What would happen if a student got drunk and harassed a Prof in e-mail?

February 2, 2023 11:17 AM

I was curious to know, what would happen if a university student got really drunk and e-mailed their professor and harassed them or got angry with them? Would they likely get expelled or in huge trouble?
posted by RearWindow to Education (15 answers total)

It would absolutely depend on the contents of the email, and the attitude of the professor.
posted by hepta at 11:19 AM on February 2, 2023 [15 favorites]

Assuming we're talking about a one-time thing (something that happens over the course of a few hours, even if not literally one email) and nothing that involved actual credible threats of actual violence, the answer ranges anywhere from nothing to practically nothing.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:24 AM on February 2, 2023 [12 favorites]

I suspect there will be different answers depending on the school, whether the student has been in trouble before, whether they're immensely sorry or whether it's an indicator of a larger issue with the student.

At my kid's college, I recently did a deep dive into the honor code for reasons*, and I think this would fall under "non-academic violations of the code of conduct" which would be referred to the Dean's office, where punishments can range from expulsion, suspension, and disciplinary probation, to formal and informal counseling. The honor code notes that sometimes the dean's office conducts conversations over minor disciplinary concerns that do not rise to the level of requiring formal action. So I think it depends!

*See my answer in this thread.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:26 AM on February 2, 2023 [9 favorites]

It depends on the nature of the harassment and how the anger is expressed. And of course the professor's response. Professors get angry e-mails all the time, so if they just interpret it as drunk rambling then that's the end of that. Which is, I think, how a lot would respond

But the university is an employer, and has legal responsibilities to the professor. A student sexually harassing a professor, or using race based, or other slurs, pretty much requires a university response if the professor reports it. (And depending on how seriously the university takes this sort of training, the professor may have been told reporting is mandatory.)

If the professor wants to pursue the matter, I assume the minimum they'd get is a note in the student's file and the student forced out of the professor's class.
posted by mark k at 11:42 AM on February 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

A, uh, very close friend works at an institution that would absolutely cover this up and ignore it. Student MIGHT get referred to alcohol counseling and the recovery program. Professor would be asked to let it go under the guise of meeting the student where they're at. My friend has been threatened before (in fairly vague terms) and nothing happened. That student, in fact, enrolled in one of friend's classes later.

Trust and believe that your friends in higher ed have stories that you wouldn't believe. Not to get too chatfiltery, but friend once had to walk into their head's office and "look, I'm about to tell you more about me than you wanted to know, but I just had to tell one of my students to stop using their sub to communicate with me and email me themselves, because I did not sign up to be non-consensually involved in their power dynamic."
posted by joycehealy at 11:42 AM on February 2, 2023 [25 favorites]

I'm faculty at a university. I have occasionally gotten rambly angry messages from students, none of which have ever threatened physical violence. I usually ignore them if they have no substantive complaint. If they do have a substantive complaint, I respond to them the same as if they'd raised that issue in a less confrontational manner. If they threaten legal action or internal escalation, I forward it on to my department chair, with a header saying "I'm not recommending any action on this, but I want you to be aware of the situation in case it becomes something you need to respond to." AFAICT none have ever resolved into disciplinary action towards students, or any official response at all outside of my department.
posted by jackbishop at 11:56 AM on February 2, 2023 [16 favorites]

In my university, this would likely get forwarded to the student's advisor, or campus security, or the "helping at-risk people" team depending on the instructor and the severity of the email. The instructor might also just answer and tell the student to do better in future.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 12:23 PM on February 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Have had a student (not even my student) send an unhinged, volatile email. I forwarded to the dean of student affairs to handle in case there were any legal or disciplinary issues.

I think this is going to vary a lot based on specifics. At my current institution we are strongly encouraged to be thoughtful about student mental health and wellness and we have several specific resources to involve if we feel that a student's behavior is off in some way.

I think if there is any threat of violence/legal compliance stuff likely someone in a student affairs office will be contacted. If it is more of sense that a student is really struggling and may be dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues I think it would be forwarded on to whatever office/department handles that. Potentially student health or counseling.

In my experience teaching faculty often don't know all the details of their institution's various policies and procedures offhand and so I think it's most likely if this happened a professor would try to reach out to various administrators to make sure this is handled in line with school policy.
posted by forkisbetter at 12:23 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

This sort of thing is hugely context specific. What typically *should* happen is referral to some sort of student affairs office that would assess what happened, any mitigating factors or history, decide whether any sort of student code of conduct violation occurred and if so kick off a process to review that, and determine whether any sort of real safety issue existed that might need to be dealt with while the slow conduct process played out.

More realistically, the professor probably talks to a colleague or a Dean or department head, who may not know or may not care about any kind of centralized process, and some sort of ad hoc local review and scolding happens instead. Maybe if it happens multiple times then it gets escalated.

Typically when all’s said and done, it would take a lot to expel a student for an angry drunk email. It would have to really involve a clear and specific and credible threat, in my experience. It’s more likely you’d be looking at some sort of scolding, some sort of counseling, possibly a requirement to copy the department head on future emails to that professor, maybe removal from the class - policies usually give a *lot* of discretion on how to handle issues.
posted by Stacey at 12:36 PM on February 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

More likely than not most school administrations would want to sweep something like this under the rugs as they view students as customers/cash sources. I would say it would be unlikely a professor could even remove a student from class depending on how the administrative layer of the university feels. This is all coming from the angle that the professor wants to remove the student of course.
posted by Ferreous at 12:45 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

The student’s demographic (race, gender, wealth) matters tremendously.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:52 PM on February 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

Prof here. Have never been on the receiving end of such an email. If I were, I know that I can refer it for disciplinary action to the Dean of Students, based on the U's code of conduct. I know I have the unquestioned right to remove a student from my class.

I'm familiar with our disciplinary process. Outcome generally depends on the severity and circumstances. Probation would be likely, and expulsion is rare but possible. In one SA case I saw, the immediate action (even before a hearing) was a ban from campus until the victim had graduated, so practical expulsion if not formal. Professional counseling is often a requirement.

I don't think student demographic should matter, as far as the prof goes. It may come into play during the outcome determination of what outcome will be most effective for the student, but for the recipient of the email -- report, then hands off.
posted by Dashy at 1:44 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

Here's something by the late blogger (and UC Irvine professor) Scott Eric Kaufman about the university response when he walked in on two students canoodling in his office. The original incident is in more humorous detail here (and also is evidence the "stories you wouldn't believe" comment.)

But the relevant bit is in that case the university absolutely triggered a corporate style, HR follows a procedure response to protect the professor. Obviously a lot will depend on the university, size, and power dynamics within it--it seems plausible a huge UC campus will react very differently than, say, a small private school.
posted by mark k at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

I would presume Student Judicial Affairs would be contacted and would investigate the situation, or so is the general process with my alma mater. Of course, that's assuming the professor reports it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:30 PM on February 2, 2023

There are a couple avenues on our campus-it could be referred to the behavioral response team which monitors people with behavior that could ramp into harm to self or others. Our student conduct has a couple of approaches-a typical process that can be accepting responsibility and charting a path toward repairing harm and improvement, being heard by a student panel who discern responsibility and action, which could be anything from addressing alcohol issues from binge drinking to addiction/relapse, suspension, etc. Student conduct also has restorative justice for suitable cases. Credible threats of violence, sexual violence and assaults on protected class identities may or may or may not have required processes.

Ignoring it doesn’t offer feedback for improvement, if the student apologizes and says they were drunk, campuses have a lot of avenues for students to get help with problematic drinking suggest someone else/a resource to talk to, and it signals that the recipient cares about improvement.
posted by childofTethys at 5:36 PM on February 3, 2023