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[youtoofred]

Greetings,

A student visited my dean and sent him an e-mail saying that I was rude to call-out a student who was a chronic late arrival.  Additionally, the student did not like it when I told him to take a seat.  The student had a couple of other minor concerns - none of which was anything more than sour grapes IMHO. 

I was asked to go over this student's concerns with the dean.  I asked the student's name - the college refused to answer my question. Do I not have a right to know?  If this should happen again - what are my options in demanding to know who points the finger at me before I need to defend myself?  Any
input appreciated.

[larryc]

I don't think you do. Just deal with it professionally and dispassionately.

PS: You dean is a tool.

[msmicrobe]

Good luck. I've had several snowflakes complain to mom/dad/ or directly to the dean. Dean calls Chair, Chair calls supervisor. Supervisor asks me about it and wants me to defend myself.

I'm frequently not allowed to know who made the complaint. Nor do I get any details of the problem other than a vague "you were rude this term" and am then asked to explain myself.

So just because you SHOULD be told who has the problem with you, don't count on it.

I once said if I couldn't be told any specifics, I wasn't going to worry about it. My view is that I have more important things to do than worry about the anonymous rumor mill. That reply didn't go over well... but I stand by it. If I can't be told anything specific or get any context for the accusation... what exactly is there to discuss?

Good luck to you. I hope you get more support than I did.

[lizzy]

Chime to Larry C and Ms. M.

Depending on your tenure situation, I'd pick and choose among things like this:

level 1) since I don't know who is making this complaint, I'm afraid that I can't offer a specific response to his/hers concerns. I strive to maintain a civil and collegial classroom, and I expect students to contribute by coming to class on time and fulfilling course expectations. 

level 2)   A student who is chronically late and has to be told to take a seat is disrupting class and interfering with other students' learning. I need to be able to manage my classroom in a reasonable fashion. Frankly, I'm surprised that a student who admits to being chronically late merits this level of intervention. Did you suggest to the student that s/he arrive on time in the future?

[nocurving]

In addition to what's already been  mentioned above, if you have policies re attendance and classroom behavior in your syllabus, time to whip that out and point it to that tool of a dean.

[rear_view_mirror]

My experience is similar to Msmicrobe's. The chair read me the complaint and said "what do you think of this?"
I answered the specific complaints. The chair gave no point-by-point response to my rebuttal, but let me know in no uncertain terms that if complaints of this nature continued, my employment would be reconsidered.
The following semester I received an informal letter from a student committee with some type of recognition for excellent service (no award, but a very nice gesture.) I waited two weeks to see whether the chair had any comment about this. He did not. I then sent him an e-mail noting that the students had done this.
I thought it was interesting that he contacted me about the unsolicited negative feedback, but not about the unsolicited positive feedback.

[polly_mer]

That's a weird dean.

Upon reading a complaint like this, my dean would likely ask, "Polly, why did you let a late arrival into the room instead of simply keeping the door closed and locked?"  He's been known to rip into students who complained about not being allowed to enter rooms late with "There's an easy fix to that, student: be on time and then the problem is solved".

[bioteacher]

My experience is similar to Msmicrobe's. The chair read me the complaint and said "what do you think of this?"
I answered the specific complaints. The chair gave no point-by-point response to my rebuttal, but let me know in no uncertain terms that if complaints of this nature continued, my employment would be reconsidered.
The following semester I received an informal letter from a student committee with some type of recognition for excellent service (no award, but a very nice gesture.) I waited two weeks to see whether the chair had any comment about this. He did not. I then sent him an e-mail noting that the students had done this.
I thought it was interesting that he contacted me about the unsolicited negative feedback, but not about the unsolicited positive feedback.

I think we work in the same department for the same person; it's happened to me.

  A lot of the rooms where I am, Polly, cannot be locked by faculty inside. Unless you have the keys, you're out of luck.

[conjugate]

No, you have no right to know who, but you do have a right to point out that your class policies involve mandatory attendance.  You should also point out emphatically that as an instructor it is your professional responsibility to ensure that students do not disrupt class.  If I thought my dean or chair would not back me to the hilt on this, I'd be looking for another job.

That's easy for me to say, because I have a long track record, broad experience, and have been fortunate enough to get supportive administrators.  I empathize with the positions of those who have not been so lucky and I hope you can find a way to endure.  Academia needs people who will uphold standards.  Even the students need this, though they don't understand it.

[polly_mer]

 A lot of the rooms where I am, Polly, cannot be locked by faculty inside. Unless you have the keys, you're out of luck.

All of our rooms are kept locked and often require quite a bit of finagling to become actually unlocked rather than simply slipping the bolt upon turning the key.

[rear_view_mirror]

No, you have no right to know who, but you do have a right to point out that your class policies involve mandatory attendance.  You should also point out emphatically that as an instructor it is your professional responsibility to ensure that students do not disrupt class.  If I thought my dean or chair would not back me to the hilt on this, I'd be looking for another job.

It doesn't matter who made the complaint if the complaint is valid, and it doesn't matter who made the complaint if the complaint is not valid. However, knowing who made the complaint may help the instructor recall the incident and the specifics. This dean is not trying to get to the bottom of this. He may be trying to keep teachers from asking for raises.
In other threads here I have found adjuncts often believe that administrators like adjuncts whose students are not complaining.

[mountainguy]

I would be tempted to turn around an anonymous/vague complaint to make it the dean/chair's responsibility to generate a solution for: "That's interesting, Dean Weirdo. How would you handle the situation if you were in my shoes?"

[conjugate]

I would be tempted to turn around an anonymous/vague complaint to make it the dean/chair's responsibility to generate a solution for: "That's interesting, Dean Weirdo. How would you handle the situation if you were in my shoes?"

Good response.  However, I can picture the dean giving me an indignant glare and saying, "That's not my responsibility.  You're the one getting paid to handle this class, and if you're telling me you don't know how to do it, I'm sure I can find someone else who can." 

Such a response, of course, would be an admission by the dean that he or she only wants the complaints to stop, and in my opinion would mean that the dean is not competent for the position.  (Either that or the dean and the instructor have had a history of arguments, which is apparently not the case here.)  How would you respond to such a snarling attack?

[rear_view_mirror]

I would be tempted to turn around an anonymous/vague complaint to make it the dean/chair's responsibility to generate a solution for: "That's interesting, Dean Weirdo. How would you handle the situation if you were in my shoes?"

Good response.  However, I can picture the dean giving me an indignant glare and saying, "That's not my responsibility.  You're the one getting paid to handle this class, and if you're telling me you don't know how to do it, I'm sure I can find someone else who can." 

Such a response, of course, would be an admission by the dean that he or she only wants the complaints to stop, and in my opinion would mean that the dean is not competent for the position.  (Either that or the dean and the instructor have had a history of arguments, which is apparently not the case here.)  How would you respond to such a snarling attack?

See reasons #5 and #9 here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Adjunct-Rip-off-10-Rea/46365/
A situation like this one conveys to the students that the adjunct does not have a position of authority.

[watermarkup]

Some campus attorneys see a FERPA violation in any kind of negative feedback not given to a student in private. You could have a drunk, naked student aiming around the room with a .45, and you would still be expected to wait until after class to take the student aside for a private conversation about the inappropriateness of his or her behavior. I'm barely exaggerating here--the disruptive behavior policy at Stadium U explicitly called for everything to be done outside the presence of other students, and my telling a group of students that their behavior was unacceptable got me into trouble with my chair. I assume these policies are spreading.

On the NTT, being prepared to walk away from your job and/or your career is sometimes the only way to stay sane. Start polishing your CV.