A former Michigan State University professor who required each of her business marketing students to purchase annually-renewing $99 subscriptions to her “Patriarchy Rebellion Community” website was apparently allowed to walk away with her proceeds while the university foots the bill for reimbursements.
As the New Guard originally reported last month, Dr. Amy Wisner claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that the community was a “safe place to coordinate our efforts to burn everything to the fucking ground” and that 100% of membership fees went to Planned Parenthood. In conflicting statements, she also suggested that 100% of proceeds would go to purchase a “rebellion RV” in order to enable her to tour the country and create a “bully-free future.”
Shortly after Young America’s Foundation broke the story, Wisner was placed on leave. As of this writing, she no longer appears in MSU’s faculty directory.
Wisner’s former students recently received an email from the business school’s interim dean informing them that the university will issue $99 account credits as reimbursements for their membership fees. The dean also warned students that they are responsible for canceling their automatically renewing subscriptions and will not be reimbursed by the school for any further charges.
The New Guard attempted to reach university officials and Wisner to find out where the reimbursement funds are coming from. Neither party responded.
While it is possible that the university required Wisner to forfeit the estimated $120,000 in funds she collected throughout the past two years, it seems unlikely that this was the case, as students’ memberships are still set to automatically renew unless they take action to cancel them, and Wisner made social media posts indicating that she had already spent significant sums of the proceeds on donations to Planned Parenthood and a downpayment on her “rebellion RV.”
This week, Wisner managed to make her way onto a Reddit poll aiming to determine the worst professors at MSU. “She taught you that, if you have power over someone, you can force them to pay for your product even if they don’t want to; leading to a successful business,” one student wrote.
The future of “The Rebellion Community” appears to be in limbo, as its website and Instagram page became inaccessible on Friday.
It’s unfortunate that professors like Wisner feel comfortable exploiting students to bankroll leftist activism. Hopefully, what has happened to Wisner will serve as a clear warning that such behavior is unacceptable.
