For the past week, I've been trying to enroll in a course that I will probably need to graduate. This course (Life Sciences 4U03) is taught by John Hassell this year. I was told I needed his permission to join the course, and so I've been trying to contact him for the past week to ask him for it.

I've left one voicemail, emailed him once, and called him a few times after he simply did not respond to the voicemail or the email. I decided to try to go find him as the matter was urgent.

It took a while and some running around from building to building to finally find his office (which was not the office shown on his McMaster webpage). The office was locked, so I asked some assistants working in the department beside it if he was here, and they gave me this phone number to reach him by that was not the same as the one from online.

I called it.

What followed was just a big shock.

The guy responds with "HELLO?!?"

I say "Hi, I'm a Life Sciences student looking to enroll in a course you will be teaching. I may need this course to graduate, but I was told I need your perm-"

"YEAH I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. YOU WANT MY DAMN PERMISSION, WHY DO YOU THINK I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU?"

I say "Well, I work really hard in any course I take, and I've taken biology courses that-"

"WELL THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR ME. I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW YOU GOT THIS BLOODY PHONE NUMBER."

"Well I was given it by one of the workers in the department beside your office"

"YOU'VE CALLED ME LIKE ONE HUNDRED TIMES. I DON'T LIKE TO BE CALLED. AND I'M NOT IN ANY DAMN POSITION TO GIVE YOU PERMISSION RIGHT NOW. TALK TO ME LATER AND WE'LL SEE"

And he just hangs up.

It's a shame I did not record this talk.

I thought he was just in a bad mood, until I read his ratemyprofessor.com reviews.

Is this behaviour even allowed? I've never really encountered this from any other professors. And he said I've called him 100 times, even though I called him like maybe 3 times? And he never picked up anyways.

The fact that this guy treats his students (and others) like sh*t is really distasteful for a professor. I am not going to write a complaint or anything since I did not record the call, but does anyone else have any similar experiences with this guy?

Proper behaviour is to acknowledge your contact by email, and curtly provide a timeline for permission or a rationale for denying permission. (This is modified by the various unwritten rules that profs arbitrarily follow, e.g. no response to any email longer than 4 sentences.)

He's allowed to behave however he wants, though, because he has tenure and a directorship.

Given your first interaction with him went so badly, I'd strongly suggest taking whatever other course you could possibly take to graduate, and avoiding him altogether.