EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source)-Michigan State University’s Business School students will be issued refunds after a tenured professor mandated that students subscribe to her personal website for nearly $100.
In early February of this year, the New Guard, broke the story regarding Dr. Amy Wisner, a professor of Business at MSU, who was placed on temporary leave after requiring students in her Marketing Communications class to buy annually renewing subscriptions to her personal “Patriarchy Rebellion Community” website.
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In a now deleted Facebook post, Dr. Wisner acknowledged that the proceeds would actually benefit a controversial organization.
“The Rebellion community is a safe place to coordinate our efforts to burn everything to the f***ing ground,” she said on Facebook, “100% of membership fees are donated to Planned Parenthood.”
However, Wisner also made several other claims about where the money was going including to bring guest speakers, to purchase a “Rebellion RV” to travel the country, and that “100% of membership fees are used for awareness, education, and activism for a BULLY-FREE FUTURE™.”
Wisner, who no longer appears on the Faculty Directory, had her fall class taught by another professor while under investigation. In a recent email from the new professor for the class, Director of Learning Tech and Development Jeremy Van Hof, Ph.D., he forwarded a message from the Broad College of Business Dean Judith Whipple to students who were told that they would be reimbursed by the college for the paid subscription.
“We Conducted a review of the capital MKT 250 Business Communication class and assignment materials based on feedback. We take student feedback very seriously as we strive for the best education experience for students,” the email said, “Professor Van Hof will serve as your instructor for the remainder of the semester. You will receive a one-time credit for $99.00 to reimburse you for the subscription to The Rebellion Community as this material will no longer be required for the course. The refund will be applied to your MSU account within the next two weeks. If you currently have a balance, then the refund will be applied to this balance. (note: Please review the rebellion community policy regarding subscription renewal. MSU space will not provide reimbursement for subscription renewals.)”
MSU Sophomore, Zachary Friedman, who’s a Business candidate for Supply Chain Management shared about his experience in the MKT 250 course in which students were issued fiscal credits to make up for their subscription costs.
“Myself as well I’m sure others brought up to the teaching assistants that I think using ‘The Rebellion’ to watch a bunch of youtube videos was useless, so the teacher assistants brought our concerns to the professor,” Friedman said in an email to Michigan News Source, “In the following lecture, Wisner made a presentation attempting to explain why she chose to make us use the rebellion.”
He also described Dr. Wisner’s conflicting accounts regarding where the subscription money would go.
“Her website she forced us to purchase for the class is called ‘The Rebellion’ according to her website, the money is used to maintain the website as well as bring speakers to class,” Friedman continued in an email to Michigan News Source. “She then claimed during her presentation in class that it goes to underprivileged schools. However, we obtained a now-deleted Facebook post from her claiming that the money was donated to planned parenthood. I also did some digging around and found a failed go fund me page that she created earlier for her website, which claimed the money goes to purchasing an RV to travel the country to ‘dismantle the patriarchy.’”
The teacher rating site, RateMyProfessor, shows that Dr. Wisner was rated 3.1/5; however the voting indicates a wide discrepancy in student experiences. The distribution of ratings was an inverse bell curve as the first and second highest ratings were for a 5 rating and a 1 rating, respectively. 50 student votes gave her a 5 / 5 or awesome, and 42 student votes rated her 1 / 5 or awful.
A testimony from mid-February called out the forced subscription as a scam.
“Brainwashed professor who needs a reality check,” the review said, “She scams tens of thousands of dollars from her students to donate to extremely far left campaigns and her own accounts which fund her terrifying agenda. Try to disagree and she will scream at you in class.”
Another testimony from someone in the February Marketing 250 course described the course as a scam course and claimed that she pocketed all the funds from the website.
“She makes you subscribe to her website, where the subscription fees go directly to her. She does not use the school online system to post the content,” the review said, “You pick your grade after you subscribe to her website. The content on the website is also not relevant to the course.”
Some students who took her class during the pandemic, when schools were closed for in-person learning, described her online presence.
“I appreciated her effort to engage students through the optional Zoom social events she hosted, however, I was frustrated with the ironic lack of communication there was throughout the semester regarding expectations for certain assignments.”
MSU Junior Joe Tarrant, Supply Chain Management Major, took Dr. Wisner for Marketing 250 in fall of 2021 and acknowledged that the Rate My Professor Reviews from the fall were consistent with his experience.
“The ones dated from when I took the class are consistent, in that she was not involved much with the class,” Tarrant said in an email to Michigan News Source, “All she did was basically post a few pre-recorded intro videos at the beginning of the semester that we had to watch and then the rest of the semester she had an optional Q and A session each week that I did not attend so we didn’t have much interaction with her especially since it was online.”
While the more recent reviews about scamming students and pushing political views were not relevant when he took the class, Tarrant said he “found the class helpful for learning presentation skills and basic communication skills for the business world.”
While University officials have been contacted, they did not reply by time of press to confirm Dr. Wisner’s employment and whether she would be responsible for paying back those funds.
According to her LinkedIn, Dr. Wisner is still employed by MSU as a Business Communication Professor for nearly 12 years. She was formerly employed at the Business Communication Faculty of University of Michigan from Jan. 2017 to May 2021.
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