I often get requests for advice from my newsletter readers. Here is an interesting request for guidance from a professor in Asia:
"Dear Mary,
I am in Higher Education in an Asian society.
I was bothered by what I read from a student’s blog in a blogring that I came across by chance. The student quoted two lines of an an e-mail message from a faculty member (Dr X) which contained an ungrounded criticism of me and which ridiculed me. I believe that the quote was genuine, and that the student was so amused that he quoted the lines to show other members of the blogring.
I wanted to report this to the department Chair but I hesitated because, after all, I read the criticism from a blog. I am afraid that I might embarrass myself by showing the Chair the source of the information.
I am a female faculty member, more senior in rank than Dr X. This professor is very popular among students. He and I are not friends -- we don’t talk to each other except in official meetings....
I would appreciate your advice. Do you think it is a trivial matter and I should just forget about it? Or does this warrant a report to the Chair?"
This certainly sounds upsetting. And I don't see it as trivial. However, my sense is that the maligned professor should not report the incident to the Chair unless it is in an informal manner asking "how do you think that I should handle this?" I fear that asking the Chair to handle the matter would just make the impugned prof look like an insecure headache-causer.
The question, to my mind, is whether the professor should raise the issue with her colleague. Should she be direct and ask the snarky professor not to belittle her to students? Or might that lead to further trouble? Perhaps the best thing would be to ignore and forget the whole incident (easier said than done, of course.)
What do you think? Have any of you had colleagues who badmouthed you?
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