Bill Feltt was planning on spending his first few days on campus meeting new students, perfecting syllabuses and learning how to view Eastern from a teacher’s perspective.

However, Feltt is far from the hustle and excitement of the first days of school. Instead, he is lying in hospital bed at Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital recovering physically and emotionally from a brutal attack by six to eight unknown offenders Tuesday night.

The right side of his face is swollen to almost twice its size, and his mouth is so swollen it is hard to speak clearly and even harder to swallow food. Two of his teeth are chipped, one is completely knocked out and several others are loose. Bruises and scrapes cover his whole upper body. Feltt is hardly spending his first week teaching at Eastern the way he expected.

The attack happened just as Feltt was winding down his Tuesday evening at the Gregg Triad computer lab. He was so eager to start his new position as an English 1101 instructor, he decided to take the long way back to his car at Coleman Hall to take in the campus and soak in his surroundings. The walk was a familiar route, considering Feltt earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern in 1987 and just finished his masters here in English this summer. The walk may have been familiar, but he soon found it was far from routine.

As he strolled south toward the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union at about 1:50 a.m., he noticed a group of six to eight men in their early 20s walking westward. As Feltt and the men crossed on the southwest corner of the Union, one man from the pack muttered something.

“I didn’t understand him so I said pardon me,” Feltt said. “I probably wouldn’t have said much, but I thought it might be one of my students. Then I heard him call me a name. It was totally unprovoked.”

When Feltt verbally confronted the man, others from the group joined in on the name calling until the fight escalated into physical struggle between Feltt and the unknown offenders.

“I told him, ‘If you’re going to start a fight with an instructor, you’re going to get expelled.’ He just kind of laughed, and I don’t remember what he said, but the impression I got was that he wasn’t a student.”

Two men acted as the main instigators of the fight, Feltt said. The more aggressive of the two men initiated the assault by trying to kicking him. Feltt described him as a 6 foot tall male, 175 pounds with a narrow beard that followed his jaw line.

“Then he hit me in the face, which was not a clear shot, but it was hard enough to get my attention. So, I kicked him back, and I hit him. At that point in time I knew I was in trouble. It was beyond just talking.”

A second, less aggressive man also physically assaulted Feltt. He described him as a 5 foot 8 inch male, 160 pounds with a dark complexion and dark hair.

The more aggressive offender tackled him, putting his arms around his waist, and the two fell onto the grass. Feltt tried to escape, but as he got to his feet and attempted to run, one of the men tripped or pushed him onto the hard concrete.

“Someone took my head and was smashing it onto the sidewalk face first. When that happened I was really in a daze, but I knew enough to know that a number of people were kicking me from all different directions.”

Feltt could not see how many people were attacking him at that point, but he guessed that there were more than two people kicking his head, ribs and side.

When Feltt finally got to his feet, he returned to his car parked in the Coleman Hall parking lot. He then drove himself home and his roommate took him to Sarah Bush were he was admitted in stable condition.

The offenders did not steal anything, and Feltt said he doesn’t know why anyone would have wanted to do this to him. He said the outpouring of support has been tremendous from Eastern’s English department and, despite the attack, he plans to return to Eastern.

“I’ve walked that campus at all hours of the day and night,” said Feltt. “I love the campus and I love teaching there. I’m not going to let a few punks scare me off.”