Thursday, October 16

For weeks, students have been complaining about Professor Bander’s handwriting, which is poor at best and illegible because it is small. She frequently misspells words and some have diagnosed dyslexia. Her diagrams and pictures are the most troubling. Circles often look like squares, males like females and graphs like cityscapes. A couple weeks ago, after several email complaints and anonymous stickies on her office door, she acknowledged her handicap. “I’m a political scientist,” she proclaimed, “not an artist. However, I will make a better effort.”

And make a better effort she did. Today, while discussing schemas and degrees of attitudes, Professor Bander drew what was meant to be a thermometer on the board. She made sure that it was large and visible to even those in the back of the room. “Attitudes are the weighted sum of the valenced beliefs weighted by salience and/or centrality.” While I nestled in my seat reflecting on her nonsensical statement—lecture for that matter, I glanced over at her illustration hoping that the visual display would provide some clarity. What I saw instead was a giant penis! Shortly after my discovery, Professor Bander glanced over to her graphic for reference and screamed. “Oh my god!” She quickly began erasing.