Until this semester at SouthernUniversity, I was fortunate to have selected polite, professionalprofessors.
Regardless of the rumors that spreadamong students about the Business and Professional Communications professors, Idecided to enroll in a class taught by Dr. George Whitfield. I regret to say, this is the worstdecision I have made selecting a professor. Previous students of this professor warned me about hisobscene and unprofessional behavior, but I decided to ignore their advice.
About three weeks ago I received anunacceptable grade on a resume/cover letter assignment in his class, so Ischeduled an appointment with Dr. Whitfield to discuss my grade. When I went into his office, it wasobvious that his day was not going well by the tone in which he greetedme.
Instead of discussing my grade withme in a calm, professional manner, Dr. Whitfield was loud and made impoliteremarks. For example, he said,”This cover letter is something that an illiterate person would write.”
Because of his irate behavior, Idecided it was best for me to leave his office. After departing, I decided toaddress the matter in a more aggressive, but professional manner. I went andspoke with his supervisor who listened to me and scheduled another appointmentfor me to meet with Dr. Whitfield later that day.
When I went into Dr. Whitfield’soffice the second time, he greeted me calmly and we began to discuss mygrade. Being that Dr. Whitfieldhad given examples of how he wanted the assignment done and my work resembledhis examples, I questioned him about my grade. Dr. Whitfield then stated, “Only a stupid person wouldfollow examples given in class.”
Now it may be just me, but I thoughtthe purpose of examples were to give the students an idea of how the professorwanted the assignment done. Afterthis statement I felt that continuing the appointment was pointless and startedgathering my belongings to leave. Just as I grabbed the door knob, Dr Whitfield stated, “If you wererecording the discussion between you and me, then we are going to have aproblem.” Why would a professorworry about an appointment being recorded if he was behaving in a professionalmanner?
With that threat Dr. Whitfield dughis own grave, and I need your help to bury him. I don’t want him to be reprimanded; I want him gone. Because of Dr. Whitfield, many studentsare cross registering at Baton Rouge Community College and Louisiana StateUniversity to take this course. Idon’t feel as if we should have to cross-register to take a course that isoffered here at Southern. Our tuition pays the professors’ salaries and wedon’t deserve to be disrespected. If you have had similar encounters with this professor, then I encourageyou to share your story with the Dean of Arts and Humanities or the Chairpersonof Speech and Theater. If youdon’t want to talk with either of those persons then I encourage you to fillout a Faculty Evaluation on the internet at Southern’s website.
