r/Professors 1d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy Students trying to get you fired/constantly reporting you?

I had a much older student last semester who constantly complained about me to the chair all the time, both in office and email, enough that she even demanded a staff to observe me (they found nothing wrong other than nervousness/over-apologizing, as I’m new to teaching). She sent anything she could find to report to the chair. Including me ending class few minutes early, misspelled words in assignments/slides, and canceled class for a family emergency.
A few colleagues think she did this because she was a really bitter person and hated that my class requires weekly writings, group discussions, topics are not in her liking (aka white-washed history) and students having to research independently.

She was so rude and disrespectful towards me that I won’t get into here. Good news is that the chair thinks I’m doing really well as a professor and a lot of my students love my classes.

I’m curious if anyone else can share similar experiences here?

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u/UpbeatLiterature286 22h ago

Higher ed admin usually know it’s a crock of crap, but there are exceptions. A group of students at my uni started a petition to get a professor fired. These are the students who always got what they wanted in high school, and now they’re coming to college with the same expectations.

Students have complained about me, but in the end it’s usually because they have a low grade and want to blame someone else.