A longtime New Jersey college professor is going viral after a student’s first-day video captured his unusually intense approach to classroom discipline. From refusing to repeat part of his lecture to stopping everything over a clicking pen, Professor Libby quickly gave his new students an introduction they probably weren’t expecting.
The professor appears to be longtime NJIT physics professor Libarid “Libby” Maljian, whose Fall 2026 courses include The Earth in Space. Maljian has taught at NJIT for years and appears to have developed something of a reputation among students for his memorable and sometimes intense classroom personality.
TikToker Balencii shared the awkward and tense moment online. He regularly posts lifestyle content online, including trends and the occasional vlog. This time around, he recorded his first day of school at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, resulting in a viral clip. It garnered 460,000 views, 95,600 likes, and more than 2,000 comments.
From the get-go, the teacher, possibly identified as Professor Libby, seemed mad. He can be heard saying, “You’re smiling. You think this is funny?” Then, he told one of his students to move. When a student apparently asked him to go back over material, Maljian wasn’t interested in starting over.
“Do you expect me to repeat an entire three-hour lecture just for you?” he said. “[…] None of you were paying attention.” The professor’s frustration may not have been entirely imagined. At one point in the clip, Balencii’s laptop appears to show a $605 Louis Vuitton passport cover rather than course material.
‘Who Is Clicking a Pen?’: Professor Libby Turns to Classroom Discipline
Maljian’s attention then shifted to another distraction. “Someone is clicking a pen. Who is it? Whoever it is, stop clicking,” he said. He then instructed the student responsible to put the pen down and fold their hands, anticipating an objection before it could even come.
“Don’t you dare say, ‘How am I supposed to take notes?’ You’re not taking notes anyway,” he said, arguing that the clicking was disrupting his lecture.
At another point, Maljian launched into an anecdote about how classroom discipline worked when he was younger, joking that misbehaving students would first get punished by a teacher and then face another “whooping” when they got home to their father. Finally, the teacher said that he wasn’t dismissing the class early since students had a pending quiz. On top of that, he had to discipline three students, only to find that they had left.
Students familiar with Maljian might not find the viral classroom scene particularly surprising. The longtime professor has developed a colorful reputation at NJIT, with former students offering wildly different takes on his teaching style.
Maljian currently holds a 4.5-out-of-5 rating across more than 150 student reviews on Rate My Professors, with some students describing him as hilarious and his classes as an experience in themselves. Others have criticized his tendency to call students out or become frustrated when they ask questions.
That split reaction was also reflected underneath Balencii’s video.
Viewers Split Over Professor Libby
Many viewers reacted negatively to the footage showing the New Jersey teacher. One said, “This man unironically seems dangerous.” Another one commented, “Oh, he’s miserable.” A third one added, “We are all adults. Speak up for yourself. That’s insane.”
Others, however, supported the teacher, saying his behavior was normal and a way to keep his lessons engaging. One wrote, “Goated prof. Just don’t act childish, and pay attention, and you’ll pass.” Another one said, “Nothing he’s saying sounds crazy.”
Balencii certainly appeared ready to reconsider his schedule. Near the end of the clip, he pulled up his class registration page, where the “Drop/Delete” option was visible, before declaring, “Safe to say, I’ll be joining them.”
Whether he actually dropped Maljian’s class is unclear. But judging from years of student reactions to Professor Libby, those who stay may eventually discover that the viral first-day performance wasn’t nearly as unusual at NJIT as TikTok initially made it seem.
