Coping With Troubled Students

As faculty members, how many of us have had a particularly strange student in our classrooms? A student who we know just isn’t “right” and who exhibits troubling signs of one kind or another?

Sometimes it is difficult to put a finger on what seems off about a student’s behavior, so we do nothing, not wanting to overreact. Other times we might call the dean of students or a campus counselor. And sometimes a call to campus security might even be in order.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech last spring brought to the forefront the question of how faculty members should react when a student’s odd behavior begins to raise red flags. The news coverage of that crisis showed how some of the institute’s professors had sought to call attention to the killer’s bizarre behavior and to get him help.

What happened in Blacksburg, Va., is clearly an extreme case. There are, however, many other troubling incidents on college campuses that receive little attention because they do not end in tragedy. But they can certainly affect life on the campus for an individual, whether that person is a professor, a staff member, or a student. How the administration reacts to such problems can set the tone for how it will handle a more serious crisis.

It is important to remember that as faculty members, we are neither psychiatrists nor counselors. We are not professionally trained to help a disturbed student, and it is in neither a student’s interest, nor ours, to attempt to do so. What we can do is alert the appropriate services on the campus to step in and help a student in distress.

That said, it can be difficult, in practice, to know when to take those steps. How seriously should we, as “first responders,” take signs of trouble? And what should we as faculty members do if the student’s behavior is directed against us?

I have had to think about those issues very personally twice in my 10 years of teaching. Faculty members typically have the most consistent contact with students on the campus so we can sometimes become the target of their aggression. It’s easy to see why. We are in a position of power over students, many of whom are used to getting what they want.

There are many forms of harassment, and in the past few years, my colleagues and I (both in my department and at other institutions) have seen more than our fair share. Based on that anecdotal evidence, I cannot say whether student harassment of faculty members is increasing. But I see worrisome signs that make me think it is a problem that will not go away.

Advances in technology, especially e-mail, have made it easier and easier to harass a professor. Those technologies allow students to act anonymously, and in a more brazen fashion, than if the student had to confront the professor in person.

Many of my colleagues have received e-mail messages from students that have left them upset and rattled. Others have received phone calls and other blatant threats, typically from a student unhappy about a grade. But when you find yourself in the position of needing to contact a college administrator about a potential safety issue on the campus, it is not always evident how to proceed.

In my case, when I felt threatened by a student, I contacted the director of campus safety at my college, who is a former police officer. I have twice needed to call campus safety about a student whose behavior toward me crossed the line.

I know of other faculty members who have received harassing phone calls at home late at night, have had their telephone numbers posted on public message boards like Craigslist so they would receive bothersome calls, and have had nasty comments posted about them on Web sites like RateMyProfessors.com.

Of the two instances in which I felt harassed by a student, one resulted after I had accused a student of plagiarism. The student, who had already been accused of plagiarism by another faculty member, had exhibited odd behavior for years, switching majors at least 10 times and repeatedly dropping classes toward the end of a semester.

The evidence I had against the student was overwhelming. I was able to show that he had copied a good 75 percent of his paper from an Internet source, without citation. The campus judicial council found him guilty and, since he had a prior offense, recommended that he be expelled for two semesters. The administration agreed.

Once the student received the council’s ruling, however, he began a full assault against me and four members of my department, accusing us of discrimination based on his sexual orientation. The charges were completely unfounded and clearly a last-ditch effort to remain at the college.

Much of the student’s behavior was petty harassment. He made late-night phone calls to members of our department. He anonymously ordered a book on homophobia on college campuses for two of us from a local bookstore (we were able to obtain evidence that led the student to admit the act).

Eventually, the college expelled the student permanently; he is not allowed on the campus for any reason.

While the administration followed through on its punishment in this instance, there were many troubling signs from that student for years that it ignored. For me, the experience was a bit frightening and extremely frustrating. We watched as this student was given every courtesy by administrators, who kept faculty members in the dark about both the process and the accusations being made by the student.

It took persistence on the part of both faculty members and campus safety officers to finally get the student permanently removed from the college and banned from the campus.

In my experience, there are a few things that faculty members can do when they see behavior by a student that seems outside the norm. First, keep good records. I make copies and save any correspondence from students that is out of the ordinary.

Second, have a good working relationship with your college’s campus security office. Know how to contact that office and know who is in charge.

Third, know the appropriate individuals in the administration to contact, and then contact them. Let them know with a simple, cautionary e-mail message that something is amiss. That way you will have alerted the administration to a potentially dangerous situation, and you will have proof that you have done so.

Finally, do not confront the student. Leave that to campus police. Proceeding in that manner deflects some of the student’s anger off you and places it on the officers who are better trained to handle it.

It is critical that administrators act swiftly and forcefully when dealing with aggressive student behavior. Administrators may feel under pressure to weigh financial concerns and to give equal consideration to the interests of parents and students, but protecting the institution’s faculty should be of prime importance.

Professors who deal with students every day have good insight in judging troubling behavior, and college administrators need to take those warnings seriously. Letting students know that the college will not tolerate harassing behaviors is an important message to send.