Trouble at the College (Case Only)
New Role
It was Friday of the first long weekend of summer and twenty-five-year-old Lexi Branson
(preferred pronouns they/them) had just finished the first week in their new role as Human
Resource Consultant at Whitmore College. They were super stoked to be working for this
organization and felt lucky to have landed the role right out of university. As Lexi shut down
the computer for the day, they decided to check their email one last time before hitting the
beach with friends. As a few emails populated the screen, one email was marked high
priority from Elena Gilberta (preferred pronouns she/her), a part-time faculty member. A
program coordinator in the School of Business had emailed a report to multiple professors
that disparaged Elena. Elena explained that she had encountered harassment and bullying
from this coordinator in the past and she wanted something done about it! Lexi could not
believe this was happening right now and they had no idea how to proceed. Lexi wanted to
do well in their new role and impress their supervisor, so they had to come up with
something quick!
Faculty Member
Elena had just completed her first year as a part-time college professor at Whitmore College
in Mystic Falls, Ontario, and was very excited for some much-needed time off. Elena and her
husband have three young children, the youngest is just two months old. It was a Friday
afternoon, and Elena had finished cleaning the lunch dishes when she heard an email
notification on her phone. The email was from Carol Lockawood (preferred pronouns
she/her), a program coordinator in the School of Business. Each year Carol appointed a
student from each section to act as the class representative for the course review. Elena had
received many compliments from her students regarding the course delivery and lectures
and was looking forward to reading the review. Her kids and husband had gone outside to
play on the trampoline, Elena opened the email and noticed that Carol’s email was shared
with all eight professors teaching the same section. Elena opened the Word document
attached, and noticed the document was written by Bonnie Bennetta (preferred pronouns
she/her), a student with whom Elena had great difficulty in the second term. Bonnie was the
class representative, and her job was to collate a report based on feedback from the whole
class regarding the course content, textbook used, and evaluation methods. Elena scrolled
through the document and scanned each professor's name until she got to her own. She
began to read Bonnie’s report, and her stomach sank. Bonnie had used the report as an
avenue to take out her frustrations with Elena’s course and the poor grade she had earned.
Elena was fuming! She was angry that first - Carol would release a report that disparaged any
of the professors in her department, and second, Carol would allow a student to appraise a
professor! The report was supposed to be instructor neutral. Carol was not Elena’s
supervisor and had no right to act in a managerial role. The collective agreement states that
no faculty member can engage in a management role.
Job Offer
When Elena was offered the teaching contract at Whitmore College, she was three months
pregnant and couldn’t believe she was being offered her dream job at the most inopportune
time. If she took the job, the baby would be born in March, which was the middle of term
two. Elena’s husband was supportive and told her there is no such thing as a perfect
opportunity (boy, was he right) and that she should take the job, and he would help her get
through the term.
Elena’s first day on campus was rough. She was beyond nervous as she hadn’t taught in front
of people before, and she had morning sickness. Elena was afraid she would need to run to
the washroom during her class, or worse, throw up in class. Elena was embarrassed just
thinking about it. Thankfully though, Elena got through the two-hour class without being sick
and then went to her meeting with the program coordinator. Carol had been the program
coordinator for six years and held her program in high esteem. She was very proud of all she
had accomplished during her time as coordinator, and she seemed like an agreeable person.
Suddenly, Elena felt the familiar wave of morning sickness come over her and reached for
the garbage can in the corner. Elena was mortified that she had just thrown up in front of a
new colleague and quickly explained that it was morning sickness, and she was three months
pregnant. Elena composed herself and Carol started to express her concerns about Elena’s
pregnancy and not being able to give her full capacity to the students as she would be having
the baby during the school year. Carol feared that Elena would not keep the program’s
integrity and reputation, and this made Elena feel awful!
Elena was very well-liked by her colleagues and the students, but she always felt tension
between herself and Carol. As time passed, Elena heard stories from faculty that Carol did
not take kindly to new faculty members in her area and that some part-time faculty
members had left after only a term or two. Carol was known to cause a scene in front of her
colleagues and had even made one part-time faculty member break down in tears. That
faculty member never returned. Elena was hoping to have a better experience with Carol
and always made a point of saying hello to her and being kind. As the year progressed, Elena
noticed that Carol often spoke poorly of others, and Elena started to avoid her when
possible. By the time Elena had completed her first year at Whitmore College, two of the
full-time faculty members in the program had transferred to other program areas.
Program Coordinator
Carol Lockawood took her role as a coordinator very seriously. Every two years, when the
coordinator position was due for rotation, Carol would apply for the position and make her
annoyance known to fellow colleagues that challenged her for the position. Being a
coordinator meant everything to Carol. Her children had grown and left the house, and she
was now on her own and could devote extra time to her work. She enjoyed the coordinator
role as she had a say in the program delivery, what courses were to be removed or added,
and she had control over the course outlines and delivery methods. Throughout the years,
Carol had recommended potential part-time candidates to fill vacancies for faculty in her
program area. Carol liked recommending people for the role, especially those that held her
in high regard. Carol was surprised when she heard that Elena Gilberta was hired by the
Associate Dean of the School of Business. The Associate Dean oversaw the hiring and
termination of faculty employment and did not need to consult program coordinators before
doing so. Carol resented that she was not consulted in the hiring of Elena. She knew Elena
did not have prior teaching experience, which Carol held as the important qualification for
the position.
Class Representative
Elena met Bonnie Bennetta on the first day of class. Bonnie was seated in the front row and
seemed like a keen student. When Elena asked for class participation, Bonnie made sure to
make her opinion known. One day during a class lecture, a small group of students were
quietly chatting at the back of the classroom. Bonnie stood up, faced the students, and
shouted at them to be quiet, claiming that she was trying to learn and could not do so with
their constant chit-chat. Elena was taken back by Bonnie’s outburst and didn’t know what to
say, so she decided to continue the lecture as if nothing had happened. In term two, Elena
was teaching a second-level Microsoft course and noticed Bonnie was on her class list.
During the introductory class, Elena reviewed the course evaluations in detail and how the
student’s assignments would be graded electronically. Electronic grading was helpful to the
professor because it would highlight a student’s errors and save the professor hours of
grading time. Electronic grading was different than how the level one professor had graded
the assignments, by reading each two-page document and trying to find errors by eye. The
professors decided that too many errors could be missed when grading by eye, and
electronic grading would be more valuable. Bonnie asked if Elena could grade them as the
previous instructor had. Since all level two professors had agreed to electronically grade,
Elena was required to do the same and said no to Bonnie’s request. A few weeks later, the
students received the grades for the first assignment and Bonnie received a zero. In their
next class together, Elena knew Bonnie would want to speak to her about the grade. Instead,
Bonnie started the class by announcing her dislike of how the assignment was graded and
that it would affect her GPA. She claimed that no one liked their documents electronically
graded and demanded that Elena grade the assignments how the previous level one
professor had. When Elena started to reply, Bonnie shouted at her, saying “Can I finish
talking?” Elena was astonished by Bonnie’s disrespectful tone and allowed her to finish
ranting. When she was done, Elena replied to Bonnie with three points. 1) The class average
on the assignment was 85%, and therefore, Bonnie should not speak for the whole class. 2)
The assignments would continue to be graded electronically, and if she had a problem with
it, she should speak to the Associate Dean. 3) If an assignment had a grade of zero, it’s
because a zero had been earned. Had Elena personally graded the assignments, Bonnie
would still have received a zero. Elena could see how angry Bonnie was by her response but
decided to close the subject and start the class. Elena could feel her body shaking and hoped
her baggy maternity clothes hid that from the class. Elena was content with how she
handled Bonnie and hoped it would never happen again!
HR Consultant
As an HR Consultant, Lexi’s role includes one-on-one consulting and advising for faculty and
staff. As Lexi has never worked in these roles, their plan for next week was to become
familiar with the organization’s training methods, policies, and best practices on
discrimination, harassment, and bullying. Now that Lexi has received Elena’s very upset
email, they realized they needed to learn these policies immediately! Lexi wants to impress
their supervisor and handle this matter effectively and delicately. They put the beach on the
back burner and look up the company’s harassment policy. Lexi must figure out what to do.