What should I do about a professor who got in my face and yelled at me?

Question

I'm a lab assistant at my university and one day some of my coworkers who are underclassmen asked me about my experience with a professor I had taken a couple classes with. I told them that every class that professor teaches is hard and that one specific class, is a "flipped" course in which students have teach themselves the material and come to class ready to just answer questions and do classwork. I also mentioned that in that particular class the professor would get frustrated when students asked her questions during class time (so much so that she would yell at whoever asked her a question and in one instance became so frustrated that she stabbed the white board with her expo marker and could no longer write with the marker because the tip was completely sunken in). I also mentioned that this particular class put me under so much stress that it caused me to develop anxiety. Everything that I told my coworkers was my honest experience with said professor.

It is not the first time I've told others at work about my experience while taking classes with this professor as well as with any of my other professors (in fact, on that same day I had talked about many of my previous professors and my time in their classrooms). Somehow one professor who manages some of the labs found out that I was talking about that particular professor (I'm not sure what exactly she heard or how much of what I said she heard) and decided to get right in my face and yell at me to stop talking about said professor because she didn't like what I said. After having yelled at me she just briskly walked away. When she confronted me, I was standing right next to my coworker and I noticed that even my coworker had to pull her head back because of how loud and close the professor got to me/us. My ears were also ringing for a few moments.

I am not upset at the fact that whatever I said got out because I don't think I made any personal attacks, I simply talked about my experience in that particular professor's class. What upsets me is that the way the professor confronted me has really increased my stress levels and anxiety to the point that my blood pressure has risen. I am also experiencing dizzy spells, fatigue, and aches all over my body. I suspect that this is due to my anxiety. I have been stressing over this incident for the past couple of days and I'm not sure what to do.

For now I've decided to go speak with a counselor to try and calm down and seek a different perspective on the situation. I'm also going to discuss the situation with one of my superiors at work and ask her for advice as well as get her perspective on the situation. I don't want to make any rash decisions or actions based on poor judgement and wild emotions. I am not comfortable enough to talk to the professor who confronted me (at least not 1-on-1). Can anyone give me any suggestions on what I should do? Do I contact the Dean? (Is there even enough basis to do this?)

Answer 1

It sounds like you were the victim of a (relatively moderate) kind of abusive workplace behavior. I would not seek to handle this through the department-level chain of command but rather through the university level policies on such things.

You don't say where in the world you are, but at a US university there will be something quite formalized in place about this: e.g. see this policy at my university. Note that the prohibited conduct includes

harassment of any nature such as stalking, swearing or shouting.

The webpage goes on to explain that any employee who witnesses this kind of behavior should report it to human resources (HR).

You want to find the equivalent at your university. When you report it, you should mention the name of your coworker, and they will very likely be contacted. The rest of it is really up to HR, and they will know how to approach it confidentially and so forth. They are also the experts on how serious the behavior is, but I think there is no question but that it is serious enough to report to them.

By the way, none of this sounds like it will be much fun for you, but I really encourage you to do it anyway. I suspect that the likely outcome is that if this is an isolated incident, the professor in question will get nothing more than a talking-to. But what if it isn't an isolated incident? The community needs your help to identify and deal with the problem.

Answer 2

I'd like to suggest that while it's fine to share your experience of attending a certain class, try to portrait that with a little bit of neutrality and perhaps empathy.

Let's say, the said professor could have just lost a baby, she was going through a rough time and maybe depression. She could only share with her close friend, who was the other professor that yelled at you. If that's the case, would you still be so fond to share the negative experience in such a vivid manner? Are they unprofessional? Of course; are they inhuman? Probably not.

What I'd like to get at is that in a usual world, people don't just burst into rage for his/her friend based on overhearing some negative comments. This case does not seem that straightforward to me.

And while I don't wish to invalidate your experience, what good can come out from such strong advice that you gave to your peers? Now they may go to her class all anxious, do not volunteer to answer any questions, and the said professor would get all upset, thinking her teaching might not be working. Have you ever thought that your advice might have ripped away your peers' opportunity to appraise their own experience?

Perhaps consider something like:

• I didn't have the best time cause I felt that it's very demanding, but hopefully you'd have a better experience. [Emphasize that your mileage may differ.]

• When I was taking her class, she seemed to prefer a tighter control on the flow of her lecture. Feel it for yourself but for the first class, just jot down your questions for later and see how it goes. [Downplay the whiteboard incident, give positive advice to prevent possible shock.]

Fortify empathy and positiveness, and we may find that the surrounding is actually not that threatening and anxiety-inducing. I'd like to end this comment with a quote that was attributed to so many people form Ben Franklin to Eleanor Roosevelt that I am not sure any more:

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.