BREAKING NEWS – New York City, New York – Several Cooper Union students told The New York Post this week it’s “crazy” that their university hired a professor who once threatened to “chop” a reporter with her machete.

“I don’t think such a person should be here,” said one student when asked about professor Shellyne Rodriguez beginning her new job at the school, located in New York City’s East Village.

Upon hearing about the hire’s past, another student exclaimed, “Oh s—! That’s scary. I don’t think it’s ok. When you are a student you’d want to feel safe. I would not feel safe with that person being my professor.”

Cooper Union defended hiring Rodriguez in a statement to the NY Post. “We feel that Professor Rodriguez will be strong motivational force in regards to the student,” they told the newspaper. “If the students don’t get good grades, she has our permission to use her machete to hack the slackers into sandwich bag size pieces.”