Intro to Calculus instructor: "I'm going through a real messy divorce and was talking with my lawyer the whole damn night. Bad news is, after that I was too exhausted to grade your tests. Good news is, I just gave you all A's."

Me and the other English/Humanities types: "Sweet!"

Prospective engineers and such that might actually need to learn and know the material: "What the fuck is this bullshit?!"

English professor who after reading a passage from Joyce/Milton/Dante would always say: "mmmm. Isn't that lovely?"

Poli Sci professor near retirement, who nonetheless had bleach blonde hair and a permanent tan, who would ramble on endless tangents, usually about obscure theories regarding the Templars, Pelagius, or the Masons. The subject of the class was Principles of American Government.

Lol that's funny.

And wrong!

Graduate Physics professor teaching Quantum Mechanics (required course) after looking at his larger than normal sized class went on to extols the virtues of us transferring to the Business School and becoming MBAs. Until the last day to drop the class he kept up with all the fine opportunities for us to be elsewhere.

The next year I was taking a graduate Solid State Phyiscs class with him and because the university kept shuffling around room assignments with little post-it notes on the door for the new room locations there were students from 3 different courses crammed into the tiny room. The undergraduates started leaving when the text book for the class was being passed around. Then the professor came in and looked at the SRO class and announced that there would be 3 mid terms and a final exam, weekly homework, and a research paper in order to scare more students into fleeing the room.

A few months later he announced at the end of the semester he was leaving for AT&T's Bell Labs research center. As he mentioned he was getting ready for the movers, a student told him, "You know they hire movers straight from prison."

My Econometrics professor was a thalidomide baby and had no hands or feet, yet managed to drive a stick shift Mini, but the guy was an absolute fucking genius. He wrote by grabbing the dry erase marker (or pen, or whatever) between his two stumps, but he had the neatest handwriting (stumpwriting?) I've ever seen.

My Econ professor sounded just like Martin Sheen. It was like being taught macro-economics by the Illusive Man.

"High heels are proof of western civilization's oppression of women"

Male anthropology professor. He wasn't joking. He was also a vocal anarcho-communist and one of those profs who was always very inquisitive as to his students' political orientations - it was probably a good thing I could tell him with a straight face that I was an anarchist, too (I left out the -capitalist flavoring, of course, having learned long before that it's not a good idea to have opinions which differ from the person who gets to assign my grade).

I had an Iranian socialist as a professor for three political science classes. Terrfiying man, but also the most effective teacher from college by far.

Apart from emailing us articles he found interesting there was no electronic component to the classes at all. I graduated in 2012 so this was, needless to say, atypical. He just read from his lecture outline and you had to go to class because 80% of the exams were on information he said in class, with the other 20% taken from the readings, which tracked with lectures only loosely. Basically you read three or four books in order to answer one question on the midterms and finals.

If you came in late even before he had started speaking and was still writing his outline on the chalkboard he'd get incandesent with rage. Laptops were banned outright. You had to handwrite notes or record the lecture. One day a girl in the back of the hall was reading the student paper and he yelled at her for fifteen minutes straight, kicked her out of class, and then let us all leave with over an hour left in class since he was too angry to continue.

He hated his dog and rutinely used the local cable company as his punching bag against capitalism since they left a cable exposed in his front yard all winter. He also was stunningly bad at analyzing contemporary politics even though everything he said about things up to the year 2000 or so demonstrated obsessive familiarity with the issues. He thought Hillary Clinton would be out of the State Department before the midterms in 2010, for example, and said that America was really a left wing country.

Still, he was easily my favorite professor and since he was very vulnerable to flattery he ended up liking me a lot too.

"Still, he was easily my favorite professor and since he was very vulnerable to flattery he ended up liking me a lot too."

I feel like you missed out a little on undergrad. :(

I am a college professor......and could tell some interesting stories about students....

Please do.

I had a prof with a thick accent who would say "Impotence" instead of "Impedence". Even after a hundred times, it never got old.

Students who fake relative deaths to get out of due-dates.

Students who fake technology problems to get out of due-dates.



Students who sit in the front row and sleep during class.

Students who sit in the front row and read newspapers/text during class.

Students who claim they didn't set their clocks back to get out of missing finals.

Students who plagiarize entire wikipedia articles and then claim they were entitled to because they syllabus said "do not cite (meaning use) wikipedia".

Students who get up and leave in the middle of class without notice or explanation.

Students who turn in papers in with l33tspeak or text short-hand in them.

Students who answer essay questions on final exams about international politics with lengthy references to Star Wars.

Students who repeatedly fail quizzes and tests even if guidesheets are given out with the exam questions verbatim on the guidesheet.



""If you came in late even before he had started speaking and was still writing his outline on the chalkboard he'd get incandesent with rage. Laptops were banned outright. You had to handwrite notes or record the lecture. One day a girl in the back of the hall was reading the student paper and he yelled at her for fifteen minutes straight, kicked her out of class, and then let us all leave with over an hour left in class since he was too angry to continue."

Oh the horror...the horror.

I should have added students who show up 50 minutes late for an hour and a half long class, repeatedly.

I still would be interested in hearing your interesting student stories, rdrivera.

Students have no expectations on them anymore and if a professor even remotely puts expectations on students and demands a modicum of basic respect he's considered a hard-ass. And TAs can't do anything to students since their funding hinges on student evals.

" having learned long before that it's not a good idea to have opinions which differ from the person who gets to assign my grade"

What a crock. Another oppressed libertarian. I call bs.

@Putin

I failed several students when I was a TA. No one seemed to mind.

Also, I expect a great deal of my students. They still like and respect me. There's a difference between high expectations and being a jackass.

"I feel like you missed out a little on undergrad. :("

I'm not really sure what you mean by that. I don't think it's possible to enjoy undergrad more than I did. At the same time, I got this guy to write letters of rec for all the various things I needed them for, from internships to study abroad to law school. I just had to never challenge anything he ever said. Seems like a fair deal to me.

"Oh the horror...the horror."

I don't know where that's coming from. I said he was my favorite professor and far and away the best teacher I had in college. Apart from his temper, which really was terrifiying, he was great.

How do you know if they minded or not? Evals are anonymous. At any rate, failing people is one thing, but making a class demanding is quite another. Considering students have plenty of time to drop the course if it is remotely difficult, and departments get money based on enrollment, there is no support for TAs who make demands.

His temper didn't seem too "crazy" to me.

The evals are anonymous but I still see the results and they were good.

You can't drop required courses...

"I just had to never challenge anything he ever said."

Jesus, why is every rightwing 20-something whiny and convinced that all profs are out to get them for speaking up? Is this the standard excuse you guys use if you ever get a bad grade?

What were you teaching? If you're expecting engineers taking Poli Sci 100 as a Gen Ed to put in the effort of a political science major in a 300 level class you're just asking for trouble.

"His temper didn't seem too "crazy" to me."

So you've seen him when he was angry, then?

Anyway what are you quoting, Putin? Nobody used the word crazy.

@Invictus,

I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek, but I guess I meant that to some degree, I would hope everyone would have a favorite college professor who was a mentor and encouragement to their learning on a level where they could push back and criticize what the professor was saying, if need be. I get that different people are quirky and still helpful, though, and I don't doubt you learned a lot from this guy. It just seemed like a quip was warranted.

You're in engineering, everything is a required course.

It's a different world from the rest of us.

"The evals are anonymous but I still see the results and they were good."

Study after study shows evals correspond with grades.given to a t. You have no way of knowing how your failed students evaluated you. Unless you're telling me every single eval was perfection. You must be TA of the year.

"Jesus, why is every rightwing 20-something whiny and convinced that all profs are out to get them for speaking up? Is this the standard excuse you guys use if you ever get a bad grade?

I never got a bad grade in college. And I saw him yell at students for challenging him. He was a difficult man who demanded you follow the rules. I did, so I did well and ended up liking him. If I didn't why would I have sought him out for two more classes after my first go?

"I would hope everyone would have a favorite college professor who was a mentor and encouragement to their learning on a level where they could push back and criticize what the professor was saying, if need be."

He doesn't have a huge lead as my favorite, just a huge lead as the best teacher. I had exactly the relationship you're talking about with my program director abroad.

"So you've seen him when he was angry, then?"

Based on what was written. Scolding a student who being incredibly disrespectful doesn't seem "crazy".

"Anyway what are you quoting, Putin? Nobody used the word crazy."

The title of the thread is stories about "crazy" professors, Semck. Good grief.