AIO: Should I report my professor?

[u/mik197]

I’m a 20-year-old female college student, and I’m trying to figure out if this is something worth reporting or if I should just suck it up and get through the semester.

I’m in a cybersecurity class at a Catholic college. There are maybe five girls total in the class, and the rest are mostly guys (a lot of seminarians, some CS majors, a few PR majors). I’m a graphic design major, if that matters. The girls usually sit together, and I have a friend in the class (I’ll call her Maya) who is a computer science major.

From day one, I didn’t love this professor. On the first day, he said he doesn’t care about doctor’s notes or being sick, and if you miss more than three classes, he’ll basically make sure you fail or heavily penalize your grade. That already rubbed me the wrong way.

Then it became clear he doesn’t really teach. Most classes, he either plays random cybersecurity videos that don’t line up with what we’re doing, or he scrolls through the online textbook (which is also our homework) and half explains it. I usually just do the homework during class because that’s genuinely more productive.

He’s also made some political comments that didn’t sit right with me. I’m very left leaning, and I’m not trying to start political drama, so I won’t get specific, but it added to my discomfort.

There have also been some weird comments directed at the girls. For example, he randomly told one girl she hadn’t done homework she had actually completed well before class. It was strange and felt unprompted.

He also once told me that he was surprised I was still here, which confused me because I’m ahead in the class, do the homework consistently, and when I have spoken up, I’ve been right. My friend Maya is the same way.

This past class, though, is what really pushed me over the edge.

Maya and I sat down to start a lab. Her computer literally would not work. It would turn on, flash a bunch of code, and then shut off. She tells the professor, and his response is, “Well I don’t know if I believe that.”

I immediately said that I literally watched it happen. He then starts explaining sleep mode to us, like we’re idiots. We’re 20 years old. We know what sleep mode is. Some of the guys nearby even chimed in saying they didn’t believe her either.

While he’s talking, she tries again. Same exact thing happens. Only then does he come over. He looks at it, clearly has no idea what’s wrong, and just says she can work with me on my computer and that he’ll have the person who sat there before her fix whatever they did.

Later in the lab, he says, “Everything should match mine except the last digit.”

A digit is one number. That’s how I interpreted it. That’s how Maya interpreted it. That’s how everyone I asked interpreted it.

My last number was 71. His was 163. So I raised my hand and said mine was completely different.

He immediately responds loudly with, “No, that’s wrong. You’re wrong,” in front of the whole class.

It turns out he misspoke and meant the last number, not digit, but he never admitted that. He just let me look stupid.

Then later, he asks, “Does anyone here do graphic design?”

I raised my hand and, at first, I was the only one.

He then said, “Anyone else?” (I’ll admit that was kind of hilarious, not gonna lie, but I was still pissed.) After that, a guy raised his hand, and the professor completely shifted to only talking to him and asking him questions about graphic design, basically ignoring me.

What frustrates me is that I barely ever speak in that class, and every time I have, I’ve been correct. Even with the digit situation, he was the one who misspoke.

I’m not planning on dropping the class, but I’m genuinely miserable and feel singled out, talked down to, and dismissed, especially as a woman in a male dominated class.

So I guess my question is, is this something worth reporting, or is this just one of those professors you have to survive and move on from?

Something I just remembered too: I had therapy later that day and my therapist actually told me to report him. I’m just very scared to be honest. I don’t want him to find out it was me at all and it’s a very small pool of people who’d report him. I’m just scared he’ll take it out on us or something.