The piece was originally published October 2019.

As a junior at Emmanuel College, Camryn Hatstat was taken by surprise when her business professor took a strong interest in her personal life. 

“I would just see him all over campus like everywhere I turned,” said Hatstat, 20, Ashland Mass.

Hatstat expressed her original excitement to take the business course; being necessary to complete her requirement for a minor in marketing. 

“I’m not private on any social media, I want to go into social media as a career,” said Hatstat.

Little did Hatstat know, her openness on social media would leave her vulnerable to potential stalking, even by her own business professor. The strange behavior first became apparent during class lectures.

            “I feel as though many professors wouldn’t continuously make an entire lecture for two classes in a row based around one student,” said Hatstat. 

Not only did class lectures seemingly center around Hatstat, but they began to increasingly become more and more specific to her life.

“Every single question he asked me catered to my Facebook,” said Hatstat. “I post a lot about taking spin classes on various social media, and he asked the class a question “has anyone ever taken a soul cycle class?” And it made me feel like he was asking questions that he knew I would appeal or answer to. It was fitting for the term he was going over but he could’ve used any other example.” 

Hastat began to realize how unprofessional the professor’s behavior had been during class after he liked one of her old Facebook photos at approximately 11 at night on Wednesday, September 25th which eventually lead to an investigation that caused the professor to no longer be allowed on campus. The professor had no comment on these allegations when asked to speak on the issue. 

Other students in the class soon became aware of the favoritism the professor had for Hatstat.

“He was just constantly picking on her,” said Hannah Miller, 19, of Wilbraham MA. 

“There were a couple of classes based on this made-up business owned by Cam, it was fully focused on Cam and half the time class was just those two (the professor and Cam) having a conversation,” said Miller. 

Throughout the semester, Miller says that she began to recognize the behavior as inappropriate.

“At first I thought it was because she was outgoing and no one else wanted to talk, but eventually it got to the point where she wouldn’t have her hand up and he’d say “Ok Cam, so say that…,” said Miller, “It was weird because he would talk about his family and his wife a lot too, but then he would also like Cam’s pictures online.”

It was this direct interaction on social media that drove Hatstat to report the alleged strange behavior of her business professor to her advisor.

“He liked my picture of Facebook at 10:40 at night, it was an old picture posted back in March,” said Hatstat. “It wasn’t a picture pinned to my profile either it was an old picture that was deep in my Facebook page.”

Understandably, Hatsat’s actions show how she became increasingly more aware of her own safety in her emails to her advisor.

“I want to be acknowledged of how uncomfortable I get whenever I’m within the same room as him. I have four witnesses who would be willing to stand by my claim,” said Hatstat in her email to her advisor, sister Susan.  

The class following the Facebook incident showed an escalation in the professor’s odd behavior, he continued to lecture with the startup business example that included Hastat, as well as proceeding to give information about his personal life, as according to Hastat.

            “He then started talking about the market of women for himself- his dating life in his twenties,” said Hastat. “Which I wasn’t listening to because I was cold sweating and nervous and emailing Sr. Susan as well as Dean Forry updates.”

However, Hatstat was given the opportunity to have outside sources be involved with the case, according to the Sexual Assault Resources handout, when filing a report a victim is given the choice to file with the Boston police department or “police charges filed in facilitation with Campus Saftey.” 

The school takes cases of any form of discrimination or harassment seriously,

“Accusers and accused must have the same opportunity to have others present. Both parties shall be informed of the outcome of any disciplinary proceedings,” as said in the Victims’ Bill of Rights handout.

Title IX defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances that interfere with an individual’s work, academic, residential, or co-curricular environment, or coercive behavior that threatens employment or academic reprisal or promises reward contingent upon obtainment of sexual favors,” as according toEmmanuel college Title IX section of the website.

However, despite this incident, Emmanuel College is a considerably safe school. according to Emmanuel’s Annual report of Saftey and Security  the 2019 Clery Act report states that there have been four reported cases of rape in 2018

Emmanuel college is doing a number of things to help defend individuals from sexual harassment as well as sexual assault on and off-campus.

 “Emmanuel College has 10 certified sexual assault investigators and has created a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART),” according to the “Our Actions” page on Emmanuel’s website. 

Hatstat now attends a different business class and the class she previously attended is now taught by a new professor. 

Taylor Fruzzetti ’22 is the Week’s End Editor and Social Media Editor for The Hub. She can be contacted at fruzzettit@emmanuel.edu.