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Pullman, Washington

T he way the cohort hears it, this is what goes down in Professor Snyder’s office.

Dr. Snyder calls Bryan in to talk about all the complaints. Women have emailed him saying the TA is grading the female students unfairly. And some of his cohort say his interruptions in class are misogynistic.

Professor Snyder informs Bryan of what’s being said and suggests he change his ways.

“Stop interrupting the women,” he tells the strange young man—or he says something along those lines.

“They’re complaining. Stop writing them essays on their essays.

It’s offensive. Be generous—and brief.” A rumor goes around that Snyder makes the point that the undergraduates cannot be expected to have the same level of knowledge as Bryan.

Snyder is trying to be helpful.

But apparently (or so they hear later; none of them was in the room, obviously), Bryan’s anger spills out of him.

Fuck it. No more point pretending…

Something sends him out of control.

“They deserve what they get,” he says.

The professor sees that Bryan might be smart, but his Achilles’ heel is a big ego and a high opinion of himself.

And there’s something deeper that sets Bryan off. Something ugly.

Professor Snyder thinks he hears Bryan mutter, “They don’t belong in the classroom,” but he can’t be sure. So in his report on the “altercation” to the higher-ups on the faculty, he focuses on what he cannot ignore: the young man’s anger.

A week or so later, on October 3, department chair Melanie-Angela Neuilly and graduate director Dale Willits call Bryan in to discuss his lack of “norms of professional behavior.”

Professor Willits is there as a witness so there’s a record of what happens in the meeting—which, it turns out, will be needed.

Bryan listens, but he doesn’t hear them. He’s angry, defiant.

He says he wants to meet his critics head-on. Have a discussion in class. Explain his grading. He graded his students poorly because they didn’t know the topic well.

After he leaves, the faculty members are concerned. There’s no way Bryan’s “discussion” with his students is likely to go the way he thinks it will.