Ridiculous, especially considering this student has been trying to get answers for class requirements and other serious matters for a year to no avail and these were advisers whose main job was to ADVISE STUDENTS. It also seems he and several other students have found this particular adviser to be very unhelpful in the past if one wants to be extremely diplomatic:
Her argument not only makes no sense, in context of other students relating past history of this adviser being so unhelpful, rude, and abrupt…she doesn’t seem to be eager to fulfill the main responsibilities of her job. Equating student waiting for adviser as harassment and then threatening to call campus security on said student just adds to the outrageousness on top of her being unhelpful.
And why couldn’t the adviser see him? There did not appear to be a soul around in that waiting room. And why did his adviser send someone else out to basically get rid of him? If she is his adviser she should have spoken to the student directly and perhaps extended the courtesy of making an actual appointment with him. Some “adviser.”
Unless there is more to the story I think both these women should be reprimanded.
Reprimanded? In the case of the videoed unhelpful adviser threatening to call security because the student wanted to ensure he was getting the service he was legitimately entitled to and to ensure they’re fulfilling the basic obligations of their job…it seems plain she’s not suited for the role of adviser by her unhelpful rude attitude. She at least should be terminated so she could find a job more suited to her attitude.
The woman who came out and spoke to the student was not his adviser. She was Abby Dawson, the school’s director of advising and internships in the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management. I agree her whole approach to the matter was inappropriate and calling security was an overreaction. But does this behavior rise to the level of a termination? I am not sure. I think the school would have to go beyond this one incident and rely on some of the other experiences that the other students tweeted about.
And on what grounds would you terminate his actual adviser who never came out of her office? I think the student was told to “come back in an hour when she would be available.” He chose to wait instead which should have been fine. But I am not sure she did anything that would lead to her termination.
First, I am only talking about Abby Dawson as shown when I mentioned the videoed unhelpful adviser.
I am basing my opinion on her apparent rude and threatening attitude* towards the student concerned which underscored other students’ accounts of her rudeness, unhelpfulness, and generally avoiding fulfill her basic responsibilities: to advise students and to ensure students are receiving advising in a helpful and timely manner.
Getting one’s appointments abruptly canceled with little/no explanation and being effectively blown off for several months after initially playing by their official bureaucratic rules as is the case with this student doesn’t exactly convey that.
If we include directing an advising system which has apparently been very unhelpful to the point of blowing off other students who chimed in when the student who videotaped her outburst posted the video, that just makes her look much worse as she’s also responsible for the poor advising done by other advisers under her supervision.
In fact, threatening to call campus security on someone because someone wants to wait in the office as he was entitled to do as a student hoping to see an adviser in person is abuse of one's power as a university official and thus, alone should make it plain she shouldn't be allowed to continue in a position where she has such power over students.
It’s my understanding that he went and the advisor said they could see him in an hour (and his advisor was not this lady, it was someone else) and to come back in an hour. He decided he wanted to just wait there for an hour instead of leaving and coming back. And apparently it’s known that this lady that confronted him is a bit crazy.
I am not sure about Dawson being “crazy” but my perception from watching the video is that she is very short on social skills. She did not even greet the student. She just came barreling out of her office with an aggressive demeanor. I would not treat a stranger in this manner and most certainly not a student that my department was advising. She was belligerent and just plain mean to that boy.
I actually think he handled it very well. He remained calm and never raised his voice. He was interviewed a few days later and actually presented himself very well. He was poised and well spoken. Thinking there isn’t much he can learn from Dawson in any event.
I agree with those on here- he handled it well. She seems like she’s got a chip the size of Mt. Everest on her shoulder.
With that said, reading through some of the other things (like the email pictures posted) makes me cringe… hard. I could barely understand what the students were asking and the English skills were extremely poor.
No one should treat students like that. It blows my mind that anyone would think that was an acceptable way to talk to another human being.
I doubt Dawson was being “crazy”. Instead, judging by that video and multiple accounts of her level of helpfulness and attitude, she has a serious attitude problem which apparently proved to be a serious impediment to doing her job…serving as a helpful adviser to students and ensuring advisers under her supervision are also helpful to students requiring their academic advising services.
Unless she has a serious attitude adjustment elsewhere or changes careers to one where she wouldn’t be put into a position where counseling and customer service skills are critical parts of the job as her position as director of internships and advising happens to be.