I'm in a particular situation and was wondering if anyone had faced anything similar.
I have recently graduated and become licensed and was following up with professors who had agreed to write me letters of recommendation for jobs and getting nowhere. No response to multiple emails and phone calls from five different people in the department. So I decided to stop by there when I came on campus to pick up my diploma to see if I could catch someone in person.
I ran into one of the professors who had not responded to me and she told me to go to her office and that we needed to talk. She told me that the department had found our facebook group, that students had been saying disparaging things about professors and making death threats and "how would it look if I wrote you a glowing recommendation when the head sees all of them?" She said my behavior was unprofessional and implied this was why no one was responding to me. I have become persona non grata.
Except I never wrote anything disparaging or made any threats against anyone. I was completely blindsided by these accusations but I went back to check my activity on this group and found nothing questionable at all. Our department had a lot of problems communicating important information to students so we started this Facebook group to easily keep each other abreast of what was going on and share resources such as helpful videos that further explained course content.
There were a few students who had written less than professional comments and I know two of these students are employed in hospital jobs right now so they probably got letters before their comments were discovered. I wrote nothing unprofessional and I feel like I am being singled out because they can no longer hurt those other students.
I know I can't force anyone to recommend me, but I find it suspicious that professors who already gave their assent that they would are now ignoring me, especially since I was the valedictorian of the class. It feels like I have been put on an informal blacklist without any chance to defend myself.
I feel like without letters of recommendation my job prospects are severely limited and I'm not sure of what to do about this.
I had considered speaking with the head of the department (who I don't really know, but who sees me as a troublemaker because once when I had an issue with a professor who repeatedly misgraded my exams and refused to fix them, I asked Student Services how to handle it which was a huge no-no. Apparently the nursing department does not like anyone going outside the nursing department for help) but I feel like her response will be that she can't make anyone write me a letter. Which is true. If I bring up what that professor told me in confidence, I could be putting her job in jeopardy.
I can't really see a way forward and I really feel like all the time, effort and energy I spent on this program could have been better invested elsewhere.
