WWYD: My daughter's college professor is constantly cancelling class

[disfan07]

I graduated from college almost 3 years ago and in a way, what the OP did doesn't surprise me. The professors at my school were constantly complaining about parents who got involved with their kids life at college. They were more amazed when their student actually went to office hours and talked to them on person without mom and dad.....that was rare.

For me though, I'm really amazed that parents actually think this is acceptable. What are you teaching your child? Full disclosure, my mom did get very involved with my transfer orientation and registration before I transferred but only because I had brain surgery 10 weeks before classes began and I could not travel to take care of registration (transfers HAVE to go to a transfer orientation and register in person). Except for that time, and 1 major emergency situation (that I talk about next), my parents had no idea what went on with classes, professors, cancelled classes, etc unless I told them. And I agree with others. If the teacher really has cancelled that many classes, someone in administration probably already knows. They usually know what's going on even if the students don't think they do.

I was registered with disabilities which has a little more understanding about parental involvement especially for people like me who ended up missing about 23 weeks of classes over 3 years (it was the quarter system so 99 weeks total). But even from the hospital, except for one hospitalization when I was sedated for 5 days (it was an emergency) I took care of all necessary communication (in the case of that emergency admission, my mom did contact my disabilities counselor and he then went through the appropriate channels to contact my professors).

If your college student cannot take care of these things without parental involvement, maybe they shouldn't be there? Maybe they need another year or 2 to gain some maturity to deal with these things

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yeah. There's a mom on the budget board who has a tracking app on her dauggter's phone so she can make sure the daughter goes to class.

Seriously! OMG! And here I feel like a stalker when I look to see when DD was last on facebook so I can feel relief in knowing she was back after work (if I happen to have been aware she was working the night before)

 

[sam_gordon]

My daughter is way too timid to speak up.

Possibly because you've have been "speaking up for her" all her life? That's the problem with parents not letting their kids handle issues early in life. They don't learn how to do so. We start having our kids start advocating for themselves around middle school. If they want us next to them for moral support, that's fine, but they're doing the talking.

 

[NHdisneylover]

My last quarter of senior year, one of my professors had some type of emergency (never found out what) and had to leave with 6 weeks still remaining in the quarter (and we did quarters, not semesters, so that was a big chunk of the class). The university did basically as you said - got a "sub" to come in and literally showed movies and got a few guest speakers because they didn't have a plan. Because of the disruption, they changed our final exam from being lengthy and including several essay questions to a simple true or false exam that had so many silly questions on it that it was impossible to fail. I definitely didn't complain because it made things a breeze.

This probably isn't what many parents dishing out tens of thousands on their childrens' educations want to hear, but college in general, with the exception of a few professions like lawyers, doctors, engineers, is kind of a waste. Sure you learn a bit, and you develop into an independent adult (hopefully), but I had to take so many classes that I never, ever, ever, ever, EVER dealt with again after graduating, and I HAVE a job in my field. It very much feels like you pay your $80,000 (or more), suffer through 4 years, and then at the end, get a piece of paper that puts you in exactly the same position as everyone else. That's why I always stress to anyone who asks me how I got my job that you do NEED a degree, but that the most important things are volunteering, doing internships, and networking.

My husband is an engineer and even he only uses a tiny fraction of what was covered in college in his work life.

I don'T think an education is a waste anyway---but, yes, as job training, most of what you learn will not be relevant in the majority of cases, especially for undergrad (and especially in a freshman level course--OP said her daughter was a freshman, right?)

 

[kamik86]

When I was in college my mom didn't even know if my classes were held or cancelled. the only one we really discussed was my finals schedule on the basis of when they should expect me to show back up in town (or before I had a car when I would need them to pick me up from the bus station) which really only meant that they knew my last final was on wed so I'll leave early thursday morning and call you since the bus never runs on schedule when we get leave X so you can get there.

We had some classes cancelled.. not that many but we had 10 week trimesters so a class that only met 2 days a week (most) would only have 20 sessions total.

Some had the opinion that many of the life coach advisor types tried to push off on us so we didn't skip calss, that we were paying for each session etc like the OP has. Most of us however felt we were paying for the chance to earn the credit for the course and as long as I felt the course covered what I needed to move on, whether we sat through 1 class or all 20 I was happy. Some classes that was 0 info and I just needed the credit (microeconomics... that class was horrible, I skipped at 5 of them and did work for other classes in most of the ones I attended and still got an A) in other classes that really meant learning something.

We only had two classes ever have substitute professors. I'm not sure that is really done except in these kind of cases. One classes were cancelled for a week and then we got an email that our professor had a major health emergency and would be out for the foreseeable future. We then had another professor for the rest of the class. This was towards the end so I think only 2 weeks of the new one. The only worry I heard about this situation was worry for the professor. (Note about 18 months later he was back)

The second was early after about week 3. This one we didn't get as much info for just one class we had someone new and they told us they were taking over. No idea why. This one caused more of a stir as the teaching styles were VERY different and those that didn't grasp the content easily (which I was one of) struggled with the change.

I wasn't above making complaints about professors. I was once in a class where 3/4 of the class made a stand against a professor. We had another one that was less bad but was awful about grading and returning work which many of us noted on our end of quarter evals and after a few quarters we heard rumors that he was read the riot act and suddenly stuff started coming back in his classes like clock work. However for this issue if your daugther feels she is learning the content of the class and won't have an issue due to this (IE this is class name I and she needs a class name II that she needs this content for) then let her stand up about it. I definitely had classes where if they never had class and just gave me an A I would have had no problem paying for that (those liberal arts classes that I took because I had to in order for the degree to be accredited or gym classes

 

[kamik86]

My husband is an engineer and even he only uses a tiny fraction of what was covered in college in his work life.

I don'T think an education is a waste anyway---but, yes, as job training, most of what you learn will not be relevant in the majority of cases, especially for undergrad (and especially in a freshman level course--OP said her daughter was a freshman, right?)

For an engineer this is definitely true. I am a systems engineer now but my degrees are in software engineering and computer science. The last time I programmed anything was in grad school. I was working in systems before I even got that last degree.

Engineering is a wide field and the degrees are portable. My team has electrical, mechanical, software, systems, industrial, and probably a few I am forgetting degrees between it.

Even if you stay in your one field most engineering teams are large enough that you are mostly working a specialty if your in design after your first few years anyway. If like me you don't do design (I do test) you take a more broad look but your job is much less technical. I use what I learned from all my process courses and the general way engineers look at the world but not any specific technical knowledge.

As you get further in the field that happens even more you either take a tech path and end up a subject matter expect in a very defined area that various groups call on as needed or you become management. Where you need to know the overall processes and understand enough when your employees are explaining what went wrong but that is really all you need anymore.

 

[aprilgail]

I graduated from college almost 3 years ago and in a way, what the OP did doesn't surprise me. The professors at my school were constantly complaining about parents who got involved with their kids life at college. They were more amazed when their student actually went to office hours and talked to them on person without mom and dad.....that was rare.

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I backed off once high school started- her schedule was all screwed up the first week of high school and all I did was tell her to go to guidance and take care of it. Once they hit high school they pick their own classes and don't get to have mom or dad there to help them do that so if its screwed up then they should be able to get it fixed themselves! There was a class/teacher she had she didn't care for so since she knew it was up to her she left the class went to guidance and switched it out- no help from mommy. I certainly don't plan on having input on things once college starts!

 

[tcufrog]

Before I was a SAHM I was a college librarian. I always felt sorry for students escorted to the library by parents or spouses (immigrant women). I wondered if they would do the same thing when their family member has a job. College is training wheels for life. It's the time when students learn how to become fully functioning, independent adults. You say your daughter is timid. Are you always going to be there to fight her battles? Perhaps visiting the school counselor for a few sessions to learn how to stand up for herself would help. Either way, you aren't doing her any favors if you always stand up for her.

 

[loves to dive]

My son is back in college after working and a stint in the Navy and he is happy as a lark when his classes are cancelled. If attendance isn't required, he rarely even goes to class and is on the Dean's list. More often than not, when he does go to class he ends up helping the professor and he is in upper level classes, working jointly on his undergraduate and Master's at the same time (it's complicated). It's not all that unusual for a class to get cancelled. I used to be a secretary here at UGA, and more often than not if it was test day, the professor stayed at home and I handed out the tests. I worked in Comparative Literature and we were on the quarter system at the time. There were at least 4 tests and heavens knows how many quizzes during the quarter, I took care of almost all of them. The profs. would hand out the syllabus at the beginning of year so the kids knew what to read and when.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

No, she is an excellent student. I'm really just upset about not having a replacement teacher and the fact that the cost of college is killing me. I also have another child headed to college in a few months.

Like I said, I appreciate the responses. Perhaps I need to step back and reflect/process what I'm hearing you say.

I have a college freshman and I would only call if it was something that was serious that my dd felt she needed my help and asked for it.

This is filed under annoying.

The fact tuition is killing you is not relevant.

Bottom line my generic statement is "what are you going to do about it?".

 

[SC Minnie]

A parent called the university about cancelled classes??? DD21 is graduating next month and would be mortified if I had called the school at any time during her stint there. Mortified. Whenever she's had an issue that was big enough for her to complain to me about I've given her advice on what to do. That's it. It's up to her to do something or not.

 

[Vernie822]

I don't think that, in college, I said much to my parents about this kind of stuff. Maybe touched on it, but never elaborated really. I'd be super embarrassed if my parents called the school though. I was between 19-22 when I was in college. You handle that stuff yourself.

 

[mamacatnv]

Way out of line, not your job to monitor the professors attendance.
Back off and let your kid be a student who is learning to be an adult. For goodness sakes don't do these kind of things behind your young adults back, that is sure to cause resentment at some point in time.
I haven't contacted a school administrator since probably middle school and then only when my kids asked me to intervene as they had hit a wall and needed parent backup.

 

[Kitty 34]

On the flip side I probably skipped a couple of classes that much when I was in college. Good thing the professor never called Mom and Dad!

 

[gwynne]

I have a college freshman and I would only call if it was something that was serious that my dd felt she needed my help and asked for it.

This is filed under annoying.

Bottom line my generic statement is "what are you going to do about it?".

I can only recall calling the university once after my student had tried several times to solve a problem. I called the registrar's office and said, "My student is having a lot of difficulty taking care of xyz. Is there someone in the office he can talk to?" They were great, gave me a name, phone # and said for him to call or come in and they would work together on the issue. And that is exactly what happened.
Our generic statements are pretty similar. Mine was (and continues to be now and then) "What are your options?"

 

[NewRVLady]

OP-one other thing to do
There are websites that rate Colleges, certain majors and even professors
search them out
(I did this with a "bogus sounding" online college someone was taking classes at. Very eye opening to see what OTHERS had to say about the Prof and "college")

 

[cabanafrau]

I'm interested in knowing what you wanted from the phone call. An apology? Were you intending to give a stern lecture to the professor? Instruct him to leave a sub?

How did you envision this phone call was going to go?

Oh and I would tell your daughter you called the school. We teach our children when they make mistakes to own up to them and I think this is a big one to own up to as well to your daughter.

Good questions, can I add another? How did you know the professor's name?

DD has told us some stories during her time in college, but never once have we had cause to know the name of a single professor. We absolutely would not be paying tuition for an adult to attend college if she was too timid to speak up for herself if she in fact had a problem or was in fact being cheated out of anything.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I can only recall calling the university once after my student had tried several times to solve a problem. I called the registrar's office and said, "My student is having a lot of difficulty taking care of xyz. Is there someone in the office he can talk to?" They were great, gave me a name, phone # and said for him to call or come in and they would work together on the issue. And that is exactly what happened.
Our generic statements are pretty similar. Mine was (and continues to be now and then) "What are your options?"

Yep.

Right now my dd is having trouble getting her dorm room for next yr. We kept telling her to take care of it for 2 months.

Last night she called and said she is going to fix it. (finally!)

I am not happy how she is handling it but it is up to her to take care it.

 

[JessM]

I had a professor that was constantly cancelling class as well. She was always out sick and while it sucks there's nothing you can do about it. Most are tenured and the college can't get rid of them anyways. Honestly while class can be great to learn, your daughter can easily use that time to do a self study on the material which is a useful skill to learn for the workplace.

This is absolutely your daughter's battle and not yours! My Mom worked in the same college system I went to and had access to all of my grades, class schedule, bill account, etc. She did her best to completely stay out of it and let me work my way through college on my own. I believe she truly didn't monitor my grades or what I was taking for classes because she always asked me how I was doing that semester and how I did once grades came back at the end of the semester. I would have been furious if she had called the school without my knowledge or was constantly sticking her nose where it didn't belong. You go to college at 18 and are an adult. I expected to be treated like one, just as I'm sure your daughter does.

 

[NewRVLady]

Good questions, can I add another? How did you know the professor's name?

.

LOL-the time my son was on a long call with a class mate helping him with Rhino computer program-he told me then that Prof Blahblah was a dummie and none of the kids were understanding the program -that was my first hint this class was wonky & thee only time I heard a Prof's name


( -its the 3-d modeling program that turns your drawings into a tree dimensional object-they had the machine at the UNI-and DS still uses it in his design work at his job)
http://www.rhino3d.com/