Right, I'm starting a new thread where I want stories about lecturers and profs who just haven't got a clue. I don't mean work wise, I want social retards. At Lancaster, there was this young(ish) Prof at our uni last year (who in my opinion, if he was a piece of choccy, he would have eaten himself). He had been reported twice for 'improper conduct' (with those female types). He liked his Jeans / Suit Jacket combos and liked to flick his hair a lot, I think he also used straighteners (perhaps GHDs?), but I'd have to check on that?

Ooh. There are so many choices! Here are my top 3

1. Doctor Slimeball. Lanky spanish senior lecturer who would try to desparately impress the female students by wearing a child size Tshirt to show off his less than impressive muscle definition. His never-fail seduction technique would be to get his female doctoral students to stay behind after the rest of the lab left and try to kiss them. He was married and had 3 kids.

2. Mr Spock. The administator of the department was a big Star Trek/ Lord of the Rings fan. So big that he could NOT talk about anything other than science fiction. He openly said he took the job because he was "impressed by scientists" but radically misunderstood what we do. He asked me the most inane questions like "Have you figured out mind control yet?" or "When do you think that we will genetically engineer a superhero in this lab?" (in all seriousness). He would talk about his crush on Seven of Nine and how he would shag her. Despite being thin as a rake.

Its sad that he is the only person who has ever sounded impressed by my title "doctor". When I first got it he said it so much, in this really annoying faux american accent, I got sick of it.

3. Little Miss Insecure.

LMI would insist on hanging around trying to compare what she had done to what you had done. If she felt even vaguely threatened she would spew this torrent of bullshit about how she had spent the last 72 hours not sleeping and getting this mammoth paper submitted to NATURE, that she was sure to win her the Nobel prize or some other such nonsense. If anything good happened to anyone else it was because they had either slept with someone higher up, or was just lucky. If anything bad happened, she followed my supervisors line that it was "because they were losers" (rather than say being ineptly supervised).

She was pretty much in competition the entire time I was there. She practically lived with her tongue jammed up my supervisors lower colon.

Bit dangerous ground this, especially when you start actually naming Uni's.

Think you might be right golfpro. Apologies to everyone for the above. Probably should just end this thread

Yes, maybe it's better to end this thread. It's bitchy and useless. It might still be good advice to tell the guy at Lancaster what you think about him - in his face. He won't expect it and it might even gain you some respect (from other's, not from him - although he might also be impressed retrospectively). People are always afraid of speaking out things, but from my observations, it's not always harmful to your career to demonstrate a certain degree of independent thinking. Other's might think the same about the guy. Be a man about it and don't bitch behind their back.

As an add on to this we have had this circulated aorund our uni:
http://www.students-union.nottingham.ac.uk/details.php?id=108
(hope it links as don't know if you need log in)

Basically individuals who post defamatory comments could face prosecution.

Def. best to err on side of caution or make it so obscure it can't be traced

Interesting D+C. I don't know why students would post such comments: if they are not happy where they are, then they should transfer somewhere else - you only get one go at uni life (referring mainly to undergrads here, though - it may be more difficult to transfer a PhD that a Bachelor's).