Do you think a college professor has the right to do this?

[crashbb]

Too bad we probably won't hear what happens.

I disagree. I feel that we will hear.

Now, whether we will hear the truth or not, is an entirely different matter.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

I have gone to two different colleges and they have both given the professors the right to kick a student out of class if they are late or come to class unprepared.

My professors always locked the door at start time, so we couldn't be late and if we were going to be absent we had to show them a doctors note, jury duty notice or military papers. Anything past that were not excused and we could be failed from the class if we had too many unexcused absences.

 

[Miz Diz]

When I was in college, I had some professors who would lock the door when it was time to start class. If you came late, too bad. He/she would not open the door for you. I am surprised she did not discuss the issue with her professor or her boss, to see if she could leave 15 minutes early.

 

[Briarmom]

As a University student right now, I wish my professors would do this. I cannot stand that *one person* in each class who shows up late every single day.

If I have an issue with anything, I go to my prof. All of them have known that I have kids and that I need to have my cell phone on vibrate during class. They also know right away if one of my kids is sick and I won't be able to make class. It's not rocket science.

 

[Andtototoo]

Ah well, when she started class her hours were different. This has been for the last 4 weeks. I have no idea what the syllabus says, and she made no mention of it.

My thoughts are that she is an adult woman, with adult responsibilities, doing all she can to further / improve herself. It isn't like she is an 18 year old kids who is a wiseguy. In her shoes, I do believe I agree with what she said, entirely. Plus, she paid the money, so she's supposed to get taught.

BTW, this is a community college class we are talking about, not Ivy League or anything. To me, it just sounds like a professor that is too full of himself.

To me it sounds like you and your friend are the ones full of yourselves.

As far as she paid the money, she's supposed to get taught -- Pfft. This person is a professor, not the counter person at McDonald's. There is much more to the professor-student dynamic than payment rendered. At the core of this relationship, like ALL relationships, is RESPECT.

It's a matter of respect. The professor shows up on time, ready to teach. S/he has the right to expect the same respect from the students.

I taught as an adjunct at both an Ivy League and at a CC. My rules were the same in both: Show up on time to all classes. Period. If you don't like the rules -- which were standard at both places -- then don't sign up for the class. If your life changes after you've signed up for the class, that is not MY problem. It is your problem. I am most certainly not going to allow a habitually tardy student to disrupt the class or distract me -- the good of the many outweighs the good of the one.

If a student came to me beforehand and told me that on X day, I have a doctor's appointment I cannot miss and asked permission to be late, I would have willingly granted it. One time. Life happens. If, however, a student came to me and said, "I will be ten minutes late for the rest of the semester," I would have probably told them to drop the class to avoid getting a lesser grade than their completed work would have netted them.

 

[deegack]

Ah well, when she started class her hours were different. This has been for the last 4 weeks. I have no idea what the syllabus says, and she made no mention of it.

My thoughts are that she is an adult woman, with adult responsibilities, doing all she can to further / improve herself. It isn't like she is an 18 year old kids who is a wiseguy. In her shoes, I do believe I agree with what she said, entirely. Plus, she paid the money, so she's supposed to get taught.

BTW, this is a community college class we are talking about, not Ivy League or anything. To me, it just sounds like a professor that is too full of himself.

ok having been a student for more years than I can count - sometimes as a full time student, some as a part time student working full time. I have taught in colleges. I have been the Dean students complain to about professor policies. Your niece is 100% wrong. Even if the professor did not have his attendance policy listed in his syllabus, it is extremely likely that there was a blanket policy for the college as a whole. Usually it is the minimum policy but professors are permitted to make it more strict. I had classes where if you were not there when the professor walked in you were late. If you were late or absent more than 5 times, you failed. End of story. You did not get your money back.

Also the money your niece paid was for access to her education. She was provided with that. This I'm a student, I pay money, I am special BS is just that BS. Education comes at a cost. Even if you use the public library or the internet. There is a cost to that education.

I would not be surprised if she was kicked out of class again.

 

[charming23]

He had every right to ask her to leave, his classroom, his rules. I have had professors do this and announce it in front of the class to show everyone they were serious about their rules.

She should have talked to him. If she knew it was only going to be one time than I could see her not saying anything but knowing that is was going to continue or had the possibility of continuing she should have said something. I have had many understanding professors that worked with me due to work issues and being late. Just sending a quick e-mail would have made a difference.

Your comment about it only being Community College really bothered me. The professors at a community college are just as qualified as at an Ivy League school. I have had some of the best professors at Community Colleges.

 

[luvmy3]

I am a 40+ year old single mother of 3 kids. I work and go to school at the local community college too. Your niece was out of line...plain and simple!

Every teacher gives out a syllabus *at least here* and most teachers go over it the first day of class. In my classes I am in mostly an open entry/open exit program which means in almost all of my classes I do NOT have a professor who lectures but I do have a professor that takes "roll" each hour. If we are more than 10 min late we can walk into the room but we don't get counted as being there. Even with THIS program in place I cannot imagine being late on a weekly/daily basis (and I don't even disrupt teaching) without discussing it with the professor ahead of time.

She needs to grow up, go talk to her professor AND her work if possible to see if there can be an option that works for everyone involved. She's not a young student she's a grown woman/mother....she needs to act like it!

Just wanted to say that I really luv your screen name, it has a really nice ring to it

 

[LilyWDW]

I can't wait for her to show up late to class this Thursday. That should be fun!

Wish I could be there to see it... but I have class!

As for the situation at hand, if the person in question in the OP wants to be treated as an adult, they need to act like an adult.

The professor has every right to request the student who is disrupting the class to leave. In my opinion (wish), the professor should have contacted campus security to have her escorted from the class. I understand why he did not though... it was not worth disrupting the class further.

I am currently in a graduate program, so I DO have some experience with this. If you have an issue, speak to the professor BEFORE it becomes a problem. Seriously, professors are people too and most will understand that sometimes things happen.

To be blunt, the person in question needs to get over themselves. Their problem does not give them the right to disrupt class week after week. It does not give them the right to act like a child when they are called out. They need to realize that the rules apply to them too and they are not special. If she is late, then she needs to accept the consequences of their actions.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Ah well, when she started class her hours were different. This has been for the last 4 weeks. I have no idea what the syllabus says, and she made no mention of it.

My thoughts are that she is an adult woman, with adult responsibilities, doingall she can to further / improve herself. It isn't like she is an 18 year old kids who is a wiseguy. In her shoes, I do believe I agree with what she said, entirely. Plus, she paid the money, so she's supposed to get taught.

BTW, this is a community college class we are talking about, not Ivy League or anything. To me, it just sounds like a professor that is too full of himself.

So the prof deserves no respect because it is a community college? My son takes classes at a cc and he is expected to be there on time and not leave early. How rude of your niece! She should have dropped the course if she could not be there on time. I don't care that she is an adult. An adult should know better.

 

[RitaZ.]

The worst thing a college student can do is challenge the professor in front of the class. The student will always lose more than he/she will gain. First of all, it's rude and disrespectful. Second, you never know when you'll need a professor's recommendation or help. Don't burn any bridges!

The professor sets the rules for the class. If you don't like those rules, then you have 3 choices: adapt/conform, find another professor or give up on higher education. It's really simple.

If your niece had approached the professor as soon as she knew there was a schedule conflict, then this incident wouldn't have happened. In my experience, most professors are reasonable people who want their students to succeed. The one thing they won't tolerate is blatant disrespect for their time and class.

Your niece was wrong. She can learn from this incident or she can continue to assert her "rights". Let's see how far the latter choice gets her in the quest to improve herself.

 

[mickeymedic]

I had more than one college class that they LOCKED the door at starting time. Late was not an option, for ANY reason.

As an Educator, I have done this on more than one occasion. I have taught college classes and I have taught clinical education classes. The clinical education classes were single session mandatory classes for a corporation. My policy was that once class started, no one else entered. I locked the door - and hung a sign on the outside of the door that said "Class has started. No one will be permitted to enter late. Please sign up for another session and plan to arrive a few minutes early." After the first couple of people were turned away and had to sign up for a different class, word spread that I meant business.

Why is it that 29 people are able to manage their life, but then there is always the 1 person who thinks they should have special exeptions made for them. I can't tell you how many times I had students who thought they were the only one in the world who had kids, or worked 2 jobs, or who had issues at home, etc, etc, etc.

 

[okeydokey]

I wonder if this had been you, any of you, whether you would have had the same response. I doubt it, if in the same situation. I will concede that it would have been wise to approach him, but she didn't. But I surely doubt that ALL of the people here who say she was 100% wrong would feel that way had it been you. In fact, as I read the posts of many of you, I can tell you all weren't / are perfect wonderful beings, and I just can't see some of you not doing something similar.

Nice way to try to deflect the fact the everyone thinks you are wrong.

 

[RitaE]

The worst thing a college student can do is challenge the professor in front of the class. The student will always lose more than he/she will gain. First of all, it's rude and disrespectful. Second, you never know when you'll need a professor's recommendation or help. Don't burn any bridges!

The professor sets the rules for the class. If you don't like those rules, then you have 3 choices: adapt/conform, find another professor or give up on higher education. It's really simple.

If your niece had approached the professor as soon as she knew there was a schedule conflict, then this incident wouldn't happened. In my experience, most professors are reasonable people who want their students to succeed. The one thing they won't tolerate is blatant disrespect for their time and class.

Your niece was wrong. She can learn from this incident or she can continue to assert her "rights". Let's see how far the latter choice gets her in the quest to improve herself.

What that other Rita said. BTW, I did my entire MBA as a Mother with a full-time job in addition to my classes and I never met a Professor that didn't go out of his/her way to work with student's needs. After all, most of them were also working parents. I'm far from perfect. But what this Professor is punishing is blatant disrespect and non-communication. How is he/she supposed to know about the work and scheduling conflicts if the student can't even take 4 minutes to talk about them?

All the Professor sees is a student coming in late to class time after time.

 

[tvguy]

I have 2 kids in college, 1 in private, 1 in public. Both have had Professors who locked the doors when class started. So there is no question in my mind it is acceptable. But as a lot ahead of me have posted, the responsible thing would have been to for her to explain the situation to the Professor when it first started.

 

[GinnyEmma]

People left about half way through my son's class the other day and the prof retook attendance.

 

[Ceila]

So, OP, your niece is rude by:

- coming late to class several weeks in a row
- choosing not to do the right thing and talk directly to her professor about it
- acting even MORE disrespectful when she (correctly) gets called on the carpet

and yet you seem to think that the posters on this thread are the ones with an attitude problem. Really?

 

[okeydokey]

Umm, I think BCB has left the building.

That's OK, he can just come back as someone else later on.

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

well to answer the original question...the professor has the right to do so, he is the one in charge of the class and I'm sure in the syllabus there as a section on attendance. Every class I have taken has had an Attendance section that includes parts on absences and lates/tardy situations. It's college as a student your expected to be respectful of your professor and your fellow classmates and part of that is making sure you follow the rules, and don't disrupt the class. Once she realized that her work schedule was going to cause her to be late, more then once, as an ADULT to be respectful and responsible should have spoken with the professor, either after class, or during office hours to explain the situation. Had she done so the professor might have been ok with it and not spoken to her about it.

As a College student its her responsibility to make arrangements to meet the requirements of all of her responsibilities, work, school, family. If she is unable to do that then its her responsibility to work with all parties involved to find a solution. The professor is there to teach, she is there to learn, part of that is learning how to be on time and not disrupt the class.

Second...from my experience, this semester I had one teacher that if you had to leave the room for any reason told you up front that once you leave don't come back every time the door opens it disrupts the class and that we as students can take care of business before or after class, if its that important that you have to take time out of the class period to take care of whatever the issue it is then its important enough not to return to class. If you were going to be more then 5 minutes late to class, she gave us the times of other class times that we could substitute our class time with where we'd get credit for being in class, but wouldn't disrupt the one we'd be late for. We were held accountable for being there ON TIME ready to learn.

My Human Biology teacher made it clear that if you were more then 10 minutes late it counted as an absence whether you sat through the class or left. After 3 absences it was a written warning and after the 4th you were dropped from the class. 6 people were dropped from the course the week of our final this term because they were late or absent too many times. We are adults, we have to be accountable. Time Management, and communication go a long way.

Lastly, community college is not Ivy league but we are challenged just as much, just because someone goes to Community College doesn't make them less of a person, or not as educated then someone who goes to an IVY league School. I wouldn't want to waste my money on an Ivy League school, just to have the schools name on my resume, I want to get an education, one that I can afford, and one that doesn't come with a pretentious attitude along with it. Also going to Community College doesn't mean following the rules, or being respectful of the professor and fellow students won't apply to EVERYONE.

And I am not a 18 year old, I have family responsibilities, and I'm a decade older then most of those in my class but we are held to the same rules, and the same expectation of respect as the other person.

Your niece needs to gain some respect for her professor, learn some time management skills, and learn how to communicate with others. The dean will most likely feel the same way and hopefully she doesn't end up having to repeat the course because she couldn't be respectful and responsible.

 

[RachaelA]

People left about half way through my son's class the other day and the prof retook attendance.

Love it! I wish some of my large lecture hall professors did that. Half the class would leave after they signed in!