Vocaboly.com

[Jeremy Arnold]

I'm having some difficulties with a former professor. Basically I
dropped the guy's class because he was being unprofessional and
dishonest and left a bad review of him on a website. He sent me an
e-mail and has been using the website where I posted my review to post
libelous, insulting, and untrue things about me as a student and a
person. I contacted the head of my department about this issue, but
she says that since he's posting anonymously she can't really do
anything about it unless I have a way of proving it's him. Short of
getting a court order for his IP address, I'm at a loss.

What I'm worried about it is that this guy might screw up my chances of
getting into a good grad school. He's constantly bragging about how
much "pull" he has with other programs (some of which I was interested
in), how much respect he has from colleagues at other schools, and he's
also got a key position in our own MA program. One of these
"anonymous" posts said there are now comments about me posted on
various other faculty websites and "good luck finding them, slacker."
Should I be worried he's actively sabatoging me? Would grad schools
even care about this type of thing?

I'd appreciate any help or advice. To respond privately, replace
"hotmail" with "aol" in my e-mail.

Jeremy Arnold

[Hank Murphy]

I would certainly like to hear the accused professor's side of things. This
does not happen in a vacuum.

You also don't mention the web site where this alleged posting appeared.

The only recourse I can think of is to contact the web site and request that
the offending posts be removed.

But it sounds like there's more to this story.

Hank Murphy
speaking only for myself

[rick++]

A prof's [dis]recommendation carries strong weight.
But high grades, high test scores, and demonstrated
research in a subject (published paper) are strong
factors also. People on grad committees often know
who the cranks are in other schools. They've gone
to school with them and seen them at professional meetings.
They'll factor this in.

Part of being an adult is learning to deal with other
people, particularly in hierarchies. The key word is
that they are "people" with both positive and negative
character. You just have to learn how to leverage or
bypass the relevant factors. This will happen the
rest of your life.