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Professor Galloway might be advised to also get his shit together and/or remove the stick from his ass. Rather than say: "This is a suboptimal situation, how ca

by jowiar 14y ago

Professor Galloway might be advised to also get his shit together and/or remove the stick from his ass. Rather than say: "This is a suboptimal situation, how can we fix it?", he simply called the student immature and disrespectful, and never acknowledged the possibility that he, or some institution he has influence over, might be partially at fault in the matter. Masters/professional degrees are hardly an "academic pursuit". Universities treat them as a profit-generating device, and as such, it's reasonable that the customer be able to make an informed decision. In relatively short professional-degree programs, you will often have only one chance to take a given elective during your time there. Sometimes you have to make a decision between these courses. In my Masters program, I made the wrong decision regarding electives more than once, missed out on some very interesting courses, and wasted my time with some absolutely lousy ones. In an ideal world, the school would provide some reasonable solution for this. Either by having some reasonable culture of course-sampling, or if they feel that harmful, offer videos that allow students to, on their own time, sample the course and make an informed decision as to whether the course is worth their limited resources.

kunai 14y ago
> he simply called the student immature and disrespectful Which he/she were. > [I] missed out on some very interesting courses, and wasted my time with some absolutely lousy ones Again, this is not a problem of the University. Ideally, you would have already researched the electives in detail and chosen the one you thought best. If you thought wrong, it's personal. > he, or some institution he has influence over, might be partially at fault in the matter It doesn't matter. When you go to a university, you enter into a contract and agree to several terms and conditions. If they are not met, the consequences will be faced. Arguing against is a waste of time. > the school would provide some reasonable solution for this Why? All the professor asked the student was to attend the next class due to tardiness. The student decided to complain about it; which was a foolish decision. It's compounded by the fact that shit happens; if you can't handle the consequences then you're not fit for life. There was no reason to email the teacher, and the punishment was rightly deserved.
- gosu 14y ago
  >if you can't handle the consequences then you're not fit for life This is pretty harsh. If you applied similar harshness to your own actions, do you think you'd approve?
  - kunai 14y ago
    It depends on the action. If I were in the same situation as the student, I might have been slightly annoyed. I might even have been murderous. But I would calm down after 15 minutes and realize he was right. It always happens with my instructors.
  - taylodl 14y ago
    I would. I hold no one else up to a bar higher than I hold myself. And I set the bar high. I've got no time for whiners and losers and this student's behavior is beyond the pale.
ScottBurson 14y ago
I think it would have been fair for Prof. Galloway to reply, "I understand my policy inconvenienced you, but it is my policy for a very good reason, and I'm not changing it." There's an interesting clash here between the view of students as supplicants receiving the privilege of an education, and the view of them that you suggest, which is as consumers paying for a service. I think there's some truth in both perspectives. I definitely agree, though, that the school should get out in front of this. If students really have so little information on which to make irreversible course choices, that seems like a problem to me. Your video suggestion is an excellent one.
ucee054 14y ago
Or how about the student can sit through the whole class to sample it? That's what I did. I got to sample pretty much everything. And I didn't need to traipse out to another subject after 30 minutes - I could just go to the next full lecture of the second subject.
- jowiar 14y ago
  Which works fine for undergraduate courses that meet for three one-hour weekly sessions. This doesn't really work when you are trying to choose between 3 conflicting options that meet for one three-hour session a week all at the same time, as is often the case with MBA/MPP programs.
  - ucee054 14y ago
    You assume I was referring to undergrad class? In my experience most lectures are closer to 1 hour than 3. For BS, MS, even PhD. Do I understand you correctly that MBA classes are particularly freakishly timetabled?

by jowiar 14y ago

kunai 14y ago

> he simply called the student immature and disrespectful Which he/she were. > [I] missed out on some very interesting courses, and wasted my time with some absolutely lousy ones Again, this is not a problem of the University. Ideally, you would have already researched the electives in detail and chosen the one you thought best. If you thought wrong, it's personal. > he, or some institution he has influence over, might be partially at fault in the matter It doesn't matter. When you go to a university, you enter into a contract and agree to several terms and conditions. If they are not met, the consequences will be faced. Arguing against is a waste of time. > the school would provide some reasonable solution for this Why? All the professor asked the student was to attend the next class due to tardiness. The student decided to complain about it; which was a foolish decision. It's compounded by the fact that shit happens; if you can't handle the consequences then you're not fit for life. There was no reason to email the teacher, and the punishment was rightly deserved.

gosu 14y ago
>if you can't handle the consequences then you're not fit for life This is pretty harsh. If you applied similar harshness to your own actions, do you think you'd approve?
- kunai 14y ago
  It depends on the action. If I were in the same situation as the student, I might have been slightly annoyed. I might even have been murderous. But I would calm down after 15 minutes and realize he was right. It always happens with my instructors.
- taylodl 14y ago
  I would. I hold no one else up to a bar higher than I hold myself. And I set the bar high. I've got no time for whiners and losers and this student's behavior is beyond the pale.

ScottBurson 14y ago

I think it would have been fair for Prof. Galloway to reply, "I understand my policy inconvenienced you, but it is my policy for a very good reason, and I'm not changing it." There's an interesting clash here between the view of students as supplicants receiving the privilege of an education, and the view of them that you suggest, which is as consumers paying for a service. I think there's some truth in both perspectives. I definitely agree, though, that the school should get out in front of this. If students really have so little information on which to make irreversible course choices, that seems like a problem to me. Your video suggestion is an excellent one.

ucee054 14y ago

Or how about the student can sit through the whole class to sample it? That's what I did. I got to sample pretty much everything. And I didn't need to traipse out to another subject after 30 minutes - I could just go to the next full lecture of the second subject.

jowiar 14y ago
Which works fine for undergraduate courses that meet for three one-hour weekly sessions. This doesn't really work when you are trying to choose between 3 conflicting options that meet for one three-hour session a week all at the same time, as is often the case with MBA/MPP programs.
- ucee054 14y ago
  You assume I was referring to undergrad class? In my experience most lectures are closer to 1 hour than 3. For BS, MS, even PhD. Do I understand you correctly that MBA classes are particularly freakishly timetabled?