@bhs1978 We shouldn’t stop talking about this because it’s another example of social media and the repercussions of using it to voice a controversial position.
@CU123 I don’t disagree with you. I guess when I said I’m over it, I’m over people using social media to be unkind.
I watched a video on you tube “(This professors name) in her own words” She is a vile human being. I would not want my students anywhere near her classroom. I find her speech every bit as hateful as a white supremacist. The fact that anybody would defend someone who knowingly jammed a suicide hotline is just crazy and sad.
Point is, as hateful and reprehensible as she is if I met her on the street I would be kind to her. Not that that would mean anything to her, because after watching that video I don’t think she even knows the definition of “kind” or of “tolerance”
Her responses to the push back were worse than her original tweet.
I found these by googling “screen shots of randa jarrar tweets”.
But 1st Amendment, and all that…my real beef is with her putting out the number of a student crisis management number as her own. THAT should be actionable.
How you can feel happy that someone is grieving the loss of a loved one is beyond me. Does she really not understand how self-righteous, cruel and smug she comes off as? This doesn’t track with the “caring and nurturing” professor some of her students speak of. Perhaps she’s bi-polar and is in a manic phase (not saying nastiness is a bi-polar characteristic, but impulsivity and the suspending of normal filters can be). I’m just trying to process her cavalier and bombastic responses to criticism. She seems slightly unhinged to me.
^^^ She definitely seems really full of herself. There are folks like that of all political persuasions, of course. Like you, I think she should be punished for the hotline bit. That’s just plain wrong. Otherwise, watching someone like her with her antics is somewhat amusing knowing what she thinks about herself and how others view her. Of course, the only place I hear about it is here so she will soon drop back into oblivion.
I can’t think of any student I know who would want to study under her due to her personality, but I have no concerns about “warning” students about her. No one from my neck of the woods considers Fresno State anyway - it’s all about location/cost.
“Perhaps she’s bi-polar and is in a manic phase (not saying nastiness is a bi-polar characteristic, but impulsivity and the suspending of normal filters can be). I’m just trying to process her cavalier and bombastic responses to criticism. She seems slightly unhinged to me.”
Can we say this applies to all who post nasty attacks on twitter? 
Yeah seems pretty vile but climate du jour these days…meanwhile Roger Stone had some really nasty things to say about Mrs. Bush today. We can’t escape it. People feel empowered to be just nasty. People have a right to their opinions and we are lucky enough to live in a country where we are free to speak our minds. But people really need to take a course on etiquette.
Social media has empowered many feeble minds in this country and there are plenty of them who have advanced degrees, sorry to say.
Her punishment is living/working in Fresno.
She should be fired- not for her comments about Barbara Bush but for possibly tying up a suicide hotline. That’s unconscionable, in my opinion.
The LA Times article pointed out that last year a Fresno State professor tweeted that “Trump must hang to save democracy”. He was put on paid leave! That’s not punishment that’s a paid vacation.
I like the First Amendment and I read that FIRE is defending this woman. Students at universities should be given the same rights and not be suspended or reprimanded or otherwise punished when they exercise their First Amendment rights.
My beef is that college professors should be reasoned rational people not people who throw around ad hominen attacks. They could express their opinions in a way that reflects reason and logic. She could have said that she thought Barbara Bush was less than admirable and then given facts to support her view. The way she tweeted was childish.
As a “tenured professor” I could not be more disappointed in the professionalism of a [distant] colleague. I’m a free speech advocate but the jamming of a mental health hotline is beyond reprehensible. I couldn’t disagree more with her statements, but I support her right to make those statements. But to potentially endanger people in crisis, that’s over the line.
Something about using the power of tenure responsibly comes to mind.
@TatinG – “The way she tweeted was childish.”
Childish tweeting is quite the rage, these days. Even among people in the highest of offices.
I see it as very similar to Westboro Baptist (those folks who have their “gatherings” at military funerals spouting their views). To the majority they look/act like fools even though they are free to spout their views, but what separates them from other typical fools spouting their views online or at bars or wherever is their “shouting” about how they are “Christian” and represent “the church.” They don’t. She doesn’t represent tenured professors anymore than they represent the church. It’s a fringe, but not the majority.
I can understand Fresno State wanting to distance themselves from her and hope they are able to do so due to her linking the hotline to “her” cause. At the very least, she ought to only be attracting “her choir” to her classes.
If a fraternity had done a skit, putting on white hair and pearls and singing “Ding, dong, the witch is dead”, would they have been suspended? It’s no wonder that fraternities think they can behave badly when their professors do.
^I’m pretty sure fraternities aren’t looking at professors for their model of behavior…
Maybe not. But the fact is immature,stupid 18-21 year olds whose brains are not fully developed are being held to a higher standard than the adult professors teaching them
No defense for either side.
^Not really. It’s insensitivity vs. racism. Not equatable in my opinion.
You are right!
YouTube “Randa Jarrar In her own words”
You’ll see that Randa Jarrar is extremely racist.
And those frat boys were also extremely insensitive.