‘I was shocked’: Professor leaves university stunned after unleashing profanity-laced rant vowing to randomly assign grades https://t.co/AlKlnHJYi7
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 13, 2022
Just not this way:
Barry Mehler, 74, founder and director of Ferris' Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, called students in the Jan. 9 video "c***suckers" and said that their grades would be determined by the "Calvinist doctrine of predestination."
In the video Mehler tells students that he's retiring this year and he "couldn't give a flying f*** any longer."
"There is absolutely nothing you can do, you have no control over your grade. It doesn't matter how f***ing hard you work or how good your grades are, my grading system is based on the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. I figure if it was good enough for Americans, it was good enough for me," he says in the video.
"So I randomly assign grades before the first day of class. I don’t want to know s*** about you. I don’t even want to know your name. I just look at the number and I assign a grade. That is how predestination works. And don’t come f***ing complaining to me. Take your complaints to God. He ordained this system, not me," he says.
Later in the video, he seemingly softens his stance and tells students that they can find the material online that they need to get a good grade.
"I work in a paid f***ing union job and no limber-dick c***sucker of an administrator is going to tell me how to teach my classes. Because I’m a f***ing tenured professor," he says.
"So if you want to go to complain to your dean, f*** you, go ahead, I’m retiring at the end of this year and I couldn’t give a flying f*** any longer. You people are just vectors of disease to me and I don’t want to be anywhere near you. So keep your f***ing distance."
Ferris State University President David Eisler said he was "shocked and appalled" by the video. "It is profane, offensive and disturbing and in no way reflects our university or its values," he added.
Yeah, even tenured professors are not invisible and bulletproof. And I'm not thinking of retiring because the administration pissed me off. Funny I should read this as it's crossing my mind to quit (that's really what it would be) the part-time teaching gig I've pursued for 20 years now. I assure you I don't want to go out like this.
I do sympathize with him about the "vectors of disease" portion of his rant. That's playing into my decision, too, since for the first time since covid started my only teaching option is one face-to-face class. But my reasons for declining it, if I do, are between me and my department chair. I'm not even going to try to rant here; I don't have one.
But I chalk this guy's anger up to covid. It's doing a number on all of us.
I thought it was a good rant, rational, sarcastic, true, too true for that institution, apparently. I'd quibble about the actual source of the defects in the justice system, which was class far more than Calvinism which, even in New England produced a far less terrible justice system than existed in England by the Revolution. Massachusetts early abolished slavery by judicial action, for example. But using predestination for satirical purposes as he did in the video leading up to his rant against irresponsible Republican-fascist covid policy was rather good, I thought. I hope he either enjoys a productive retirement or finds a better job if he wants one.
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