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

[Sabeking]

Does the professor leave assignments? My DD is in dual enrollment at the community college. She has one professor who has cancelled what I would consider more than normal but he always has assignments posted on line for them to work on.

 

[keiraliz]

I say this as someone who went to college out of state (across the country, in fact) and had a professor cancel several classes throughout the semester...

I would've been super embarrassed to know my parents had called the school to complain (and they never did). In fact, most of the time, my parents had no idea my classes were cancelled. If your daughter truly has a problem with it, she needs to be the adult and handle it herself. Otherwise, you need to stay out of it. If she was looking for advice from you, that's one thing. I know my parents helped me a lot when I didn't know how to handle a situation, but the key is my parents never got involved except to offer advice. They expected me to make my own decisions and handle it on my own. You need to do the same.

Also, don't expect a refund. It's not going to happen.

 

[NewRVLady]

What is the subject?
My son had a Terrible prof who simply didn't "get" the new art- computer program he was teaching
Ds tutored kids in the class constantly- HE in effect WAS the prof. He gat an A , of course , we didn't get our money's worth at all from the Prof- BUT my son gained SO much more- and his proficiency paid off when he was top in his class and got a great job

 

[MrsPete]

Looking at this from several directions:

First, yes, this is bad for your daughter, especially if she's going to proceed on to a higher level in this subject (for example, if we're talking about a Chemistry 1 class, even if she passes, she's going to be in trouble when she reaches Chemistry 2). Has your daughter complained about this, or simply mentioned it to you? If she's complaining, I'd recommend that SHE go to the department head -- even if she does it anonymously.

On the other hand, if we're talking about an elective class, and she won't be going on to a higher level, and if she's passing, let sleeping dogs lie. She can collect your grade and move on.

Finally, even if you do complain, the semester's half over. Nothing's going to happen immediately. A safer course of action would be to write a letter of complaint to both the department head and the college dean AFTER the class. It'll be too late for the professor to do anything nasty to your daughter (and no one above the individual class level would do so), but you'll have made your point.

 

[5kidsmommy]

Mother of a college sophomore here, I wouldn't have called, I would have let my adult child handle it. Plain and simple. My son tells me what's going on in school when he feels like it but really it's his life and his business, I don't get involved as he is an adult

 

[Missy1961]

I would have been mortified if my mother had called my college to complain about something that I should be dealing with. She's old enough to be living away from home, she is old enough to deal with a problem.

Time to start cutting the apron strings. You need to let her start fighting her own battles. Otherwise, she may expect you to call her boss if she doesn't get a raise.

 

[LisaR]

I would have been mortified if my mother had called my college to complain about something that I should be dealing with. She's old enough to be living away from home, she is old enough to deal with a problem.

Time to start cutting the apron strings. You need to let her start fighting her own battles. Otherwise, she may expect you to call her boss if she doesn't get a raise.

I think mom was 100% wrong, but to be fair to the daughter, she did not ask her mom to call and has no knowledge that her mom did that. I'm guessing she would be mortified. It doesn't sound like the daughter would ask her mom to do that.

 

[ICF]

Wow.....that's just so wrong. You hear stories like this or parents who call their kids boss for some dumb reason.....but you never believe it actually happens.

 

[mnrose]

So, just to ask.....Do you find it acceptable that a professor is essentially stealing our money by not performing what we've hired him to do? How will anyone at the school know this is happening if someone doesn't speak up? The kids sure aren't going to say anything!

FWIW-My daughter has no idea I called the Dean's office and left a complaint. I won't tell her either.

It's not acceptable, but this is NOT your battle to fight. Time for your daughter to stand on her own two feet. My parents NEVER ever, ever, ever, ever intervened in my activities at college. Ever. Nor do I recall them doing it in high school. This is called helicopter parenting, and it is doing your daughter no good.

 

[mom2rtk]

I graduated more than a decade ago, but I still vividly remember the JOY I experienced when I'd walk up to a classroom door and see that class was cancelled for the day lol! And yes, I was paying for it myself.

Yeah, I bet a bunch of students sign up for that professor's classes for that very reason.

OP, if your daughter isn't going to take these opportunities to learn to speak up now, how is that ever going to happen?

 

[arminnie]

It's been a long time since I was in school - but I went to two very hard schools - Tulane and Stanford both of which cost way more than the tuition you are paying. To me going to class is highly overrated. I skipped way more classes than that professor did. But I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was the top student in my major. A really good student does not need to have the material spoon fed to them.

 

[RangerPooh]

Looking at this from several directions:

First, yes, this is bad for your daughter, especially if she's going to proceed on to a higher level in this subject (for example, if we're talking about a Chemistry 1 class, even if she passes, she's going to be in trouble when she reaches Chemistry 2). Has your daughter complained about this, or simply mentioned it to you? If she's complaining, I'd recommend that SHE go to the department head -- even if she does it anonymously.

On the other hand, if we're talking about an elective class, and she won't be going on to a higher level, and if she's passing, let sleeping dogs lie. She can collect your grade and move on.

Finally, even if you do complain, the semester's half over. Nothing's going to happen immediately. A safer course of action would be to write a letter of complaint to both the department head and the college dean AFTER the class. It'll be too late for the professor to do anything nasty to your daughter (and no one above the individual class level would do so), but you'll have made your point.

An additional point to make on this is the likihood of your daughter having another class from this instructor. Be mindful that any complaints are well thought out and truly justified so that if your daughter has this instructor again there won't be retaliation because her mommy got involved. While a good dept chair or dean would keep your identity a secret, word spreads, people talk.

 

[justgrace]

I'm a college student currently, and I can appreciate your willingness to help your daughter. I think it's great that you care about her and her education enough to want to help in some way. College can be wayy stressful, and I don't see anything wrong with trying to help.

It is pretty crazy that her professor has cancelled that many classes. I've only had one professor cancel class twice this year and she gave us overnight notice. Personally, I get really excited when professors cancel classes, as it gives me time to study/work on materials at my pace or get caught up on other things. So, if my professor did that, I would be pretty excited!

If she's still going to get credit for this class and isn't struggling in the subject area, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. I would just be sure not to take that professor again and perhaps mention something in the professor review at the end of the year.

 

[justgrace]

dupe post. Sorry!

 

[sk!mom]

We pay out of state tuition, and my daughter's professor is constantly sending out last minute emails about cancelling class. One reason was he was called out of town, but the rest are vague. I'd say that this semester alone, 7 classes have been cancelled. The class meets two times per week. That is over 3 weeks worth of class cancelled so far, and the semester doesn't end until May!

I called the Dean's office and talked to a young girl who works there. I told her that I was unhappy with the situation and she was going to take my name and number down and have someone get back to me. I wasn't comfortable with that, because I don't want my daughter to get punished for my complaint. She said she would deliver my generic complaint to someone at a manager level.

WWYD? Would you risk giving out your info? Would you expect a refund? Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.
We pay $20,000 a year for her to get an education. The professor isn't making up any of these cancelled days. I'm angry!

Your DD is an adult. If this is a problem for her then she should complain.

My DD19 is away at college. This is year two and I have no idea how often her classes are cancelled. We were talking the other day about an upcoming weekend away and she did mention in passing that a particular class is sometimes cancelled on Fridays so "I might be able to get away early." I never gave it a thought until reading this thread. I'm still not going to give it much thought.

 

[lovin'fl]

My DS is also a college freshman (community college) that has a 6-8pm class twice a week that has been cancelled several times. Or so my DS says. I am curious to see what grade he gets in this class and if it's not great, maybe DS was skipping but telling us the class was cancelled.

 

[emma'smom]

That's rude. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a replacement.

How would that work? Presumably the faculty member is the expert on the topic and who has carefully developed the course, knows its materials/content inside out and is teaching it, right? It's not like high school where you call a professor from the "sub-list" to come in and make them do a worksheet on page 22 without getting out of control. IF your daughter is so concerned, perhaps she could arrange to meet during the class time for discussion of the reading with her fellow students. Higher education is about taking control of one's own education.....

 

[sonnyjane]

How would that work? Presumably the faculty member is the expert on the topic and who has carefully developed the course, knows its materials/content inside out and is teaching it, right? It's not like high school where you call a professor from the "sub-list" to come in and make them do a worksheet on page 22 without getting out of control.

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.

 

[Missy1961]

I think mom was 100% wrong, but to be fair to the daughter, she did not ask her mom to call and has no knowledge that her mom did that. I'm guessing she would be mortified. It doesn't sound like the daughter would ask her mom to do that.

It was a joke.

 

[IDoDis]

If this is a pattern with the instructor then your DD can anonymously leave a review with that info on the rate my professor website. If it's a pattern, then similar reviews most likely already exist. Quite frankly though, a review stating that classes are often canceled would probably entice students to take that class. I would be concerned if it was a class that continued on the following semester like calc 1 to calc 2 where the student needed the info to be successful in calc 2, but I wouldn't worry about a basic core class. Either way, I'd refrain from calling the school. If my DD wasn't compelled to complain herself, then that would be the end of it. I know it's hard to let our kids handle things on their own, but we have to. I say this as a parent of a college student where there have been housing issues that DD was not successful solving with my advice, but I had to let her handle it on her own.

DH is taking one last class online to get his 2nd Master's Degree from a pretty horrible professor who he's had in person before. He's not getting much out of the class. It's basically "pay to play." While coughing up the money for the class wasn't fun, we knew that taking the class was really just paying for the degree. It's unfortunate, but that's life.