The graduate program I attended had a legacy of low female enrollment. Part of this was due to the particular field of study for this master’s degree and part was due to the fact that the school had gone coed only a few short decades prior to my attendance. Just about any woman who applied to this program got in. Same for underprivileged minorities. With few exceptions, the expectations for the students were the same regardless of sex or race. This particular post is about one of the professors that made exceptions.
One of the courses we were all required to take was a communications class. This course covered a lot of bases: Written, verbal, video, and other multimedia methods. The guy teaching the course was extremely funny and very good at getting his point across. Ideal, really, for a communications course. At the time I can remember him telling us that some rules of grammar should be broken if it gets your point across. He’d say we should begin sentences with conjuctions, or end sentences with prepositions if it actually got your point across and could be understood. I remember balking at that, but now, after writing almost daily here on STD, I can see the wisdom in the message.
Ten percent of our grade in this class was to give an informational speech. One of the requirements was that it had to be something our audience (meaning the other students) would want to know. That’s actually harder than it seems due to the disparate backgrounds and interests of my fellow students. When it came time to give our speeches, the class was broken up into two different groups. One to give their speeches in front of the class professor, the other to give their speeches in front of another professor from the communications department. Guess which class I got stuck in?
The guest professor was a piece of work. The first thing this woman announced was that she would be less strict and an easier grader for the women in the class. Her stated reason for this was that they had had more obstacles to overcome what with the Patriarchy and all that. I took an instant dislike to this woman. Then for some reason I still can’t figure out, she stood in front of the class and sang the, “Itsy bitsy spider song.” Complete with hand gestures. My dislike turned to disdain. Her final announcement was that she would grade the first speakers easier than the later speakers and she asked if there were any volunteers. Seeing the writing on the wall, I volunteered to go first.
My speech went well enough. I don’t have a problem talking in front of people. I made a point to make eye contact with people as I gave my speech. I noticed however that this professor kept her head buried in something she had out in front of her. At the end of my speech she offered her criticism. She said that I didn’t once look up at anyone I was talking to and that it made my speech difficult to follow as I was talking to the podium instead of the crowd. I flat out told her she was wrong. I told her that not once did she look up or at me. She denied it. I argued with her further to no avail. My disdain turned to outright hatred. I did not attempt to conceal it. She felt threatened.
Months later I’m in the graduate students lounge when a fellow student in my class comes in looking a bit pale. I asked him what was up. He said that the female professor from the speech class had collapsed in the middle of a lecture. DOA. Several students tried to revive her to no avail. We found out later she’d died of a massive brain hemorrhage. Several of the female graduate students organized a sympathy card for her family and donations to a scholarship fund in her honor. The card was being passed around and signed during one of our classes. I can remember it coming to me and being of two minds. Ultimately I could not bring myself to sign the card, nor did I donate to the fund. Maybe it was petty, but I have no regrets.
