Brickbat: A Criminal Matter

A "gross error" and an "unwarranted overreaction." That's how Ball State University President Geoffrey S. Mearns describes professor Shaheen Borna's decision to call police on a student who refused to sit where the professor told him to. The student, Sultan "Mufasa" Benson, arrived to find someone sitting in his assigned seat. Borna told him to take a seat in the back. Later, when another student left, Borna told Benson to move to that seat. Benson refused, saying he'd plugged his computer into a nearby socket and it was still charging. Borna told him to move or he'd call the cops. When Benson still refused, Borna called police. The police arrived and Benson left the classroom. Borna has since apologized.

Comments

[Rat on a train (non donor)]

I hear Sothwest doesn't have assigned seating.

[Real Books]

Is this a problem? What would you have, complete anarchy and chaos instead?

[Agammamon]

You can't have anarchy *and* chaos at the same time. They're mutually exclusive.

[Jerryskids]

But the real outrage here is that a black student arrives to class to find his assigned seat appropriated by another student and the white professor tells the black man to sit in the back. Did Rosa Parks die in vain? Does nobody understand the whole concept of assigned seating? Have I been dosed with crazy pills here? Why were the cops not summoned on the student who stole this guy's seat to begin with?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The sanctity of the marketing class, so rigid were Borna's rules that students can sit in each other's assigned seat and leave class in the middle.

If they're not coddling SJW fit-throwers they're calling police on guys not jumping when told. Is there no middle ground in academia?

[Longtobefree]

Fascists gotta be fascists.

[Don't look at me!]

What would they have charged him with? Or would they have “smelled marijuana “?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assault on a police officer... in that order.

[Rich10011]

And then go to his house and shoot his dog....

[Conchfritters]

The police arrived...

For once I would like to read a story like this where the police tell the frivolous caller to go fuck themselves, or risk being arrested for wasting 911’s time. How the hell did this call go down?

Dispatch: we have a student in the classroom who refuses to move seats.

Cops: is it preschool or elementary school?

Dispatch: it’s macro economics at Ball State.

Cops: we’re sending three units.

[loveconstitution1789]

So this situation exposes multiple problems going on in today's PC World.

1. Professors and teacher lean Lefty and are reaping the racial and PC culture that they sowed.
2. Professors and teachers are not allowed to control their classroom like judges control their courtrooms. Maybe this professor has a good reason for assigned seats and the article never covered that part. I had assigned seating in High School.
3. Taken with that cell tracking article for college students, evidently colleges are not the relaxed attitude rape and drug assembly lines that they used to be. Title IX lawsuits perhaps?
4. Many Adults are scared to interact with younger people because the younger people cannot handle it. Older adults just call the police. Its not worth the hassle.
5. The media are a bunch of fucking retards. These 'cops' were probably campus police, not real police.

[Rossami]

If #2 were true, the professor should have called the cops on whoever was sitting in Benson's original assigned seat. I appreciate that you are trying to see if there are other sides to the story but that one seems implausible.

[Agammamon]

2. Professors and teachers are not allowed to control their classroom like judges control their courtrooms. Maybe this professor has a good reason for assigned seats and the article never covered that part. I had assigned seating in High School.

Professors have never had that control. These are adults here. They're paying to be there. They can sit in another seat if it pleases them.

And you had assigned seating in high school? Seriously?

[loveconstitution1789]

Yup. Alphabetical so the teacher could quickly get through the 40 kids during roll call.

[Agammamon]

5. The media are a bunch of fucking retards. These ‘cops’ were probably campus police, not real police.

Campus police are real police. They are fully certified and trained law enforcement officers who could take up a position in any police force in the state with no further certification.

They can also bust you for 'disrespect', take you on a nickel ride, and shoot your dog with as much impunity as any other officer.

[loveconstitution1789]

Depends on the state.

[AustinRoth]

As with everything in academia, the passions run high because the stakes are so small.

[Robert]

What doi you expect when you name a college Ball State?

[sarcasmic]

Better than Ball Sack.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Ball Sack U?

Hihn's alma mater?

[Brandybuck]

Wait, this is the same university and department where noted economist Steven Horwitz works. Gosh, someone goes on sabbatical and the whole department goes to hell.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

The student, Sultan "Mufasa" Benson, arrived to find someone sitting in his assigned seat.

This would have never happened in Professor Kingsfield's class.

[squid_hunt]

I'm angry no one got tased. What about officer safety? This is ridiculous.

[Byron]

Earning the name 'BSU'

[Agammamon]

The real question is 'when the fuck does a university have assigned seating?'

What sort of Mickey Mouse operation are they running over there?

[Agammamon]

But students can sit in someone else's seat and leave class in the middle? So what was the point of assigning seating?

[markm23]

Assigned seating can help the professor recognize the kids and note who is skipping the lectures. But it has to be enforced consistently, or not at all.

[Vijay]

this is the same university and department where noted economist Steven Horwitz works.
https://www.shayarisangam.com

[Shayari]

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