TX: SMU (professor) blogger unmasked, unemployed

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/051505dnmetprof.aad72702.html


When an anonymous professor launched a brutally honest Web site, some SMU students thought the resemblance to their school was striking – and offensive.

The "Phantom Professor" blog dished about epidemic eating disorders and wealthy students looking for a "Mrs." degree. The author dubbed girls in $500 sandals toting $1,500 handbags "the Ashleys" and called a handsome male colleague "Hot Pockets."


Southern Methodist University recently decided that it no longer needs Ms. Liner's services as an adjunct professor teaching classes on writing and ethics to communications students.


Ms. Liner told Inside Higher Ed that some might have mistakenly believed that they were being mocked on her blog. "Some of the stories are so common among SMU kids – the rampant bulimia, the outrageous budgets for clothes and cars, the airheads, the illiterate jocks and the plagiarizers – that any number of students who knew me or didn't might identify with them," she said.
-------------

http://phantomprof.blogspot.com/

[MADem]

1. Sounds like a dynamite teacher to me!

If I had a college....I'd hire her in a nanosecond. She seems like an exceptionally astute individual. She can discern the forest, as well as the trees.

[rainbow4321]

6. The univ. is in the middle of eliteville/repukeland Highland Park

Most likely all the kids went running to mummy and daddy who really don't want HP's/SMU students' dirty little dysfunctional secrets on line.
I hope the prof gets to keep her web page up. Could be a very interesting read. Laura Bush graduated from SMU. Both she and Cheney were on the university board pre-Nov. 2000. It is also the campus where shrub held his FAKE little rally the eve of Black Tuesday (filled w/ the zillionaires of the HP neighborhood and SMU, TRYING to make it look like Dallas can actually stand his ass-- in reality he only "won" the county by the skin of his gums, 51%-49%).

We all know how his base goes after those that disturb their (hypocritical) lives, so it's no surprise the prof was canned. Poor lady, I hope it all works out for her in the end.

From the web site:
<snip>

http://phantomprof.blogspot.com/

(at bottom of web page)

<snip>

-- The rape victim denied morning-after pills "for religious reasons" by the pharmacist at the campus health center.

-- How a certain member of a Middle Eastern royal family got a new Mercedes by convincing a frat buddy to crash his one-year-old model into a wall.

-- The unforgettable experience of one student intern getting hit on repeatedly by an oft-married septuagenarian TV talk show host. Brace yourself for this one.

-- Ladies' room stall No. 6, aka Purge-atory.

Thank you, one and all, for the submissions. We've only just begun.

<snip>

[Scooter24]

10. Just remember

that not everyone in HP is a Republican. I live in HP and go to SMU, and I have no apologies for the characterizations most have given to my hometown or my school. But don't stereotype everyone simply because HP is known to vote a certain way.

[rainbow4321]

16. Didn't mean to sound like I was generalizing..

Lord knows how many times I have pounded the keyboard with "HEY! Not everyone in TX supports chimp!" since Black Tuesday 2004.
Looks like the prof will get to continue her blog...other profs are sending her stories and she has also asked for students and people from other colleges to email her stuff.

http://phantomprof.blogspot.com/


BTW, she may have pulled some of the original posts but someone found the archived web page's link:

http://phantomprof.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_phantomprof_archive.html

[imenja]

7. self delete

[imenja]

9. Why?

Because she considers sexual assault of women a social contribution? Because her understanding of mental illness mirrors that of the typical uneducated American? Would you want you own sons, daughters, and friends to be treated with such disdain? If you yourself were sexually assaulted, would you want that ordeal trivialized on a blog? Or does the fact these students live in Texas somehow justify these ignorant postings you find "astute"? If these students would have been at Holyoke or Amherst, where the average family income is likely higher and the demographic whiter than at SMU, would you be similarly laudatory? Or do you consider everyone under 22 unworthy of basic respect and compassion?

If this person is actually a professor, she is clearly someone who hates her job and should find another way to make a living.

[Hissyspit]

11. Looking critically at your job means you should quit your job?

Couldn't it possibly be a GOOD thing? Especially in a job that requires critical thinking?

[MADem]

13. She calls it like she sees it...YMMV n/t

[bluestateguy]

2. That's the thing about being an adjunct

You don't have tenure so---short of ethnic, racial or religious discrimination---they can dismiss you pretty much any time they want for any reason they want.

[Gman]

3. SMU is so Republican its disgusting

as is the rest of North Dallas. You are what you drive there.

[Bozita]

4. Wasn't SMU the school where Pickles was the go to gal for pot?

[Scooter24]

5. I'm a SMU student.

And I have to agree, the concentration of wealth on this campus is staggering. I don't really know if there is a problem with bulimia at SMU, but it should come as no surprise to many that the vast majority of students here come from a very affluent family.

[imenja]

8. as is the case with all private colleges and universities

I doubt SMU is at all unusual in that regard.

[Skittles]

12. thank you for your honesty

so what are they offended about? :)

[K-W]

14. If there is a university without a bullemia problem, Id like to see it EOM

[catnhatnh]

15. I would hope they come from...

...(at least) several wealthy families. And it's "An SMU student"...