Recourse For A Crappy Class?

[oldguystudent]

So let's say I'm in this class where the instructor only shows up half the time. When she does show up, she uses 30 of the 80 minutes of allotted class time. During this 30 minute period, she spends half of it talking about her college days, her car, her son and Obama. Now in week six, she's cut class to once a week instead of twice. She comes unprepared, and doesn't really talk about anything in class. Now to further the fun, let's say that the test was comprised of completely random and irrelevant questions that left your's truly with a 68, but probably one of the higher scores in the class. Let's further say that our lovely instructor mocked the class for getting such low scores today. Some of you know exactly about what and whom I speak. The syllabus says that I must first go to a grader, then to the instructor, then to the department. Given the in-class track record, I wonder if I can skip the first two steps. Anyone have experience with this kind of thing?

I came to this school a bit cocky with the notion that I could face any professor, and so far it's proven true, but when I'm assessed on completely random minutia, my GPA is getting threatened by playing trivial pursuit on tests for the Seinfeld of classes (the class about nothing). I don't think anybody can overcome that.

Edited February 24, 2009 by oldguystudent

[Quoner]

If she's a good researcher, her bosses won't care.

I had this happen to me and I shared the situation with a professor in another department I trusted who was outraged. She contacted the other professors department (after promising to keep my anonymity) and shared the list of complaints. Your evaluations are the other recourse, but once again, most bosses have an idea of what is going on and choose to ignore it until they have their feet held to the fire by someone else.

You should keep a blog of the crap she pulls and find a way to post it without revealing who you are. I know a site that would be happy to host just such a thing....

[oldguystudent]

If she's a good researcher, her bosses won't care.

I had this happen to me and I shared the situation with a professor in another department I trusted who was outraged. She contacted the other professors department (after promising to keep my anonymity) and shared the list of complaints. Your evaluations are the other recourse, but once again, most bosses have an idea of what is going on and choose to ignore it until they have their feet held to the fire by someone else.

You should keep a blog of the crap she pulls and find a way to post it without revealing who you are. I know a site that would be happy to host just such a thing....

She's an adjunct instructor who's a PhD candidate at another school. I don't think her research will get in the way. I've started documenting what she's doing in class.

[Censored by Laurie]

There are thousands of cases of students over-coming difficulty without going to the department for a bail-out.

Socialist.

[KRAM1]

Care to share at least what class and dept this relates to with the rest of us? I never had an instructor THAT bad in all my years of college...both at the undergrad and graduate levels. Is this a tenured professor or not? If tenured you have a "fat chance" of getting anywhere with your complaints/information. If not tenured, there is at least some hope. Quoner make a great point to document this stuff. Be very specific as to dates and times and what was done...when she arrived...when she left...what days classese were held and which days there were no classes. You know the drill. YOU may not get relief during this term, but you may "save" future students from this failure of an instructor! I would encourage you to keep these records and to talk to others in the class to do the same thing...that way you can not be accused of just being a disgruntled student who got a "68", etc. You will definitely need to go "up the food chain" with this, and if it is important to you and other students you should not stop until you get a meeting with the Dept. chair, the dean of the school/college and perhaps a VP level administrator.

Do not go into the meetings with a "chip on your shoulder", do it professionally and calmly and let the folks "below" the person you intend to speak with know you are going...after you speak with them (if of course you get no satisfation at the lower levels). This "stuff" is VERY inportant to the quality of the education students are paying for at UNT and can harm the school's reputation as a place for a quality education if it is allowed to continue.

OK, a bit of a soap box for me, but I was a TA in grad school and after completing my MBA at UNT I taught Finance 377 (or whatever it is called today) at UNT at night for several years. I took my job VERY seriously and did all I could to actually TEACH! My student evaluations were pretty good...even from students who did not receive A's or B's....but it was important to me that I did the best I could. I am sure that 99% of the instructors at UNT care and care very much about their students and the job they are personally doing in the classroom. It sounds like this person is just a "bad apple", but I have no first hand knowledge, of course.

Sorry about the crappy class, it really bothers me to hear about this. Good luck in letting folks know. I do wish you well with that.

[KRAM1]

There are thousands of cases of students over-coming difficulty without going to the department for a bail-out.

Socialist.

Priceless...response of the day! Too funny!

[oldguystudent]

Priceless...response of the day! Too funny!

If I can get the department to pay my mortgage, I'll take the crappy grade.

[Quoner]

If I can get the department to pay my mortgage, I'll take the crappy grade.

Good things are happening for bitching and whining!

If she is an adjunct, you should be able to roast her to her boss and get her in some immediate heat. I would get a group of students to do it with you if possible.

[Green P1]

I suggest you complain about her to your fellow classmates and whine about the situation on the interweb.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

She's an adjunct instructor who's a PhD candidate at another school. I don't think her research will get in the way. I've started documenting what she's doing in class.

--- I had one (actually two) of those idiots at TxTech when in grad school (mathematics and a TA, I did my job) .... but a differnet reason.... He was on retainer from a company in Dallas (tech company) and was constantly gone to work on or defend his project there. He was working on something involved with the space program. Lots of walks and not really an interested instructor. Learned very little but I was draft bait (I-A) and figured I was not going to be able to finish anyway and was heading for Nam. Wasn't my best semester. Finished at NT... seven years later.

Edited February 25, 2009 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[oldguystudent]

I suggest you complain about her to your fellow classmates and whine about the situation on the interweb.

I'll take that into consideration. In the mean time, I suggest you consider making a career of berating people for asking advice from people who've been through UNT as to proper channels to take.

[UNTflyer]

I feel ya, man. I've had good professors and bad ones. I had one who barely spoke English and her tests were brutal with many questions based on her lectures.

My advice is to do your best, try to make the grade you are shooting for, and make your concerns known on the evaluation.

[Green P1]

I'll take that into consideration. In the mean time, I suggest you consider making a career of berating people for asking advice from people who've been through UNT as to proper channels to take.

I apologize. My remarks were insensitive and distasteful.

In my defense, when faced with a situation very similar to yours, my course of action was to employ the advice I offered to you. My credo has always been to grin and bear.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Green P1

[MDH]

What class?

[EagleD]

I feel ya, man. I've had good professors and bad ones. I had one who barely spoke English and her tests were brutal with many questions based on her lectures.

My advice is to do your best, try to make the grade you are shooting for, and make your concerns known on the evaluation.

I had an algebra teacher who barely spoke English. I dropped the class. I actually think he just sucked as a teacher, b/c I went to math lab every day to pass Trig/PreCal and most of those instructors had English as a second language, but could teach me the universal language, math.

I have a funny story on teacher evaluations. I minored in Political Science. One of my favorite profs was Dr. Bush, a right winger if ever there was one. He would state on the first day of class (every class, of which I took a few) that he was a republican and he would teach his class as such, and if you had a problem with that he encouraged you to drop now while you could get your money back. Don't get me wrong, he welcomed debate and many a class session centered around us arguing politics, hence why I took more of his classes. Filling out his review for a freshman level class, a handful of us were busy working on our novels when someone asked from across the room, "Is it Doctor Bush?" I responded with, "Yeah, it's Doctor Bush, but he can't pass the bar in Texas which is why he's teaching" (something I knew to be true). My classmate jabbed me in the side to let me know my prof had chosen that moment to come back in the class to get his briefcase. Oops! He may not have heard me b/c he didn't even break stride going to the door. If memory serves correctly I made an A, but I had to study my ass off!

That next summer I took Constitutional Law from him and spent the entire summer in the Law library reading supreme court cases (and trying to write one as my final exam). It was one of the most fun and difficult classes of my collegiate career. Funny, most of my favored classes were also the toughest.

[eulessismore]

I'd recommend you complain to the Department Chair if you want something done before the end of the semester. It might be useful, if there's another class period she doesn't show up and the students do, to gauge the other students' opinions. Getting things done is easier when more complain, and would avoid you possibly being singled out as a lone troublemaker. Otherwise, about the only recourse is the evaluation, which doesn't do much for this semester.

[oldguystudent]

I'd recommend you complain to the Department Chair if you want something done before the end of the semester. It might be useful, if there's another class period she doesn't show up and the students do, to gauge the other students' opinions. Getting things done is easier when more complain, and would avoid you possibly being singled out as a lone troublemaker. Otherwise, about the only recourse is the evaluation, which doesn't do much for this semester.

I've got a couple people from last semester willing to sign on that dotted line. Tough to convince kids to take that chance while they're still in the class.

[eulessismore]

I've got a couple people from last semester willing to sign on that dotted line. Tough to convince kids to take that chance while they're still in the class.

Well, that's a tough choice to make; I do know that teaching assistants (at least) have been replaced at UNT, but don't know whether it was during the semester. That would involve getting someone else to take over the class for the remainder of the semester; since the teacher is an adjunct, it seems like there might be a shortage of teachers for that subject at this time.

Something similar happened to a coworker taking a course at UT-Dallas this semester. He signed up for a course where no teacher showed up for the first class meeting. When it didn't appear the teacher would show for the second meeting; those in attendance selected my coworker to inquire at the Departmental offices. The chair looked at the class schedule and realized the teacher listed for the course was not really on the payroll for the semester (it was an adjunct, who, ironically, is full time faculty at UNT, and had been moonlighting at UTD). The 3rd class wasn't held because there had been an ice storm and there were fears of refreezing causing traffic hazards for evening class students. They did get a teacher, but now they're staying another 20-30 minutes late each class; trying to catch up I guess. A memorable quote from the eventual teacher was "I've taught this class before, but never in English".

These are reasons I'm not in favoring of holding class elections as part of class registration; students need to really be on the ball about what they're signing up for and with which teacher. Apparently, it's not always easy.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

One email to the grader, then one email to the instructor and then off to the dean's office. That way you contacted both according to the syllabus.

[eulessismore]

One email to the grader, then one email to the instructor and then off to the dean's office. That way you contacted both according to the syllabus.

That all sounds good 1999, except for the "dean's office" part; since the OP calls for "grader, then to the instructor, then to the department", wouldn't he go to the department chair before the dean?

[GoMeanGreen1999]

That all sounds good 1999, except for the "dean's office" part; since the OP calls for "grader, then to the instructor, then to the department", wouldn't he go to the department chair before the dean?

Yip, he would. Nice catch. I typed wrong.

[Coffee and TV]

I responded with, "Yeah, it's Doctor Bush, but he can't pass the bar in Texas which is why he's teaching" (something I knew to be true). My classmate jabbed me in the side to let me know my prof had chosen that moment to come back in the class to get his briefcase.

Wow. I know raccoons who are able to pass the Texas bar.

[eulessismore]

Wow. I know raccoons who are able to pass the Texas bar.

I've seen raccoons who actually had useful skills...ok, they used them to steal stuff, but hey!

[oldguystudent]

I've seen raccoons who actually had useful skills...ok, they used them to steal stuff, but hey!

Are any of them eligible to play football?

[eulessismore]

Are any of them eligible to play football?

I don't know any who have qualified; the good news is, I don't know any designated as "nonqualifiers". There might be a grey area those black and white critters could fit in. Anything with a "grey area" might have to be moved out of this politically active forum.