<![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Amazing. She has a PhD in English, yet keeps revising her revised emails in order to revise how much she hates them.

AdjunctingSucks

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Great way to punish your students: cancel a class they clearly all hate. Way to stick it to 'em!

friendlynerd

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Why can't college professors today be like the ones in my day? Back in the 70s, they were too busy getting high with students and sleeping with TAs to worry about discrimination suits.

Sir Winston Thriller

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> This woman teaches a writing class? I think the students should sue Dartmouth for forcing them to attend a class taught by a dumb ass.

And if they are successful I'll sue the college I attended... "whom shall go unmentioned."

cyberpersephone

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Oh please have this woman teach at a school in south central L.A./Sherman Oaks.

Priya and Margaret Seltzer need to meet and start a new religion.

Benovite

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Genetics?! Literature?! I totes had her pegged as one of those Wymen's Studies types!

powerblonde

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I want to go take classes at Dartmouth just so I can piss this woman off.

Seriously. Whom does she think she is?

loquaciousmusic

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Title VII prohibits discrimination by an employer against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Says nothing about academic viewpoints.

mossdale

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @SidAndFinancy: Priya Venkatesan's impaired knowledge of legal procedure is matched only by her impaired knowledge of English grammar. I particularly enjoy the parts where she:

(a) indicates that is suing first and exploring litigation later (or, as she puts it,. "pursuing litigation to see if I have a legal claim")
(b) consistently refers to herself in the third-person, a la Bob Dole
(c) firmly dissuades the students from responding to her email(s), lest their angry drunken-rants inadvertently bolster her case

Also? It doesn't take a professor (or, for that matter, a lawsuit) to figure out that Dartmouth mostly attracts self-aggrandizing elitists, with a propensity for cirrhosis--er, intolerance.

The Wintour of Our Discontent

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @backseat_driver10023: By which you mean your parents pay tuition so you can get bullied by these assholes.

KristaJulieva

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Whoo. If you're gonna be crazy, don't be mealy-mouthed, whiny crazy. Be batshit crazy. At least people will fear you.

Twerpsichore

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I have often wondered why those in higher education insist on giving teaching positions to researchers and academics who have little experience in a classroom. For the amount of money that undergrads pay these days, you would expect a certain level of expertise in teaching.

It sounds like she lost control of her classroom and had little guidance or oversight from her higher-ups. I fail to see how this could be harassment in any sense of the word, since she theoretically controlled the classroom and had all the power in this situation, including control over grades. I think the administration failed both her and the students, in this case.

SlickaNicka

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Fuck, I hate professors!!! You pay tuition so you can get bullied by these assholes.

backseat_driver10023

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Inner city public school teachers put up with a lot worse abuse every day.

Teaching isn't easy.

slimceagirl

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> You mean to tell me her only response to that student's patriarchal diatribe was run crying to a lawyer? It is shame that a Dartmouth professor was outmatched by a wet behind the ears college punk. Combining her knowledge and her life's experiences she couldn't come up with a logical, rational retort? She's teaching the class and she can't even defend her own teachings? Absurd!!

Nothing comes out of my mouth that I cannot or will not defend. C'mon, by the time I cleaned that student's clock with a diatribe of my own, the class would be hiring their own lawyer--likely to file an injunction to get me to shut up.

Lambasted

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I've taught some 9th graders who would have sent this gal to a psych ward before she made it through the syllabus. They would also have recognized numerous flaws in her attempts at legal analysis. Perhaps she should go to law school--or 9th grade--next?? She could learn a lot in either place.

Wildcat

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> "Please do not respond to this email because it will be potentially used against you in a court of law."

Someone has been watching too much Law & Order.
I just love it when lay people try to play lawyer and mix up civil and criminal terms.

Wait, no, I don't. I actually fucking hate it.

BowlingAlleyLawyer

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I am going to sue my 8th graders for every time they were mean to me! Hot damn, am I going to make some money!

Well, if I'm suing my 8th graders, what I would wind up with is a stack of PSPs/DSs, fluorescent Nikes, North Face coats, cell phones nicer than mine, and school lunch money for the rest of my career...

paxetaurora

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> It sounds like she should be in a loony bin instead of a school.

Yes, those kids were rude and cruel and totally unprofessional. But to bring a lawsuit into the mess is ridiculous.

Pussy Galore

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @blanlo: So sad for you, I guess.

Rooo sez BISH PLZ

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @thelushie: No. She got her "panties in a bunch", as you so eloquently put it, because she was having trouble dealing with a smarmy student with an entitlement complex the size of Alaska who was also an impolite jerk.

Why, however, she didn't just fail him -- because I have a sneaking suspicion his other "academic contributions" would not have precluded the action -- instead of email him he was being sued (assuming he's a named defendant) I will never know.

Rooo sez BISH PLZ

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She looks like she'll make a nice squaw when I got trapping beaver up into the Northern Territory.

[www.google.com]

finwar

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Raxl: Well, multivocality would mean that it IS the student's responsibility to learn as well as the instructor's responsibility to teach, no?

minou

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @vulturesquadron @NinaHagen: lionel hutz can't hear you. he's dead. *sniff*

nedzo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Ummmm.... she's not the only Prof suing students... This guy is a Law Prof... at least his claim is a bit more legit.. Oh and Priya gets a shout out!

[abovethelaw.com]

badesq-biatch

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @1000 Tony Romo DJs: I should let you in on this fact: some of us working in those areas have heard this news. It's not a lot of money, and most of what we do is totally irrelevant, but I've got job security and summers off.(OK, every now and then you get the odd, rewarding teaching experience, but mostly -- meh.)

In other words, you're preaching to the converted. I don't think it's shocking to most younger academics -- junior faculty, to be precise -- that we're on a sinking ship. A lot of folks outside academia like to talk about how irrelevant theory is like it's some kind of revelation. It's not.

Plus, without us, where would the young journos get their half-baked ideas?

minou

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @BalknChain: If you have any Vicodin, I think we can settle this one out of court. ;-)

GeorgeBabbitt

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I've taught enough college courses to say:

1) Every once in a while you get a class with an overabundance of assholes. It happens to everybody.

2) If the students as a group are antagonistic toward the instructor, the odds are that the instructor is being disrespectful with them from the get go.

3) Instructors who teach from a postmodernist perspective must be able to practice what they preach in the classroom. Because multivocality means everybody gets to be heard.

4) It makes me stabby when instructors blame students for being resistant or for not "getting it." Whose job is that, anyway?

Wonda Land

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Nic Fit:

Can I be the Class Representative?

As Pareene said, no winners here.

Seeräuber Jenny

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I think with the anti-federal discrimination lawsuit and the federal anti-discrimination lawsuit referenced in the second email, she's got all of her bases covered. The only thing lingering in my mind is how someone who can't spell "harassment" managed a PhD in literature at Dartmouth. I should have gone for my doctorate!

louisev

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @skahammer: I'm sure some savvy NY litagator could make a federal question out of this, say after Venkatesan has become the subject of a conservatorship, and said litgator decides to attempt to remove the action to federal court on the basis of a civil rights violation. Oh, but that only works when the person in question is young, loaded and off her rocker. And one out of three don't cut it.

MaelstromInTheMiddle

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Anti-federal discrimination? She'll show those damn Federalists!

frobisher

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She got her Bachelor's from that bastion of feudalism and Anglo ethnic supremacy, but failed to notice that you get what you pay for?

Analyze the "expression" of this in the laboratory, Dr. Venkatesan: Dartmouth students collect at Dartmouth for the sole calculated purpose of having their worldview reinforced. Their reinforcement seeking parents pay an assload of money for the pleasure of that vaccuum of Educational Value by Legacy.

That's not "harassment". It's not pointed "discrimination" intending to freeze you out of a job. It's Calvinism on Crack and it's been around for free and purchase for a very, very long time.

Mean_Ol_Liberal

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @blanlo: Tell me more about this "class" you speak of.

rosaluxembourgeoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Wait 'til she reads this thread, I'm seeing a big lawsuit against Gawker coming.

Fishman

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I don't think ugly is a protected class.

blanlo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Water4thePool: Stay classy in your next life!

@1000 Tony Romo DJs: The problem I have with this situation is the response she made to this. A situation like that is the best springboard into a discussion I could imagine. I don't know what was actually discussed there, and if the student was actually defending the acts themselves, or defending the idiots from that time period's rights to be idiots and burn people to feel safe (I mean, four hundred years from now how will they look at us). Instead of starting a discusstion about this though, she takes a week off. Now I'm sure she didn't hang around the pool with Mai Tais, and may have actually been distraught. So fucking what? The student's aren't paying tuition to your employer so you can skip out on class for a week and "center yourself" or something equally New Age. Simply put; she failed as a teacher and is going on the offensive to hide her shame.

valarmorghulis

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> >>if the school backed the student's "right" to raucuously defend severely outdated (by, like 400 years) ideas of gender roles>>

But, that is the student's right. I thought the academy was about freedom of expression? including freedom to play devil's advocate for completely outdated and ridiculous ideas for purposes of being a jerk, which is what I suspect the student was doing.

1000 Tony Romo DJs

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @EvidenceOfAbsence: You clearly have zero idea what you are talking about. Upset they didn't accept you much? kthxbye.

sell_out

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> So has anyone told her that a "class action" is going to when the students, as a group (key to class action here), counter-sue for liable and legal fees?

sell_out

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> this is reminiscent of the lawsuit filed by miss othmar against charlie brown, lucy and linus van pelt, schroeder and peppermint patty, in response to those students' complaints that they couldn't understand a damn thing she was saying.

intothelight

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Perhaps if she was not fat this would not be a problem.

Water4thePool

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @redheadedstepchild:

It's the fact that she gave up her career in biomedical sciences for a Ph.D. in literature that is the biggest crazy flag.

LadybirdRamone

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Poor thing Maybe she'll fare better in the fast food industry. But then again, the customer is always right.

Jaynine

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Greek McPapadopoulos: Yeah. Ten years ago, when a friend of mine was applying to college, she volunteered for Dartmouth's optional alumni interview...

...which consisted of a white guy repeatedly warning her that she "might not fit in" at Dartmouth, and asking if she was going to be okay with "not fitting in," and what she was going to do about "not fitting in."

My friend happened to have dark skin. And now she happens to have a bachelors from a different ivy. (And a PhD, even. Showoff. )

EvidenceOfAbsence

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> So, under this precedent, I can legally sue anyone who beeps their car horn at me when I linger too long at a green light, and, I can sue anyone who steals my parking spot at the Fairway back into the Stone Age.

sassypants

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @izzodee544: Forget partisanship, I'm going to sue all politicians.

ogman

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Weak! She should (1) seek counseling, and (2) never be allowed to teach again.

ogman

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Randall Tex Cobb: I was thinking exactly that. Graduate degrees in totally non related subjects? Somethings up.

redheadedstepchild

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Okay, for all the "sueing because their mean" comments, few are noticing that the problem was that a student was applauded for defending witch hunts and a defending the 17th century's position on gender equality? I'm sorry, but that is WAY screwed up and I can see how she felt that was a hostile environment. I don't really think suing the students is the answer, but if the school backed the student's "right" to raucuously defend severely outdated (by, like 400 years) ideas of gender roles, she's sure have a valid complaint with the school. That's an environment that is failing ALL students.

BStu

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @EvidenceOfAbsence: As an alum, I'd like to refute that.

But then I read something about one of the incidents, like "The student went on a "diatribe" about the inappropriate nature of challenging patriarchal authority", I just have to hang my head and say "That's So Dartmouth".

Greek McPapadopoulos

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I am suing you for reading this comment and judging it not funny.

Please respond to my future emails (subject will be "Canadian Pharmacy is Cheaper!") so I may capture your email.

Have a nice day.

finwar

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Fred_istare: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. I agree.

Lawk Salih

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If I had been sued by every teacher I ever disagreed with I'd be broke...oh wait, I am broke.

Bitch.

T. L. Morgendorffer

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @skahammer: Yes ska.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> What an astounding mis-read of academia and the tort system, all wrapped into a walking advertisement for self-loathing. Nice hire, Dartmouth.

cyranew

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Unfun: Don't forget the recommendations every prof. needs to get another job.

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Wait, you can sue entire groups of people for being self-satisfied, smug, and obnoxious?

Attention most of Park Slope: You will so be hearing from my lawyer.

Also: Fuck Dartmouth. It's basically the ivy for creepy racists.

EvidenceOfAbsence

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @contradicto: Please don't try to analyze this legally. Your head might explode.

Unfun

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Ugh. Nearly anything related to Post-Modernism makes me more than slightly queasy. Why doesn't it surprise me that she's so litigation happy?

Also, isn't educated discourse supposed to be what college is all about? Maybe I'm wrong because I'm merely attending the University of Florida. While we certainly aren't an Ivy League school (oh how I pray everyday that we were. DAMN YOU ATHLETICS!), we also don't have teachers suing students who have the GALL to disagree with them. Of all the nerve!

SonOfMagicFact

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @NinaHagen: How about $50 and her last remaining shred of dignity?

Unfun

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> How does someone as seemingly clueless as this get so far in their academic career to begin with?

telophaser

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If she can't handle it, got no business being in a classroom. How shitty do you have to be to get rolled by a bunch of Dartmouth students?

swashbuckled

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Unfun: I think she'll drop the case for....one million dollars!

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> The feeling that I am getting from the outside world is that Dartmouth is considered a bigoted place...

So she didn't feel this to be the case her during her FOUR YEARS as an undergrad, I take it. I do hope there's a special room for her in hell, maybe in the same cell block as the one for those who falsely report sex crimes, and perpetrators of similar mockeries of laws created to protect parties against whom real offenses have been committed.

TerseNursePornstein

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @belltolls: District Court? Because harassment is usually a federal question, is that it?

skahammer

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> "I am pursuing litigation to see if I have a legal claim..." See, usually you need a legal claim BEFORE you litigate. She's changing the face of our legal system as we know it with this suit!

Also, if you are pursuing a case against someone you might not want to alert them to that fact before you are legally required to do so. Just a little strategizing there.

That will be $2000. Please remit.

Unfun

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'll see your crazy and raise you. According to one of the Dartmouth blogs: "One manner of incidents involved Dr. Cormen sitting in on Professor Venkatesan's courses, during which time he allegedly repeatedly interrupted the class and would walk out of the class without acknowledgement or any sort of thanks. According to Venkatesan, Cormen was "consistently rude in that way.""

PomPom

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Sarcastro: Well said! This is the Most. Ricidulous. Thing. Ever.

foolinthepool

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @MaelstromInTheMiddle:

perhaps she's stalling until her sharks with frickin' laser-beams on their heads show up

EuroDad

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @MaelstromInTheMiddle: My guess is she was hoping for an "I'm sorry" from the students. The emails will look great attached to the Defendants Motion for Summary Judgement filed in a district court if this ever comes to pass.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She let undergraduates from her own alma mater make her so upset? Gee, she doesn't look so thin-skinned in her picture.

felion

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.

I completely agree. I thought the age of theory was soon to be over.. but when I quit the academy myself I was noticing unfortunate trend of "discovering" new fields of inquiry which were just.. taking the old critical methods and finding a new target. things like "fat studies." not that such an investigation might not pick up on some details in texts that were kind of overlooked, but come on..

1000 Tony Romo DJs

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> My uncle and grandfather went to Dartmouth. They're both total assholes. That being said, this lady is out of her freakin' mind! As an attorney, I'm at loss as to how she is going to prove her case.

JinxyMcDeath

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @GeorgeBabbitt: My attorney said to offer you some pretty pills (Xanax..?)if you will excuse me from your suit.

BalknChain

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @1000 Tony Romo DJs: Her legal advisor is Roger Clemens.

Dave J.

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> All students now seem to be Tracy Flick in Election. And all profs the Matthew Broderick character. Glad I am no longer in school. Way back when, the teachers just hit on you.

the Librarian

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I would totally lay money that she smokes to keep herself from turning into a full-on fatty.

SuperUnison

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @1000 Tony Romo DJs: that you're going to sue your students based upon "anti-federal law," no less.

zivah

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> My pen is rattling - can I get something for that?

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Yowza, does she not realize she is destroying her career right now? Six years+ of training, and what do you do with a PhD in literature other than be a professor, and how are you going to get that tenure track gig if you've publicly announced you're going to sue your students? just wow - why did someone not advise her not to shoot herself in the foot like this??

1000 Tony Romo DJs

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @MaelstromInTheMiddle: Right? And then after she's won (ha ha ha), is she also going to sit with the students tied up and explain her success to them, giving them one last opportunity to capture/kill/etc. her?

In other news, I love idiots who assume that a retarded baseless threat of filing suit will actually scare people. They entertain me as I take a break from working on a Title VII case.

zivah

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @MaelstromInTheMiddle: Ha! That's so true - I'm going to send this email out while I push the button that will slowly lower you into the shark tank and then leave the room...

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> "Please do not respond to this email because it will be potentially used against you in a court of law." Legalese to English translation - You shut your mouth when you're talking to me.

MaelstromInTheMiddle

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @belltolls: What is she some James Bond villain? If she's serious, just do it already and gloat about it later. Why the ominous, threatening email heads up beforehand?

MaelstromInTheMiddle

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> How is sending multiple emails threatening to pursue "litigation to see if I have a legal claim" not, in itself, a form of illegal harassment?

Also, it's obvious she needs to speak with Lionel Hutz, Esq. Mr. Hutz?

vulturesquadron

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @dirtydeer:

Dear Gawker Commenter:

This is to officially inform you that you are being accused of violating Title VII pertaining to federal anti-discrimination laws, by the plaintiff, Priya Venkatesan. You are being specifically accused of, but not limited to, snark. Please do not respond to this email as it will be used against you in a court of law.

Some Ugly Chick

izzodee544

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Isn't Venkatasan where Osama bin Laden is rumored to be hiding out?

Kelly Kreth

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I regret to inform you that I am initiating a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress against every Gawker commenter with a higher Connectedness Index than me. And those with more Commies and/or followers. (My attorney said I should cast a wide net.) Please do not reply to this comment as it may be used against you in a court of law. Have a nice day.

GeorgeBabbitt

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I need someone's help to track down the teacher who gave me an "F" in jazzercise in 3rd grade, and wrote that I had "a bad attitude about jazzercise--told me it shouldn't be a class."

Dave J.

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She wouldnt last a minute as a law school prof.

Jaynine

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> God - my eighth grade social studies teacher, my 9th grade algebra teacher, the grade school music nun...this could get really big - I may need Lionel Hutz and fast.

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.: "Irresistible Dictation: Gertrude Stein and the Correlations of writing and Science" by Steven Meyer, pub 2001.

Some one is writing about it. So her stuff's not new either.

minou

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @TheHonJudgeSmails:
She needs to stop whigging out on her students.

Botswana Meat Commission FC

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> oh god I just noticed that she's writing a book... so it's publicity stunt! She's like the Ivy League's very own Heidi Montag, but without the hot tits.

izzodee544

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I guess she thought "class action" means something that happens in a classroom.

Maybe she should back up a little bit in her theorizing and check out the way that words can have multiple specific meanings.

Johnny_boy

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She should sue her parents for that face of hers and that name.

Kelly Kreth

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @ExecutiveIntern: Think of all the time spent in court with Julia. Dropping pencils on the floor, trying to get a look up her skirt. Lip dubbing her from the stand. It could be awesome.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Colonel Mustard:

She is just like Julia Allison: She wants you to have a lovely day.

Kelly Kreth

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Can I sue Tracey Flick for consistently being mean to me?

Kelly Kreth

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> From her bio:

After finishing up my studies in literature, I entered a molecular biology lab at DMS with the intention of seeking parallels between scientific practice and literature. My interests in graduate school were mainly theoretical, as I textually analyzed certain aspects of scientific communication. However, for me, a question remained: Is there room for literary theory within the framework of the laboratory?

She's representative of an annoying trend in "the academy": people who study literary theory and realize that really all the good theorists are already out there and publishing out the ying-yang, so they take their half baked postmodern crit and try to apply it to some new field that has nothing to do with literature. In other words, a cheap stunt to score some easy publications and get tenure.

"Nobody's writing about literary theory in the laboratory!" Yeah, well, maybe there's a good reason for that.

Dave J.

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @depardoo: That's a Massachusetts firm. Isn't she repped by an attorney in NH?

skahammer

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Clarence Rosario: Brilliant!

a dog called ego

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> The real winners here are Alexander Hamilton and the rest of the Federalists.

TheHonJudgeSmails

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Flash forward to tomorrow, when 50 gawker commenters "whom shall go unmentioned" are added to her class action suit. For being mean. And accurate.

dirtydeer

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If this holds up, I fear for the impending Julia Allison lawsuit against all of us.

ExecutiveIntern

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @YourGoldKeith: If by enhance you mean pondering the positive effects of flea-dipping a human being, than perhaps.

Spirit Fingers

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She's at that point in the process where she probably just got hit by all her student loan debt.

I guess this is one way to pay it off. It's also a great way to never have a career. Untenured junior faculty member suing university? Forget. It.

minou

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> This woman will be offered a position at the Department of Justice in the next administration.

Swifter

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'm just glad that even though she specifically accused her students only of harassment, she didn't want to limit them to that in the future. She'll be in their corners if they decide to go on to other crimes. It's nice to see a teacher take interest in her pupils.

Hythloday

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Botswana Meat Commission FC:I'd like to drop her into Comp 101 in any urban community college and watch them deconstruct her. And I ain't talking semiotics.

SarahHeartburn

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> the stewendints didn't wike hur? awww... diddiums gunna make a widdle waw suit?

put on your goddamn big girl pants and act like an adult

valarmorghulis

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> she's hideola. What does she expect?

annasballs

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I believe she has a strong likelihood of succeeding on the merits, as she is represented by a law firm with an outstanding track record: Dewey, Cheatham & Howe.

depardoo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Obviously it's not "discrimination," but my wife is a ph.d student who has taught classrooms full of obnoxious, overly-priveleged 18 and 19-year-olds. They can be some seriously rude and disrespectful little fucks when their worldview is questioned.

Botswana Meat Commission FC

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Botswana Meat Commission FC:

As much as I am inclined to dislike this woman, I also say "Amen, brother!"

depardoo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Her lawyer is Bob Loblaw

BalknChain

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @mackintosh-toffee:

Maybe the protected class she belongs to is "crazy people," which would really make this more of an American with Disabilities Act complaint.

Although I don't think that "students disagreeing with me" would rise to the level of a violation of the ADA, even under a broadly activist reading of it.

Maybe Dartmouth could meet Venkatesan half-way and retrofit classrooms with special ramps and trap doors that would allow her to flee immediately whenever she felt that students were "being mean" to her.

Hamud Ibn Hamud

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.: @belltolls: Actually , you are right, discrimination is a poor choice of words. The students are in a position to harass. Harassment does not always entail that it is done by a superior. And livelihood can be affected in ways that are not financial. That being said, she can't really sue the students, but she can sue the school. Employers are supposed to protect their employees from harassment from the customer, in this case, the customer is the students.

But this is all moot since it doesn't seem that these students were in any way harassing her based on sex, or race or whathaveyou. They were "harassing" here because she seems to be one of those snippy, power-hungry, bitch professors who's classes I always dropped.

contradicto

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> They wouldn't have picked on her if she weren't such a curry-stinking oompaloompa-loking bitch.

Chief Wahoo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Clarence Rosario: Beautiful. Antonin Scalia's finest opinion.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'm going to sue my college professors for discrimination. They would give me bad grades when I would get drunk and skip class. I am Irish, and therefore ethnically predisposed to getting hammered. I rest my case.

Conbon

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Why do we feel the need to tell people in emails that we tried and failed to email them moments earlier? Did they used to do this with carrier pigeons? "I wrote you a better letter an hour ago but a cat got it!" Ha hah hahah ahaha! Seriously,though, students are jerks and crybabies are losers. She's the Franzen to their Kakutani.

On a personal note I used to be VERY mean to other students who failed to grasp the utility of political correctness. It was because I adored the Authority the Institution conferred on whatever crackpot queer scheme the Teacher was Paid to Grade me on my comprehension of.

DonPardoCalrissian

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @YourGoldKeith: No, it means "Piled high and Deep"

thelushie

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Nic Fit: Please do not respond to this post, as it can be used against you in a court of law.

ExecutiveIntern

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Spirit Fingers: you mean that didn't enhance your education?

YourGoldKeith

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'm going to sue all republicans.

izzodee544

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @belltolls: She has "seeking attention" issues.

thelushie

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> In her defense smarmy, ignorant, right-wing spoiled brat undergrads will make a motherfucker go insane.

Botswana Meat Commission FC

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'm glad my prof from introduction to social theory never heard about this. We gave that woman so much shit.

Come on first year prof, buck up!

jann9884

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Oh.My.God...this is one of the reasons that I hate higher education (and I am working toward a PhD). She gets her panties in a bunch because she had students who didn't agree with her. Here is a newsflash to her and all those professors who are looking at this saying, "Hmmmm...": It is ok for individuals to disagree in a civilized society. Stop taking it as a personal insult if someone says they don't agree with you. The front of the class is also not a pulpit and you are not in church. Stop using it as one. She is lucky I was not in her class as I would have made her cry. It probably would not have been that hard.

thelushie

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Can I sue the internet for making me feel bad?

oneinsixbillion

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.: On the other hand, it's probably gonna be a pretty shitty book.

Moff

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Since we're now delving into the merits or lack thereof of classroom legality, can I sue my ninth grade Social Studies teacher for having breath that smelled like a pustulant asshole and scratching his balls like a maniac in every class period? I'd like some justice for that.

Spirit Fingers

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I am filing a class action lawsuit against the gawker commenters and editors for wasting so much of my time.

Details to follow.

Nic Fit

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @contradicto: I fail to see how students can discriminate, however. What power do students hold over a professor, exactly? I mean, don't lawsuits involving discrimination involve some sort of statement about how the discrimination in question affected your livelihood? It's not like she was fired because she was a non-white woman, or something--if anything, she's writing a book BECAUSE of these students, thus one could credibly claim that her professional prospects were actually enhanced by the students' actions.

Dave J.

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @contradicto: Yes. The students are not in a position to "discriminate." By the way, who sends emails to people telling them they are going to be sued? In the litigation support work I have done in the past you send them a sweet pleading. The emails had another purpose.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Ed: Fire is an important tool/weapon in warcraft.

fiveinchtaint

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> In re Badly Hurt Feelings

DonLaFontaine

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Does her PhD mean, "Pretty Horrible Display"?

YourGoldKeith

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Clarence Rosario: HA!

contradicto

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Hopefully she will use the proceeds of her legal victory/settlement to get a proper eyebrow tweeze and eliminate her turkey neck.

anagramsam

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.: If you don't think I'm ending every e-mail with that phrase from now on, you are sorely mistaken.

ExecutiveIntern

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Clarence Rosario: Ha! Commie!

scroll_lock

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> This gives me an idea to sue my wife when she doesn't laugh at my jokes. I will not stand for her intolerance for my humor!

BullfightsOnAcid

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> this woman sucks. and I mean that in the most discriminatory way possible.

izzodee544

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Case law ain't on her side. cf. I.M. Rubber v. U.R. Glue.

Clarence Rosario

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Please disregard the previous blog entry sent by Fred_Istare. I may have violated Title VII pertaining to federal anti-discrimination laws. I do not wish to be accused of acts including, but not limited to, harassment.

Fred_istare

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @belltolls: Well actually, to be kind of serious (sorry!), I don't think she can sue the students under Title VII, but she can sue Dartmouth for discrimination by the students if she properly informed them of the discrimination in accordance with their stated EEO policy and they failed to do anything about it.

contradicto

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Ed: Voldemort?

Conbon

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Crazy on a cracker. It could only have been improved if she'd added "Y'all are just jealous 'cause I'm prettier than you. Are too."

scroll_lock

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I'm currently seeking legal representation in my pursuit of justice against Lilly Jones, who not only stole my lunch money on multiple occasions, but also displayed intolerance to new ideas, such as "how 'bout we play on the tireswing" and "maybe boys aren't so gross?"

izzodee544

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @belltolls: No. You may not.

Jack Ketch

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> This woman is crazy; you can tell by that crazy-ass look on her ugly face.

Fred_istare

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Ed: a very devout asswipe.

PickleTitsTurner

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Ed: Either a wood salesman or a pompous college student.

Moff

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @contradicto: It would open the door for some interesting suits. For example can you sue a dead 17th century English executioner for pain and suffering or for just giving you the yips?

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If you replace the letters L-A-W in "Lawsuit" with the letters M-A-N it spells the word "Mansuit." Therefore the professor is hypocritcally utilizing the patriarchal power structure to enact violence on those in a lower social caste, i.e. students being a lower class compared to teachers. I suggest the students file a countersuit.

PickleTitsTurner

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Please do not respond to this email because it will be potentially used against you in a court of law.

That's easily the best thing I've ever read.

Dave J.

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I am suing every woman that ever laughed at my clumsy seduction attempts. As I am 46 and unmarried that is a long list. Let's see...yes, the schoolground bully...wait...I can't quite remember the name...oh, yeah, and the guy on the street who laughed when I tripped on the crack where the sidewalk was uneven...

VanMorrisonFan

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> That said, what asswipe defends witchcraft burnings?

Ed

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Conbon: You have a point there.

You know, Nick, I'm guessing you have most of your legal department devoted to the litigious thetan-cretins of CO$, but you might want to have at least a law intern handy for when this wingnut decides to sue you over her hurt feelings.

sassypants

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I am going to go out on a limb here and say i like this lady! She sure isn't afraid to bring the crazy to the table.

Mackintosh-Typos

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> First the kid who talked his way into Yale and now this chick?

Like brown folks need a worse rep in the ivy league - its bad enough that we bollix up the grade curve.

goodgodno

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> this is why i took naps during any class with the word "lecture" in the title.

StrawBerryShortCake

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Excellent.

On a unrelated note, I will be pursuing a class action suit against Sam Champion and a few other "weather people" for the recent bout of shit weather that began every Friday and rained/snowed through Saturday. Others who have felt put out by this crap weather are also welcome to pursue damages.

sassypants

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> "I was facing intolerance of ideas and intolerance of freedom of expression."

So I canceled class. Huh.

Moff

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @contradicto: And since she didn't, thank you for now equating the name Priya to idiocy, because I always thought that was a pretty, pretty name.

contradicto

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> It was the "have a nice day" sign-off on the first e-mail that told me everything I will ever need to know about this woman. She probably cuts people off on the highway in order to 'teach them a lesson' and then smiles when they honk at her. I hate her.

Colonel Mustard

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> I bet she's a Wiccan.

Sarcastro

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Randall Tex Cobb: Also know as "perma-student".

BGGA

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Always be afraid of people with graduate degrees in two unrelated fields. They usually end up getting a Masters in Library Science so they will never have to leave college.

Randall Tex Cobb

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Guys, be quiet! Do you want to get sued?

Conbon

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If she can prove discrimination by against a protected class under Title VII, she might actually have a case, which would be. . . interesting.

But based on the information provided, I don't see it.

contradicto

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Pssst ...

(Priya Venkatesan smells funny)

Sarcastro

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Checking to see which part of USC covers crazy. It's not Title ZZZ but I will keep looking.

belltolls

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> We're not supposed to meddle in the affairs of the woodspeople, Pareene.

Richard

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> If I won legal judgments against everyone who has been mean to me, I would have been richer than Bill Gates by the time I was seven.

Sarcastro

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Please do not respond to this e-mail as your response could be used in a court of law and therefore could assist me in winning my case.

depardoo

]]> <![CDATA[Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> Boo f*cking hoo. I'd like to sue God for giving me an abusive childhood which left me u