A White history professor from the University of Dallas is under fire for allegedly calling campus security on a Black student listening to a lecture on her laptop.
In the viral video — which was shared to TikTok On Oct. 11 by the student who identifies as “Cori” on the platform — the white professor named Susan Hanssen could be seen standing outside of her office filming the University of Dallas pupil as she listened to a lecture at a table.
The visibly annoyed professor approached Cori and pushed her iPhone camera toward the young student’s face. Pacing back and forth, Hanssen grilled Cori as she filmed the student from multiple angles listening to her lecture in what appeared to be a study hall.
Hanssen, an associate history professor at the University of Dallas, panned the camera to get a shot of her office hours, attempting to prove a point about the noise level of Cori’s lecture — but the university student didn’t back down. Cori kept her camera locked on the flustered educator to document her behavior.
“Pov: a professor harasses you for listening to a lecture because she doesn’t wanna close her door,” a text overlay for the video read.
Toward the end of the clip, a white male bystander seated at a table in the hall, stepped in to de-escalate the situation.
In the caption, Cori alleged that before she filmed the video, Hanssen called “campus security” and “had a tantrum” when the security guard declined to remove her from the study hall over the volume.
“Chilee and the sound was only on 25 until she got crazy so it went to 100 IDC!” she added.
Cori’s video has garnered over 7 million views and 2000 plus shares as of Oct. 18.
In the comments section, many netizens on TikTok agreed that the professor was “overreacting” about the noise level of Cori’s lecture.
“If it’s a space that is a ‘collaborative’ space & she had it low, she is 1000% allowed to play it out loud. You can hear loud noises in the background,” one person noted.
Another user penned, “I don’t understand why she didn’t just close the door!?”
A few people argued that Cori should have had headphones on to show “respect” and “courtesy” to other students seated in the study hall – although they did acknowledge that Hanssen was doing the most.
“She ODIng but girl, headphones are like 20 bucks.”
“Hold on now. She may have overreacted, but it’s pretty common courtesy in public spaces to use headphones.”
In a follow-up video posted to TikTok Oct. 13, Cori shared a few more details about her viral interaction with the flippant professor.
The young student claimed that she offered to turn the volume down when Hanssen initially asked her to lower the lecture, but tension sparked when the University of Dallas teacher returned a second time and asked Cori to leave the study hall area.
“I was like, ‘No, I don’t have headphones and I’m not [going t0] leave.’ And after that, it took a whole turn because you can tell nobody ever tells her no,” the student said.
“She started acting out of character and yelling. She was putting her fingers in my face.”
Cori said she was relieved when campus security sided with her instead of Hanssen. While the student acknowledged that it may have been “petty” for her to crank up the volume on the white educator, Cori said she was disappointed with how the teacher failed to show a “standard of professionalism” on campus.
She also gave a shoutout to the “gentleman” in the video who came to her defense during the heated exchange with Hanssen. According to Cori, the man claimed he couldn’t even hear her video while studying in the hall.
“He was such a sweetheart. He told her to [ return to her office], and she did. Like she listened to him, and then he sat with me and asked me if I was okay,” she added.
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