University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR) faculty members are receiving insults and inappropriate, sometimes even hateful, comments from students and are asking management to remedy the situation.
“Bro what the heck my dog explains it better.” “Psychopath, physically and mentally ill [sic]he must return to his country, filthy race.”
These disturbing comments (see below) were written anonymously by students as part of the teaching evaluation.
They will be sent to the lecturers in full at the end of the session.
“It’s particularly uncomfortable and, above all, not constructive at all. We see that there is no desire to improve teaching, only a desire to empty our hearts,” says Michèle Tessier-Baillargeon, vice-president of the Union of UQAR.
The fact that students can comment anonymously is part of the problem that has grown over the years, she adds.
“There is still a shift that we would not have allowed ourselves in the past. The students are sitting in front of their screens, but they are not on social networks, they are responding to an assessment in the university context,” she emphasizes.
“Big influence
For some faculty, the impact is “big,” adds Ms Tessier-Baillargeon.
Colleagues have even refused to teach again after receiving such comments. “Rejecting a contract because you’re afraid of disruptive comments is the definition of an unhealthy workplace,” she says.
solutions
However, solutions exist to remedy the situation and these measures are already in place at other universities, says Christine Gauthier, vice president of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ-CSN).
At the Université Laval, students quantitatively evaluate the quality of teaching using rating scales, and anyone wishing to make comments must do so openly after the grades have been submitted.
At Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, comments are first filtered before being forwarded to faculty, which means that offensive or inappropriate remarks can be removed.
However, in the absence of beacons, “all the ingredients are in place to make room for offensive comments,” says Ms Gauthier, who believes management has a responsibility to protect “the psychological integrity” of its faculty.
At the UQAR, the implementation of such mechanisms is part of the union demands in the context of the current negotiations, but the management is defending itself against an “incomprehensible rejection of the admissibility”, affirms Ms. Tessier-Baillargeon, who makes it clear that the lecturers are not directed against the evaluation of the doctrine, but against the manner in which comments are conveyed.
When asked to react, the management of the UQAR refused to comment on the situation at the negotiating table “so as not to impair the ongoing discussions”.
Examples of comments received
- “The teacher has the mental level of a third-year student. He’s lost in his clothes.
- “Psychopath, physically and mentally ill [sic]he must return to his country, filthy race.”
- “She didn’t [sic] don’t do her hair. Give her money to change the color of her clothes.”
- “Incompetent, asshole.”
- “Bro what the heck my dog explains it better.”
Source: Anonymous comments from students received by teachers as part of the evaluation of their teaching, compiled by the Syndicat des Charges et Charges de cours de l’Université du Québec à Rimouski.
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