Monday 13 August 2012

A Gallant addition to these pages...

Just last month I received another nomination for the HCT’s ever-lengthening Hall of Shame. Perhaps HCT should open its very own ‘Faculty of Dishonesty’ to accommodate them all?

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One person who disgusts many people is Dr Monica Gallant, the head of the business department at Dubai Women's College. I once overheard her trying to convince a student to not drop out. This student had been interested in taking Tourism and Event Management courses, even though they are not in fact offered. The college website lists Tourism and Event Management as a major, but no courses have been offered, due to insufficient enrolment. Monica told the student that Tourism and Event Management courses would be offered in the following semester, and the student should continue to attend college. In truth, the program had already been scrapped. No more courses - at all. Period. The information on the website is, in fact, mere window-dressing. Or rather, a pack of lies. However, Monica still tried to 'sell' the non-existent program, forcefully and aggressively. You would have thought she was selling a used car.

A recurring problem in the business school is plagiarism. Students at DWC plagiarize papers to get passing grades without doing the required work. Many students have poor English-speaking and writing skills, and will turn in these purchased papers. Monica's brilliant solution was to tell the faculty to pretend that a fictional 'review committee' existed. She asked faculty members to tell students that this fake 'review committee' would not accept a plagiarized assignment. The faculty, however, refused to employ institutional dishonesty to tackle student dishonesty. Monica clearly lacks integrity, and was genuinely surprised that faculty refused to go along with her fabrication.

She's like ‘Miss Piggy’ at ADWC - porcine, delusional, self-absorbed, over-aggressive, and ambitious to an absurd degree. She is more concerned about how other administrators perceive her than she is in doing an ethical, effective job. However, unlike Miss Piggy, Monica is creepy, dishonest to faculty and students, has stringy greasy hair, and tells lies to save her bacon (pardon the pun).

***

So there you have it - another fine example of HCT's 'management muck'. Do you have your own favorite management tyrant, stool pigeon, or lickspittle to nominate? Don't hold back there!

UPDATE: I received an important addition to the story of life at DWC just today. Enjoy this one too!

DWC's Business faculty are expected to 'teach' students through pointless socializing activities like games and field trips to the shopping mall, and maybe a guest speaker, as long as he/she is entertaining. This reminds many of us of Mary Poppins - a trip to the park, visit Dad at the bank, visit an old person, sing a few songs, play some games, and then have a dance with a chimney sweep. Yet at HCT, the nanny, Mary Poppins, needs to have a PhD, or at least a Masters degree or two.

However, the worst thing about the place is that the students know that they can complain to the head of the department and swiftly get the faculty member into trouble. The students will outrgeously lie doing this, and get away with it easily. The head of the department, our dear Monica, believes these unethical girls at their word and will reprimand a business faculty member without a second thought. She hates for a problem to go to the Dean or the School Director, and will do anything to not look bad in front of these two morons.

The Student Counselor, Fatma Thani, is odious. Actually she is the Supervisor of Student Affairs at DWC, but she's just a stool pigeon who works for the head scumballs in Abu Dhabi. She's an Emirati, of course, and always assumes that her little darlings aren't treated well enough by the mean Western teachers. The administrators go poo poo in their pants when she's involved, mainly because of her contacts in Abu Dhabi.  She seems to run the place by way of threat. She is pure evil.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

HCT Sucks – a blog for desperate losers!

Anonymous said...

Yes, there are plenty of those on these pages!

Tayeb Kamali said...

Anonymous hate blogs usually represent a few demented cowards who write under different pseudonyms!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, tell it like it is, man!!

Anonymous said...

I am totally surprised to see "anonymous" err, I mean Dr. Gallant, agreeing with something that is being said! That must be a first for the nasty, fat sow! I have learned the truth (on the job at HCT) about what they say about wrestling with pigs - don't do it! The pigs enjoy it and you get dirty!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous hate blogs? Well what you need to understand is that in the UAE you have to remain anonymous in your criticism or face deportation or maybe worse. It says a lot about the culture that everyone is a sheep. The saddest thing to watch is the Indians.

exHCTer said...

As an ex HCTer I would say that you don't have to be anonymous. You could do what I did and leave.

When I knew Monica she was a bit of a wimp and pretty ineffective and lightweight (mind not body). The fact that she has a doctorate says a lot about the pitiful state of doctoral courses in some parts of the world.

They do say that absolute power corrupts absolutely and at HCT this does appear to be the case.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the diagnosis, but not the course of action (prognosis?).

HCT features many talentless managerial wimps like Gallant, but the solution is not always to run away from them.

Stand up for what you feel is right, and keep your self-respect. If you get the bullet, at least you fall with honor!

Suede Oasis said...

HCT Goons have no concept of 'honor', so they would laugh at that assertion. Ain't that true, Moni?!?

Suede Oasis said...

Hi there, Sijo!!

My site stats report that this blog has been getting frequent hits from Kazakhstan in recent weeks.

And who's now having to peddle his pathetic management skills in the barren steppes of Central Asia? Why, it's Dr Simon Jones, the former 'president' of ADMC!

So, hello again, Sijo! Or is it his new colleagues, busily acquainting themselves with all the rattling skeletons in the cupboard of their new Western arrival?!

LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

We need to continue to hound these pukes to the grave.

With the interweb, we now have the means to out these morons in the education universe.

We victims of the travesty of educational "management should continue the crusade with all means possible.

Craig said...

Kamali you are the sole cause of this. I do not hear similar comments or see similar websites about Zayed University or Dr Sulaiman Al Jassim. How could you screw up so badly when he has been so successful?

Anonymous said...

Craig, the answer to that one is quite simple. TK prefers to hire incompetents because that way he looks good. It's a matter of sustaining his ego. And if he actually hired and promoted people who were good at their jobs, they'd soon try for his

The fact that the college has gone down the pan so quickly in the past five or six years is irrelevant to TK. People like him are selfish, arrogant, and have no notion of 'the common good'.

All that's very sad for the students, but he don't care!

Anonymous said...

This is the definition of the sociopath, and in this case it is a rich, Arab, male, unconstrained-by- any-rule-of-law sociopath in his home court.

Anonymous said...

I really hate to defend anyone at HCT, but in this case it appears the author is more whinging than actually providing any valid criticism. I don't know Dr. Gallant, I can't say that I have ever met her.... but I can understand BOTH circumstances and they make sense.

In the first instance, I can understand an administrator telling a student to enroll in the next semester and trying to 'sell' the program. If you can get 16 students for a major, they will offer it... So sell it to one, and get them to sell it to others... the program would be offered. That makes sense, and having the student continue their education is a good thing... don'tcha agree?

In the second case, the ability to tell cheating students that some OTHER group is who disapproves of the cheating makes the OTHER group the 'bad guys' instead of the teacher. While it is wimping out as a teacher, it allows the students the opportunity to remove the obvious cheating. I personally wouldn't do it, but I can understand the motivation to avoid confrontation.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's very clear that you "hate to defend anyone at HTC", as your defense is so lame!

Raja Karma said...

Another addition to HCT's 'Hall of Shame' is the above-mentioned Emirati!

http://www.punchinthefacebook.com/punch/dwc-hct-uae/fatma-al-thani

Go for it, guys!!

Anonymous said...

Hamdallah for the new IPads! Now we can really get down to the business of playing games, officially!

https://hct-portal.hct.ac.ae/News/show_news.asp?newsid=2097

Anonymous said...

I see you've had a 'facelift', Suede. And a cheap one at that!

Anonymous said...

More of a face transplant, I would say. And a very scary one too!!

Suede Oasis said...

Hmm, I've received two 'take-down' notices in recent months, and BOTH of them have been circumvented!

Well done, Dr Simon Jones, and Tricia McGurk. All that money you spent on lawyers' fees has been wasted!!

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Suede - keep on giving the bastards the runaround.

I see that Trish Mcgurk has made it onto punchinthefacebook.com at last, too - any of your doing there?!

Suede Oasis said...

None of my doing, but I have added her to the 'HCT Hall of Shame' roll of dishonour.

Enjoy bashing the two-faced bitch!

Anonymous said...

Lauralee Kilgour is on the way out the HCT door next semester for sandier pastures. Perhaps Dr. G, who is even crazier, will be next?

The trend is likely to have stinky, fat, lethargic and stupid Emiratis in all leadership positions where they don't actually have to be competent or do any meaningful work (like mark papers or make presentations). This is good for the government, as it keeps them well-paid and out of the streets, and also keeps the rabble-rousing non-Muslim (rational thinking) types out of the country.

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention "inbred", i.e., married to their first cousins, at rates approaching 50%!!

Anonymous said...

Nick Nunnington, vice provost, was recently the latest victim of the annual HCT "purges" of serious professionals. No notice was given and he is already gone. The HCT must surely represent one of the greatest conglomerations of evil on planet earth! It will be truly funny to see how much more retarded the organisation becomes when the native in-bred 'tards are in all of the leadership positions! Watch out below!

Anonymous said...

The endless games and edutainment described at DWC are a mirror image of the programs at the SHCT! Problem is, I can't even take the students on field trips due to their behavior. If you lose them you buy them! And that ain't cheap in the UAE.

Anonymous said...

NO DECENT COMPETENT professional can survive in HCT. Truly admire the teachers who got admiring patience, creative skills in educating the most useless creatures of the planet and putting up with the nonsense dumb ass directors and useless Central Services personnel

Anonymous said...

U.A.E. Moves Toward Paperless Classrooms
By SARA HAMDAN
Published: October 28, 2012

Another nonsense unproductive move in HCT. Who started the nonsense?

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...

Hamdallah for the new IPads! Now we can really get down to the business of playing games, officially! September 22, 2012 at 9:42 AM "
__________ +++++ _______
THAT'S ALL what students do in the classes instead of learning. Who on earth got an idea? I usually hear or see, IPads are used in elementary or middle school. Or you give IPads to some autistic children or attention deficit order children to reduce the learning disabilities. It is now using at the Higher Education level especially at HCT!!!!! Whose idea is this? Must be a moron. I can understand if HCT is offering architecture or fashion design but still it is impractical for drawing. Stupidity of the one who introduced the idea!

Anonymous said...

iCelebrate and iPad .... hummmmmmmmmm ... nice to know he is finally out. Such an unethical corrupted ass.

Anonymous said...

Back in 2009 or 2010 HCT annual confence there was a presentation by an Apple representative, who demonstrated the magic of mobile learning. There was no talk of any hard evidence of mobile learning, and none was needed.
So, who introduced iPads at HCT? I can only imagine that it made a good business sense to big shots at HCT then to partner with Apple immaturely without further considerations to its relevancy at HCT.

Anonymous said...

Thank you July 9. There were some subjects which can use iPad but there are so many subjects which can not apply iPad in the classroom. Whatever the reasons, this ADWC director(got sacked by the end of June, 2013) forced the teachers regardless. How can the director not study the relevancy, compatibility and weigh the pros and cons then coerced the integration? After that he manipulated the students grades to secure his position that iPad really works for the classroom. That is definitely unprofessional. He is at least gone now.

Anonymous said...

Grade manipulation is not new at ADWC, dept heads encourage that all the time to secure their positions. Mind you that iPad implementation was not the sacked ADWC director's big idea. The plan was there before he came, as pointed out above, because people higher up saw financial profit in its implementation. Grade inflation after iPad implementation was necessary for the HCT's image as the pioneers of iPads in classroom. JH had to follow the HCT's corrupt directives.
In addition, the real corruption at any level in that country, or at HCT for that matter, is arguably the fact that they implemented iPad so forcefully before there was solid research behind iPad as the one and only tool in classrooms.

Anonymous said...

Is that greasy ho Gallant still at the HCT? The thought of her functioning anywhere in the west is absurd, hope she won't ever have to try it!