From the Yale Daily News:
On Monday afternoon, a cell phone appeared to go off several minutes into the Introductory Macroeconomics lecture. Then another identical ring emerged from the din. And another. Soon, a cacophony of rings from around the lecture hall succeeded in bringing professor Robert Shiller’s discussion of monetary policy to a halt.HT: Economic Policy Journal
“I think someone’s phone is going off,” he said.
What began as a jovial prank soon degenerated into a malicious, personal and uncalled for attack on a faculty member.
“Rise!”
One student’s scream prompted a handful of students holding bells to stand. Two of them — a boy and a girl — marched towards the stage. They shook Shiller’s hand, and handed him a few objects including a paper scroll and a bell. He fumbled trying to place them on his podium. Students glanced around in uneasy silence, confused by what was unfolding before their eyes.
“For talking about your Nobel Prize more than anyone else, we present you with the Yes-bell Prize,” announced one of the bell-carriers.
The handful of students proceeded to pick up their backpacks and walk out of the lecture hall. Their hijinks may have been intended to generate laughter, but the room was left quiet. Some sensed that a prank had gone too far — that a tacit code had been broken.
Professor Shiller struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. Visibly flustered, he took a couple of minutes to resume his lecture.
“I hadn’t even planned on mentioning the Nobel Prize today,” he said.
The episode that interrupted his lecture was no prank. It was rude, disrespectful and mean-spirited. It was glorified bullying of a Yale professor.
More than simply disrupt a class, the bell-ringing perpetrators attempted to publicly humiliate a faculty member. Without warning, they criticized him for referring to his Nobel Prize during lectures and did so in front of a room full of students....MORE
It has to be possible to bet against this group.
The money would be so easy.
And the winnings would be so sweet.
