I ask again -- where is the source confirming BK was at risk for losing his TA position, or was being penalized for the low grade he assigned his students? Thanks in advance!
It's speculation. I do believe I've put JMO and MOO everywhere (even though it's also a professional opinion, one should take it with a grain of salt).
I'm pretty sure that any department that has funding independent of the public model for the state it's in (as I'm claiming and others are indicating for the Criminology Doctoral Program) is also pretty tough on its students. Professors have to agree to receive a student as a TA or RA, from semester to semester. They're being given money that many other students don't get.
Therefore, professors try very hard not to choose/retain students who are a problem. A professor who goes all the way to mass confrontation against a TA is either 1) scared for her own job or 2) thinks he's a real problem. IMO.
So what happened is this. BK gets a great position at a well-funded (but not super highly ranked) doctoral program in criminology. He finally gets to launch. He is assigned (according to people here) 20 hours of TA-ing a week (possibly his first hourly paid job since just after high school). It doesn't pay much, but he gets free tuition.
What happens if no one will take him as a TA in Spring? Hmmm. No graduate student has ever been told that they can keep their job no matter what - there are lots of rules to follow, specifically Title IX.
SO, there are 150 students who complain about BK (apparently, according to MSM). This is big. This is in the week before the murders, IIRC. Then, the next week after being admonished and confronted, he returns to grading
and gives ever student 100% on everything. This is a dishonest approach, but in my world, that's a big middle finger to the prof and to academia. This is no bueno. He knows that.
But everyone says he's all chipper and happy. Then - when the Elantra issue comes up, he's all sleepless and tired.
The prof and the students thought they had "effectuated change in the status of BK's complaint situation."
Instead, unbeknownst to them, he has just committed a quadruple homicide.
IMO. Make of it what you will. But he probably thought he was going to lose both his grad school position AND his free tuition (to join a different program would have meant...tuition again). I personally don't understand programs that do this (offer first year students so much when the program itself is not #1-5 in the rankings) but I suppose they're trying really hard to recruit the best students they can. This whole situation leaves WSU's Criminology Program as yet another community victim.
Is my point. IMO.