Adam Scales, the vice dean and a professor at Rutgers-Camden’s law school, sent out an email to students excoriating the fact that a student had “explored, in some detail, the fashion stylings of one of [the female] professors” in a class evaluation.
“Women are frequently targets of evaluative commentary that, in addition to being wildly inappropriate and adolescent, is almost never directed at men,” Scales wrote.
But, he insists, he is “the last one” to so readily make use of the “sexism” label.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
“Anyone who doubts this would find it instructive to stop by and ask any one of our female professors about this and similar dynamics.”
The email was first reported this week by the industry blog Above The Law. Scales declined to comment Thursday and has not spoken publicly about the message.
As word of the email spread, supportive tweets and Facebook posts started cropping up — “Excellent!” “About time!” and “Good for Rutgers” among the commentary.
John Oberdiek, the acting dean of the law school, said in a statement that he fully supported Scales’ message, even if Scales had not meant to publicly champion the cause.
“As you know, this communication was intended to be shared only with the Rutgers Law community. However, once it found its way into the broader conversation, it became clear that it had struck a chord,” he said in the statement.
“We stand by the vice dean’s strong statement against treating women faculty differently; we hope other schools will consider how student evaluations may play an unintended role in perpetuating stereotypes that have no place in professional education.”
You can view the complete email at the Inquirer link.
There is no specific indication of what the evaluation comments said, or to what exactly they made reference.
A commenter at the article makes the point that many professors, female and male, dress inappropriately in class. As such, what is wrong with including comments about that fact in a final course evaluation?
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