that a lot of people think it's ok for any student to ask her professor how to spell silly thing like Gattaca in front of the department head.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>In communist Russia, Gattaca spells YOU.</p>
<p>Nobody suggested a B average was too low. But, some individuals might not have been graded fairly if the teacher hated them so much they named them in a lawsuit. I think this was an appropriate way to respond.</p>
<p>From Rago in the WSJ</p>
<p>"Often it seems as though American higher education exists only to provide gag material for the outside world. The latest spectacle is an Ivy League professor threatening to sue her students because, she claims, their "anti-intellectualism" violated her civil rights."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>"The trauma was so intense that in March Ms. Venkatesan quit Dartmouth and decamped for Northwestern. She declined to comment for this piece, pointing instead to the multiple interviews she conducted with the campus press."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>"After a winter of discontent, the snapping point came while Ms. Venkatesan was lecturing on "ecofeminism," which holds, in part, that scientific advancements benefit the patriarchy but leave women out. One student took issue, and reasonably so – actually, empirically so. But "these weren't thoughtful statements," Ms. Venkatesan protests. "They were irrational." The class thought otherwise. Following what she calls the student's "diatribe," several of his classmates applauded."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>"Such conduct is hardly representative of the professoriate at Dartmouth, my alma mater. Faculty members tend to be professional. They also tend to be sane."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>"Where the standards are always minimum, most kids simply float along with the academic drafts, avoid as much work as possible and accept the inflated grade. Why not? It's effortless, and there are better ways to spend time than thinking deeply about ecofeminism.</p>
<p>The remarkable thing about the Venkatesan affair, to me, is that her students cared enough to argue. Normally they would express their boredom with the material by answering emails on their laptops or falling asleep. But here they staged a rebellion, a French Counter-Revolution against Professor Defarge. Maybe, despite the professor's best efforts, there's life in American colleges yet."</p>
<p>I wrote a paper on Gattaca for TOK.....Oh, anyways, I think Dartmouth needed the comedic relief.</p>