Jake registers for a required course in his major at the Community College of Kumquat. At the

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Question:

Jake registers for a required course in his major at the Community College of Kumquat. At the time of registration, the instructor was listed as "TBD" or to be determined. Prior to the start of the semester, Professor Delilah is assigned to teach the course.

Delilah has been teaching at Kumquat for more than 45 years and because of his tenure and seniority status in the faculty-college contract, he generally teaches a load of 4 courses each semester. Delilah was once highly regarded but is about 80 years old and is not at the top of his game.

Jake notices that he was required to purchase an expensive textbook for the course but Delilah rarely refers to it. He has been known to lock the classroom door after the bell at the beginning of the class and refuse to let latecomers enter. He creates many assignments which appear to be only randomly related to the course and is uniformly regarded as a tough grader. There is not much give and take in the class setting and Delilah has been known to speak on whatever topic interests him at the moment for the entire class. Many students hope to escape with a passing grade but tend not to have learned much about the course subject matter.

After forcing himself to read the textbook on his own and being punctual for every class, Jake receives a D at the end of the semester. He finds he will have to repeat the course to transfer the credits to the four year university he hoped to attend. Jake is understandably enraged.

He logs on to a site called ratemyprofessor.com and leaves the following evaluation of Delilah:

By far the worst professor I ever had. He is very rude and gets lost in his thoughts for the hour and a half that he speaks. He acts as if he can never be wrong and he does not care about the success of his students. Really should consider retirement. He is old and miserable.

As it turns out, the department chairperson was looking over her own reviews when she comes upon Jake's comments about Delilah. She then pages down to see multiple reviews which are essentially the same. She has been hoping for some time that Delilah would retire but he came back each semester. After some investigation, the department recommends Delilah be terminated from Kumquat.

There is a union grievance proceeding and an eventual lawsuit. In addition to suing the college for breach of contract, he alleges he has been defamed by the people posting comments critical of his abilities. During discovery of the lawsuit, the identities of the anonymous students posting on the site are named and Delilah joins the former students, including Jake, in the lawsuit.

Is Jake guilty of defamation? Why or why not? How does he defend himself against the claims? Be specific.

No more than two pages.