On Feb. 24, English professor Alexis Jetter resigned from the College, approximately three weeks before the end of winter term. Jetter tendered her resignation in reply to an email from a College administrator informing Jetter that a “formal grievance” had been filed against her, according to a copy of the email thread obtained by The Dartmouth.
Jetter’s resignation from Dartmouth comes after her resignation from the women’s, gender and sexuality studies program, where she had also served as a senior lecturer, earlier this month. In a series of Facebook posts this week, Jetter wrote that she had lost her temper and cursed at two male students in the WGSS departmental lounge. She alleged that the students had refused to leave the lounge when asked. Jetter resigned from the program after being asked to move from her WGSS office following the incident, she wrote on Facebook. She had continued to hold her position in the English and creative writing department in the interim.
In the Feb. 24 email, assistant dean of faculty affairs Sarah Wasserman wrote that the formal complaint — which appears unconnected to the earlier WGSS incident — accused Jetter of making “disparaging political drawings and remarks while teaching” that had caused students to feel “uncomfortable.” Wasserman wrote that the complaint was being reviewed “in accordance with the ‘Process for Resolving Grievances Against Members of the Faculty’ in the Faculty Handbook” and requested a meeting with Jetter and her associate dean to “hear [Jetter’s] perspective.”
Approximately two hours after receiving Wasserman’s email, Jetter sent a message to her students informing them that she had resigned from the College, according to a Canvas post obtained by The Dartmouth. Later that evening, Jetter replied to Wasserman’s initial email with notice of her “formal resignation.” She carbon copied College President Sian Leah Beilock, the Board of Trustees and Dean of the Faculty Elizabeth Smith, among others.
“Consider this my formal resignation from Dartmouth College,” Jetter wrote. “See below for details.”
Jetter had taught at the College for nearly 30 years, according to her LinkedIn.
Wasserman did not respond to two requests for comment by time of publication.
In a Feb. 25 Facebook post, Jetter stated that she believes the complaint described in Wasserman’s email concerned a political sketch she drew in her class. The drawing, which Jetter has called “The Rat King” in the Facebook post, depicted prominent figures, including President Donald Trump, as rats. In a Feb. 25 post, Jetter wrote that the cartoon intended to critique late-stage capitalism.
Taha Tariq ’28, a student taking WGSS 07.04, “Women in Journalism,” with Jetter this term, said he understood Jetter’s drawing to be a “metaphor of how twisted governance and the state of governance has gotten in … America.” He said he believes his class thought the drawing contained a “lot of meaning” and found the sketch “funny.”
“It was clearly done in a way that was supposed to be ironic,” Tariq said. “… It wasn’t a picture with harmful intentions.”
Tariq added that he believes the formal grievance against Jetter was a “severe misjudgment of her character” because she “only catered to all of us in every sense,” regardless of students’ beliefs or identity.
“From our opinion and as a class, we still love her, and we don’t believe that she has done anything wrong from what we know,” Tariq said.
A student in a second section of Jetter’s “Women in Journalism” course — who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly — said she remembered the “Rat King” drawing as a “relatively little event in class” before learning about Jetter’s resignation.
“It’s weird to me that that’s being brought up so much,” the student said.
According to the anonymous student, Jetter had been hosting classes on Zoom in the two weeks prior to her resignation from the College. While Jetter initially told students in one of her two class periods that she was teaching remotely due to a knee injury, she explained to them on Feb. 20 that the move online stemmed from the incident in the WGSS lounge, the student said.
Following the incident, Jetter was asked to move for the remainder of the term from her office in Baker Library, where the WGSS program is located, The Dartmouth confirmed. Jetter was not banned for further terms.
WGSS program chair Melissa Zeiger declined to comment.
According to a third student taking Jetter’s course — who requested anonymity to speak candidly — the situation began to dominate class sessions.
“It was a wonderful class, but it had sort of deteriorated to the point of [being] less about the content of the course and more about this whole situation,” the student said.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote that the College is “actively working to ensure that students enrolled in [Jetter’s] classes this term can complete their courses without disruption.”
The first anonymous student said Jetter’s students heard from the College about the future of their classes on Feb. 25, the day after Jetter resigned. According to an email sent to Jetter’s students by associate dean of interdisciplinary studies Matthew Delmont — which was obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth — WGSS professor Francine A’ness will teach both periods of “Women in Journalism” for the remainder of the term.
“We are committed to supporting your academic continuity in the class and ensuring you are able to complete the course successfully,” Delmont wrote.
Tariq said his class had a discussion about how much Jetter’s seminar had meant to them during their last class session on Feb. 24, the day Jetter announced her resignation.
“It was like a tribute almost because this is her life’s work gone because of what we see as something that’s either not true or blown out of proportion — or just truly a ridiculous way that everything turned out because she gave so much to Dartmouth,” Tariq said.
Jetter declined to comment and directed The Dartmouth to her Facebook posts.
Kelsey Wang is a reporter and editor for The Dartmouth from the greater Seattle area, majoring in history and government. Outside of The D, she likes to crochet, do jigsaw puzzles and paint.
