Check out this training video from Penn State’s Counseling and Psychological Services, a divison of Student Affairs.
It’s called “I Deserve A Better Grade…Or Else.” It’s apparently intended to teach instructors how to handle aggressive, potentially violent students. And the potentially violent, psychologically-disturbed student they chose to portray is…an Iraq war veteran.
Here’s how Penn State describes the video:
An instructor feels “rattled” as she deals with Matthew, who is an Iraq War veteran. Matthew has just returned to college after his tour of duty.
He has been showing up after class and during office hours and complains about grades on his papers. He is becoming increasingly pushy in his expectations over the past month.
As the scene opens the instructor is consulting with the department chair.
The instructor lets us know that she holds this vet in rather low esteem. “His grammar is really poor and he veers off subject and he’s just really not seeming to understand the assignments.”
The vet, on the other hand, believes she is giving him lower grades than he deserves because he’s a vet. ‘You made it very clear about the war and I think you’re taking it out on me.”
From that exchange, we can only assume instructor has made anti-war comments in class. As is clearly stated on Penn State’s own website, this would be a clear violation of Penn State’s HR 64 regulation, which states:
“It is not the function of a faculty member in a democracy to indoctrinate his/her students with ready-made conclusions on controversial subjects. The faculty member is expected to train students to think for themselves, and to provide them access to those materials which they need if they are to think intelligently. Hence in giving instruction upon controversial matters the faculty member is expected to be of a fair and judicial mind, and to set forth justly, without supersession or innuendo, the divergent opinions of other investigators.”
The policy goes on to add:
“No faculty member may claim as a right the privilege of discussing in the classroom controversial topics outside his/her own field of study. The faculty member is normally bound not to take advantage of his/her position by introducing into the classroom provocative discussions of irrelevant subjects not within the field of his/her study.”
IHatetheMedia.com’s roving correspondent, a recent Penn State grad experienced in the university’s student government said, “Oh my, what a HORRIBLE video! Just look at the comments, I think people feel the same way I do. Penn State’s President, Graham Spanier, is a prominent liberal, so I see why he wouldn’t object to this.”
Another comment on the video was, “”Had this been about some racial or ethnic minority, it would be national news. Apparently portraying veterans as violent and ignorant is fair game, though.”
Penn State has now pulled the link to this video from their Worrisome Student Behaviors web page when outraged people on the web started Twittering about it.
Hey, Penn State. Why malign the people who make freedom of speech possible there in the hallowed halls of academe?
Next time you make a video, go for some other easy target. Like an angry post office employee. A tweaked rich kid. Or an MSNBC host.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
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Just another reason to hate State Pen…….
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I don’t have a lot of accounts at social media sites, but can you readers that do, go and post this story. Stubleupon, Digg and all those, plus if you are a member of FreeRepublic and other forums. I just called my husband, an Iraq War vet, at work and read this too him. He was pissed!
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I’m a Vietnam vet and have seen this since I returned from combat. The indoctrination now starts with teachers in grammar school who tell little kids that unless they wear a certain color to support the teacher’s union efforts, dire things will happen. It continues through middle school, high school and reaches absurd levels in universities. The elitist academia assumption is there must be something wrong with you if you want to join the military.
Duty, honor, country are foreign phrases to these types.
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We know this sounds self-serving, but can you pass the link to this story around? We’re just so damn disgusted with the oh-so-superior university system putting down our military. Use the green Share This icon above, or this convenient link we made: http://tinyurl.com/psu-against-vets
And you can help by Digging the article; just click the Digg button at the beginning of the article.
And the last thing you can do is go directly to the youtube video and rate it, favorite it, and make a comment. All those things help it be seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RspC-sIm_P0
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Of course no Birkenstock wearing flower child would flip out like that…unless of course he got hold of some bad acid.
Academia has long been circling the proverbial bowl. This stupid piece of left wing propaganda is part of the swirl.
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I guess it doesn’t matter to anyone posting here, but this badly written video was part of an effort to help faculty and staff deal with veterans that are having problems. Penn State can’t ignore the fact that a lot of vets are going to college and at least a few have PTSD. Faculty need to be prepared for a number of issues that come up. And PTSD is one thing they may have to deal with. Would you rather that they don’t take PTSD into account and just call the cops? Or should they try to get the students the help they need? Penn State recognized that it was a bad video and took it down a couple of months ago. But if you guys manage to get Spanier to resign, it wouldn’t exactly hurt my feelings.
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Jaysus, are we going to act like there aren’t people who come back with PTSD or other problems and frighten, intimidate and scare others around them? That’s the first thing. The point of the video is dealing with students who intimidate and scare, the fact that the one in the video is a vet is not that important, really. I’m Penn State, and I love vets. Some lame video isn’t going to change that.
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These training videos are important, not only to the faculty but to the vet. As a V-of-FW who worked with post war vets…. It seems to me that a lot of those that posted here need to seek counselling.
Whatshould the University do in making a training video? Should they invent a fake war name to appease the sensitive among you? The training film was to make the instructiors more understanding and less condescending… not the opposite.
I suggest some of you that posted here seek the help that is available. There are well intentioned, experienced vets available to serve your needs.
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As a Penn State grad, and US Navy vet [LT, USN 77-85], I’m not sure I like the tone here. I wonder what the reaction might be by the Penn State “elite” if a black Philly gang member was used in this video threatening the instructor? Both seem piss poor IMHO. J. Craig Herman, Pahoa, HI
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Seems that a worrisome student is a worrisome student. Doesn’t have to be a vet.
However, it does bring up an additional problem, which is the liberal indoctrination in class.
A vet would be entitled to be concerned about that. And a prof who knew she was doing it might be a bit
paranoid about it. Which she wouldn’t be if she’d stuck to teaching. “Grammar problems”? With Spellcheck?
No prof would be going on about the rash of shootings by deranged immigrants–V-Tech, Binghamton, and a Korean
retreat shelter in California. Of course, those guys really will kill you. No sense pissing them off, and, besides, it’s not
allowed under academic PC. You can target vets, though, because they won’t kill you and soldiers are icky.
You’ll notice that the avuncular department head didn’t volunteer to help out his professor.
Not exactly leading from the front, there, spanky.
SURprise.
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Eric & Jim,
I think you guys both missed the boat. If the true reason was to inform professors on proper steps to deal with unstable students, it would not have been necessary to single out Vets. Jim if you were someone actually involved with vets you would be aware that some of these supposedly-traumatized-by-war vets had a ‘war or jail’ option, with serious charges hanging over their heads, and appear to have taken their criminal dispositions to war with them. Some of these folks had colorful rap sheets long before they ever donned combat boots. The main objection professors have to Vet’s is the fact they are not intimidated as other students, and speak up in class when instructors start pushing anti American propaganda. The Department of Veteran Affairs did a study and determined that minorities have a higher rate of PTSD than whites; seems the purveyors of this video avoided the ethnic issue due to their Political Correctness. Violence related to PTSD usually involves family members, suicide, and altercations while living on the street. You might also consider the fact that Vet’s make better grades than the average student.
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My respects to my fellow Penn State vets. We know who we are. So do the commie lib hacks who put together this piece of trash. They will never change. But……….we can make fun of them, at least until the Dept of Homeland Security under BHO comes knocking at the door!
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I am a 3 tour veteran of OEF and OIF who has been diagnosed with PTSD.
I have already been harassed and discriminated against in the workplace due to my service, and have no doubt that I will be in any academic institution I go to. I seriously doubt I will be able to go to a standard attend-in-person college due to the classroom environments I will probably encounter.
This video does not shock me in the least. I agree, there needs to be classes and videos on signs to look for students that may be prone to violence.
However, it is obvious that this “teacher” is oblivious to the atmosphere she has created in her classroom due to her personal beliefs. Time and time again, instructors use their classrooms and students as a captive audience for their personal views and beliefs. I saw it in high school from an instructor who upon reaching Vietnam history, attempted to brag about his dodging vietnam by running to canada when his number was called.
The lecture podium is not your personal political stage.
Having said that, The vet in the video did fail to do something drilled into every joe.. namely, Using the chain of command. If he thought he was being discriminated against he should have pushed the review of his work up to her immediate supervisor as well as made clear what his perception of the classroom environment was. Worse come to worse, take an administrative drop and fill in that requirement with a different instructor if it’s clear that nothing you can do will please the current instructor due their inability to separate academic and personal motives.
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Are vets not getting enough positive regard? I haven’t seen anyone say anything negitive about vets! Personally I feel bad for vets that are being forced to do multiple tours!
I’ve been taking classes for around 20 years and the only political motivations that stand out to me are from the right. Lets face it if you had a rightest university you could get your degree in a couple of months!
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Are you nuts, J? Where’d you go, Swarthmore?
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How typical.
And for you gelded male apologists who are taking sides against this veteran,
but most especially you, Jim, who suggests WE need counseling; eternal,
unforgiven shame upon you all!
Since Vietnam there has been a deliberate campaign of discrimination against
veterans in all facets of life but most especially in academia. This discrimination is intended to last a lifetime and beyond if possible.
This ‘yotch needs to be outed, named, blamed, shamed, removed from her position and measures need to be taken to prevent her from ever securing any kind of employment.
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