Horrible Professors

[Suave Peanut]

Inspired by the roommates thread, I wanted to start another discussion of annoying persons: college professors.

I, like many others around here, go to college/university.

All semester I have been struggling to deal with my economics professor. He is in his mid-forties, single, and takes out his frustrations on the class. For example, after reading some evaluations that his previous students wrote (specifically, that many of them said that he doesn't test on what he lectures in class) he rose his voice at our class, who had nothing to do with his previous evaluations. He still brings it up, showing us tests and screaming, "DID I NOT TEACH THIS IN CLASS?!"

This man resembles is a younger and more dwarfish Bill O'Reilly, both in appearance and ideology, which is another reason I cannot stand to look at nor listen to him. I am doing well in his class pretty much only out of spite.


Please, dear Colony, do entertain us all with your own tales of teachers/professors that have driven and continue to drive you nuts.

[KamaItachi]

I work in central admin at a uni and probably the worst offenders in the head up the ass category are the academics. I'm talking people with PHDs who scream over the phone at me because they haven't had a refund for their staff parking despite the fact that 1)It's a totally different department and 2) They received their refund in their pay packet over 2 months ago, then screen their calls so that I can never contact them again.

[DoctorFinger]

1) I had a high school math teacher who, even though he had been in the states at least 30 years, still had trouble reading the roman alphabet, so on tests we all had to write our names in Cyrillic.

2) Freshman chem in college, and our lecturer speaks with such a heavy Hindi accent that no one can understand him. The man is brilliant, and a nationally known chemist, but he had to teach that class every now and then. However, it had been so long since he'd encountered some of the basic chem, that he'd screw up and spend an hour trying to solve a problem the wrong way.

[Sandman]

I had a programming professor accuse me of cheating because he had looked over my code (with his own eyes mind you, not some program he had designed to look for similarities) and thought it was too similar to his own. We had the same variables and similar spacing (however not nearly the same) but I was just following the rules he laid down in class for that. He gave me a zero and a warning on our grading system without even telling me before hand which kind of pissed me off. I went to his office and after I found his claims were BS he agreed to give me the full credit I deserved. I could see claiming I cheated if it was a copy of another student's work but his own? I should have reported him for falsely accusing me of cheating but he didn't go through official channels so I didn't either. There are better ways to tell someone you suspect them of cheating....don't just grade them with a zero and tell them they are out of the class if it happens again.

[Codicier]

Oh man, this thread was made for me.

My Operating Systems professor is horrible. He has these slides from the (terrible) book we're using (Nutt Operating Systems 2nd Edition, avoid at all costs) that he lectures from. All he does is read the crappy slides and try to explain what the hell is going on in his accented voice. He fails terribly at this because he does not present information in any way that is digestible.

His assignments are unreasonably long for what they are worth and again the terrible textbook they are taken from makes things worse. He cannot seem to answer questions in any understandable way nor deal with issues people have with marking or assignments and basically involves himself in class at the bare minimum. You can completely tell he's a research professor.

The end of year term paper and his description of what is required for it is a sick joke that I have no idea how I am going to finish. At least I don't have to write a final written by this guy.

My year has been extremely hard so far, but I've enjoyed the classes I've taken. All except this one. I find myself hoping each day of that class that we'll hear he has been diagnosed with some terrible illness that will prevent him from teaching, or that the projector will fall on his head.

[Everyone vs Dinosaurs]

*Ploob*


Correct me if I am wrong, and I most likely am, but if you are writing something in the same language, and have the same variables, to perform the same task, isn't the end code always going to be very similar?

[Sandman]

Correct me if I am wrong, and I most likely am, but if you are writing something in the same language, and have the same variables, to perform the same task, isn't the end code always going to be very similar?

Well he had some rules for variables...don't remember them exactly. Something about making them mean something to what they represent instead of just random letters or whatever. You could come up with something different but his were the simplest things you could come up with while using minimal abbreviation.....this is what I usually did with my stuff.

[Loki]

Worst teacher that I have had in a long time is my current economics professor.

He stutters all the time, has an issue with making decisions, and doesn't follow a followable course of thought. Its like he just gets up in the morning and wings it, even though he has been doing this for 10 years. He has a hard-on with pointing out that he is a rabid Republican and doesn't agree with anything and said that the country is going to hell in a hand basket now that Obama is President-Elect.

Also, I feel very awkward in the class. A few years ago, I slept with his daughter and I don't know if he knows or not. Reminds me of that scene in Van Wilder.

[Spacetronaut]

I'm in a Marketing class now that is 3 hours long, from 7pm to 10pm. The professor got his master's degree in May. He doesn't think he's qualified to teach us, so instead he makes the students present 2 chapters a week. The presentations take about an hour combined, and we also grade the homework, which takes about 15 minutes. So that's an hour and a half of actual work, if the presentations run long. Instead of just going straight through class so we can all go home, the professor takes three twenty minute smoke breaks. And if there's still extra time after wasting an hour of everyone's time, he'll go out into the hall and talk on his cell phone until 9:45 before having us grade the homework, so we use up every minute of class time.

[Everyone vs Dinosaurs]

He has a hard-on with pointing out that he is a rabid Republican and doesn't agree with anything and said that the country is going to hell in a hand basket now that Obama is President-Elect.




It took me 3 times reading this to realize you weren't saying that he had a hard-on.


I should go to bed now.

[pomeroy]

Ugh...too many lame professors to count.

The thread should be about awesome professors...they are much more rare.

[muddi900]

HAHAHAHAHA!

Your professor has a genuine reason to be frustrated. My economics professor gave me a low score because.

Your Handwriting

My professor is a complete fucking TOOL!

[Whunpo]

HAHAHAHAHA!

Your professor has a genuine reason to be frustrated. My economics professor gave me a low score because.



My professor is a complete fucking TOOL!

My economics teacher gave me one of those "buddy punch" things. It was so funny. I was sitting in the front row, I answer a question, and this probably 50 or 60 year old man gives me a buddy punch. Except he kinda missed. So it was a weird awkward silence till he got class going again. I didn't laugh at the time, but every time I think of it now, I laugh so much. I love my econ teacher.

Best teacher ever? Mr. Davis. He confiscated one of my friends earrings during class, and proceeded to PIERCE HIS OWN EARS with them. Right there. There was blood. It was the best class ever.
He also sang Trogdor The Burninator during class. That was sweet.

[Loki]

Ugh...too many lame professors to count.

The thread should be about awesome professors...they are much more rare.

Actually, I only have 1 horrible professor this semester. All others have been absolutely amazing. Accounting professor, other than having us buy a bunch of stuff that won't be usable anywhere else, is quite competent and uses a pretty cool method of teaching. My English professor is insane, but in a good way; she knows how to talk to you without making you feel stupid yet is so knowledgeable about her study, it is quite scary. And my international relations professor...Yea, he makes every class interesting and I walk away feeling that he has done an amazing job every time.

[5y1v4r]

wow, what is it with economics professors. Mine for macroecon this year is a tiny little chinese woman who is an ok teacher when she is teaching except that most of her classes involve her either reading straight from the textbook slides, or going off on political rants for the majority of the class. I mean seriously, when the second presidential debate happened she told us before hand to watch the debate and we'd have a quiz over it. Guess what the quiz was... one question, fill in the blank "Joe the ______" o.O
I usually just bring a book to her class pay just enough attention to write down the slide stuff and then just start reading when she launches into another rant.

[OrangePulp]

My economics teacher gave me one of those "buddy punch" things. It was so funny. I was sitting in the front row, I answer a question, and this probably 50 or 60 year old man gives me a buddy punch. Except he kinda missed. So it was a weird awkward silence till he got class going again. I didn't laugh at the time, but every time I think of it now, I laugh so much. I love my econ teacher.

It occurs to me that this might be Mr. Holm, in which case, he is most definitely awesome. Made me feel guilty when I dropped out of IHS in senior year.

Sandman, I find your example hilariously stupid; If you're copying his conventions, well... isn't that the fucking point? I just can't concieve of how "copying the teacher's code" is wrong, in a programming class.

[Whunpo]

It occurs to me that this might be Mr. Holm, in which case, he is most definitely awesome. Made me feel guilty when I dropped out of IHS in senior year.

Mr. Holm is most definitely awesome. He would kick my ass if I dropped out. He pretty much told me I HAD to take the full IB. So as of now, I get to take IB Chem.

[VerseD]

Go Ducks. I know a lot of people at U of O.

I had mediocre to really great professors when I was in school, and no horrible ones. I think it was because I was a history major, and I always asked around before I signed up for a professor I didn't know about.

The one thing I couldn't stand was younger teachers who relied too much on Power Point. I go to class to listen to an expert explain a subject and answer questions, not give a slideshow. Power Point can be a useful tool, but I see so many professors in a rut where the slideshow encompasses the entire content of their lecture.

Although I did love it when a professor would make words spin out across the screen or do some stupid shit with a video or a lame audio clip. Then they would stand there smiling and waiting for the standing ovation of their technical prowess. So awkward.

[Ancalagon]

Well, I know the thread is about worst college professors, but one of my best was our Dean of Science, also lecturer for Compilers and Translators (aka Pat Terry's Course of Horror and Infamous 24 hour exam). He could be abrupt, he had no patience for students, but damn he was a good lecturer. Such a sharp wit. He also sang at our graduation. Yes,, sang. A real song.

My first management lecturer was horrible - she just one of those bitchy people who hated everyone. Unlike dear old Pat Terry, she lacked the wit or charm to compensate.

Other than that, we had a few characters (we even had a Texan lecturer for our Logic class, yes, a Texan at a South African university in the middle of nowhere!).

[Smoof]

I have a strong dislike for my Social and Political Philosophy professor. She basically poses the class this: "Who did the reading?"
"Discuss"

She doesn't lecture. At all. It bothers me. Then her tests are literally this:
Her: "Okay, give me some quotes for the test."
Class gives her quotes. She just takes the first ten and says, "Ok, that's good.", doesn't edit them or anything. Doesn't go over ten and whittle it down to some better quotes, just takes whatever is there and then puts them on a piece of paper, sends us home with it and says, "take these quotes, talk about what's interesting or controversial about them."

I fucking hate it. Why am I paying money for something I could very easily do on my own time for free?

[OrangePulp]

Mr. Holm is most definitely awesome. He would kick my ass if I dropped out. He pretty much told me I HAD to take the full IB. So as of now, I get to take IB Chem.

Nice. Man, I heard later (after I had dropped IHS) from the seniors guidance/whatever councilor (who it turns out my uncle used to go running with, kinda weird) that apparently he had described me as one of his best econ students. Made me feel even more guilty, lol. You should tell him Jeff Olsen says hi; I think he'd get a kick out of it, if he remembers me.

Someone really should start a "good" Professors/Teachers thread.

[Wasson_]

Professor Xavier, what a shit bag...didn't stop Magneto when he had the chance.

[frederec]

Woohoo! Now I'm going to barge into this thread as a college professor myself!

Those of you that have teachers that just read notes or slides or have the class do shit all class, I feel for you. People like that shouldn't be allowed in front of a classroom.

Now I'm going to rant the other direction for a second. I've got two sections of the same class this semester, one at eight in the morning, one at ten. One of these sections generally has about a dozen people showing up each day, the other about four. The weird thing is, it's the eight o'clock that is the more crowded, and has the better average. But it gets stranger. Lately I've even had people from the ten o'clock section showing up at the eight o'clock.

I never would have expected the crazy early section would be the better attended, more lively, and the section with decidedly the higher average out of the two. My ten o'clock section is a ghost town.

Oh, mini rant: one of the thing that really annoys me is when a student has been failing all semester, barely shows up to class, then around the time they notice their grade is fucked, starts asking about extra credit. Why would I want to give myself more work just to make up for the fact that you slacked off all semester? A lot of my students are freshmen, and I think they're unused to the fact that it's possible to fail something. I'm not afraid to teach them that.

[Shadowstorm]

Frederic sounds like a really kick ass person.

I don't really have a shitty professor this semester. My history prof. is probably one of the most informative, knowledgeable, genuinely humorous, and respectable guys around that I have ever met. Seriously, the guy is so interesting to talk to. He's like a walking encyclopedia. He's got a Master's in Economics and I think two other subjects (I forget precisely which ones). He really tries to shake things up a bit as far as assignments and tests go (such as:

"Examine the development of progressive legislation from TR's Square Deal through Wilson's New Freedom to FDR's New Deal, then critique it in a dialog format".

I love it because it's so non-traditional.

I'd go to class just to hear the guy talk.

[frederec]

Frederic sounds like a really kick ass person.


I don't know about that. My lecture styles are pretty old-school math lectures. But I do always try to keep in mind that my job is to serve the students, not lord my knowledge over them. I got a PhD, I know what I can do, I don't need to rub it in the faces of people who don't give a shit.

Hmmmm....maybe I'll have to open up a little math help thread like I did on EvAv last spring. That was kinda fun.

[Widgetcraft]

I'd have an easier time describing the two good professors I had, rather than listing off all of the assholes/lazy-bastards.

[Mr. Murphy]

Worst professor ever? The old history prof with the lazy eye who tickled me until I fell out of my chair in front of the whole class because I "looked gloomy".

I felt, literally, violated. His fingers were up in my ribs and armpits, and all I wanted to do was scream for help and beat him senseless, but because he had surprised me and maybe because of the general surreality of the situation, I could not stop laughing.

He got fired. Rightfully so, he was a shit prof who graded based on how much he liked you (and even tho I actually liked him before the tickling incident, he never liked me). He was involved in the athletics community and gave jocks high scores and was gleefully harsh with the brainier types. He gave me a B for misspelling a word in an essay. Literally. "'A' papers don't have typoes". Docking me a couple of points, I could see, and I even get the point he was trying to make, but that was his one and only criticism of a five page essay that counted for 12% of my final grade.

Just retelling the story makes me pissed I missed the typo in the first place, but more pissed that that old bastard fucking tickled me. Creepy.

[Crittias]

Oh, mini rant: one of the thing that really annoys me is when a student has been failing all semester, barely shows up to class, then around the time they notice their grade is fucked, starts asking about extra credit. Why would I want to give myself more work just to make up for the fact that you slacked off all semester? A lot of my students are freshmen, and I think they're unused to the fact that it's possible to fail something. I'm not afraid to teach them that.Fred, you & I need to meet up, have a beer, and commiserate on the wonders of teaching freshmen. I have the pleasure of teaching a large lecture hall (400+ students), mostly freshmen and sophomores. Honestly, most of them are pretty good students, and reasonably polite and responsible. But I have a small percentage (which, in a large class, can mean dozens of students) that do NOT have their act in gear. They can really ruin an entire semester.

Ah, well. I still wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world. Every once in a while I get to see a light bulb light up over someone's head when I'm talking to them, and I say, "Eureka! I've reached them!" That's a cool feeling.

P.S. Teaching at UT Austin?

[frederec]

P.S. Teaching at UT Austin?

No, I didn't really have the drive for research, though I wish I did, for the promise of lighter teaching loads and higher salaries. I'm at a very small Christian school. My biggest class in in the mid twenties.

[Crittias]

No, I didn't really have the drive for research, though I wish I did, for the promise of lighter teaching loads and higher salaries. I'm at a very small Christian school. My biggest class in in the mid twenties.Yeah, research isn't for me, either. But I'm happy to let my wife pursue a life of research, and earn the higher salary that entails. And I'm even happier to help her spend said money. :D

I'm taking the administrative route, myself.

[Superman's Dead]

I've had a ton of awesome professors. All of the ones I haven't liked, however haven't really been that bad. A little annoying, maybe. Nit-picky, long-winded, easily disappointed, sure, but nothing I could really post in here and get anyone behind. You'd mostly call me an ass, because they did what they were supposed to do and didn't give anyone too hard a time.

My high school theatre teachers were, on the other hand, tools. They teased a kid about calling someone a racial 'epitaph' and when it was obvious he was embarrassed they said 'you don't even know what that means, do you?' When I told them that they meant 'epithet', they said, "Well look at the big brain on you! Why don't you take a bow."

Naturally I stood on my chair to do just that, but my best friend grabbed me and slapped the back of my head.

Basically I despise any professor who embarrasses students on purpose. Especially girls, and especially in theatre. Because they're not the most emotionally secure people out there, and cutting them down for no reason makes you a bad human being.

[Inspector Fowler]

Years ago, Abnormal Psych (200 level class, I think): Teacher is a gal who is trying to get her PhD at a neighboring university. She puts a list of vocab words up on the board, and stops...."I don't know what this one means, so it won't be on the test." She says...Jesus, and you're getting a PhD?

Years ago, Hispanic Cultures in the US (just some gen ed class to graduate): Teacher is a racist who feels that only Hispanics can contribute to a dialogue. He's not even a native Spanish speaker, but yells at us in anger on the first day when nobody can pronounce his last name the way he wants it (pro tip, douche - I'm not fluent but I actually have a great accent in Spanish - you learned Spanish in college, asshole). First day of class, he takes a list of everybody he considers to be Hispanic. Anybody else has about a 15% chance of getting called on for discussions, because God forbid a white, Asian, or black person try to say something about race issues. That semester, he screams so loud in his role as a "community activist" that he has a local Planned Parenthood billboard removed from its location - the billboard had a possibly Hispanic girl on it. Uh, the fucking city was 50 fucking percent Hispanic. Why wouldn't you advertise to Hispanics? He claimed it made Hispanics look like people who just ran around getting pregnant. Am I, as a white person, allowed to rave about Viagra ads with white people, making us all look impotent? Or Crest ads with white people, making us all look like we have poor dental hygiene?

I found that, once I left the music department and switched to psych, I had about 3 profs who were interested in their topic and also good teachers. The rest were either terrible teachers or always seemed like they wished they were somewhere else.

[Zrikz]

I had a computer science teacher, who not necessarily bad, was just extremely annoying. You had to get on his good side, and to do this you had to go talk to him about his bicycling trips for like an hour (no shame.. I did it =/)

Anyways, he would assign stuff for class, or be doing a lecture and stop and be like hmm.. I honestly have no idea how this works, but you guys need to study this as it will be on the test / this is the assignment. Numerous times students would ask for help and he would be like ummm.. I can't remember, I think its on page xxx though, let me know when you figure it out, so I can write it down.

The final exam was insane, I probably filled out half of it that I knew for sure, 1/4 I was iffy on and the other 1/4 I had no idea. That last 1/4 I made all of it up, even put the flux capacitor down as an answer.. and I still made a B somehow.

Also had a dick biology professor, when students asked for help all he would say was study a few more hours and come back.. only to repeat said statement.

Other than that I've pretty much had really good professors my 3.5 years. I just registered for my final semester this morning and I'm taking 1 professor I've never had before, but I've heard good things.

[frederec]

I found that, once I left the music department and switched to psych, I had about 3 profs who were interested in their topic and also good teachers. The rest were either terrible teachers or always seemed like they wished they were somewhere else.

Most would blame that on the fact that the majority of professors aren't there to teach, but to research. Teaching is only a minor requirement of their job, and they just do it because they have to. Woe unto he who gets this type of professor who already has tenure.

I'm grateful that most of my professors, especially in my major, genuinely cared about teaching. Hell, my PhD advisor was reasonably well-regarded in his field but still taught huge freshman level classes and spent a lot of time with students helping them out.

[Crittias]

Most would blame that on the fact that the majority of professors aren't there to teach, but to research. Teaching is only a minor requirement of their job, and they just do it because they have to. Woe unto he who gets this type of professor who already has tenure.I actually think this theory is flawed. While there are some tenured professors that no longer care about teaching, there are many more that DO care. My wife received tenure last year (YAY!), and she's probably taking her teaching responsibilities this semester even more seriously than in the past: and that's pretty amazing, given that she's gotten some GREAT student evaluations in past semesters.

Two things:
1. People that seek PhDs and strive for tenure are, generally, perfectionists. They need to excel at everything they do. That usually includes teaching.
2. Once a professor has tenure, the pressure is off, and they can actually dedicate more time to providing a better class environment for the students.

There are lots of bad teachers out there, just like there are lots of good ones. But that's no different than any job: a waitress vs. a terrible one, or a great helpdesk operator vs. one that doesn't give a crap.

EDIT: By the way, I'd say "Woe unto he that gets a foreign graduate student as a teacher" is a more accurate warning. :-)

[frederec]

I actually think this theory is flawed. While there are some tenured professors that no longer care about teaching, there are many more that DO care. My wife received tenure last year (YAY!), and she's probably taking her teaching responsibilities this semester even more seriously than in the past: and that's pretty amazing, given that she's gotten some GREAT student evaluations in past semesters.

Two things:
1. People that seek PhDs and strive for tenure are, generally, perfectionists. They need to excel at everything they do. That usually includes teaching.
2. Once a professor has tenure, the pressure is off, and they can actually dedicate more time to providing a better class environment for the students.

There are lots of bad teachers out there, just like there are lots of good ones. But that's no different than any job: a waitress vs. a terrible one, or a great helpdesk operator vs. one that doesn't give a crap.

EDIT: By the way, I'd say "Woe unto he that gets a foreign graduate student as a teacher" is a more accurate warning. :-)

You're right. My point was that research-oriented universities have been known to focus on the reputation and the output of research (and the all important grant money related) and use the quality of teaching as a much minor thing. I wasn't trying to imply that there aren't many good teachers who have tenure.

And certain schools (and sometimes departments therein) have worse reputations with this than others. The school where I was just working as a postdoc had a department with just such a reputation. It supposedly had a large number of professors who had tenure, taught very few classes, and those that were taught were very half-assed. They were seen as a drain on the university.

However, the department where I worked had a number of professors with tenure who were very active with their students, taught frequent overloads, and really cared about teaching. It all depends on the tone of the community.

[LongStepMantis]

One of my professors asked me to talk to her in the other room, as I was handing in my Final. As in, the class was over, the professor evaluations had already been finished, there was nothing left.

She took me into the next room, and informed me that she was accusing me of plagiarizing my final paper (which had been turned in a week prior to the Final exam) and failing me. When I asked how she could have come to this conclusion, she showed me my final paper. I had left out one, ONE, in-text citation. She said since I failed to acknowledge the information as from another source, I was plagiarizing. I tried to tell her i had merely forgotten to add the citation, but she didn't care. I then pointed out that immediately before the cite in question, I had named the Author of the original article by name, clearly pointing out that it was meant as a reference. She didn't care.

The real punch in the nuts though? I failed the class, she got her way. She didn't report it to the university though, so it was only an issue in that class, between her and I. She hands me the paper, and I flip through it..at the end she's graded and noted the paper.
..."A-, great paper, and very interesting."

...For which I received a failing grade. Bureaucratic bullshit. I should have guessed she would try something like that though, as she had made it obvious that she disliked me. One time I walked in a minute late, and she informed me that we were taking a quiz, which I was receiving a zero on for showing up late. A week later, we had a quiz and one of the girls in my class came in halfway through the quiz, and she let her take it anyways. She was a feminist, I was a man, and she made it perfectly clear that I was a second-class student because I had a penis.

[Bad Buddha]

Maybe not a horrible one, but an unreasonable one.

I was finishing up my last quarter in a Network Technology AA degree and the teacher in the final Cisco Networking class was a new guy. He was a brilliant local industry guy, worked for Cisco and had an alphabet of certs and degrees after his name. He'd been a guest speaker at several of my classes and I liked the guy pretty well.

At the end of the quarter I had a 4.00 GPA until I saw my grade from this class after the final. He was giving me a 3.9. I checked the syllabus and my grade sheet. The grade sheet said I had 95%, the syllabus said that 95% was a 4.0. I was puzzled and gave him a call and asked why I didn't get a 4.0 in the class. He checked his records and dropped me an email: His spreadsheet rounded my grade up to 95%, I actually got 94.7% which was under 95% so I got the 3.9 in the class.

Dropped my GPA to 3.99!

What a pisser!

[Zrikz]

Perfectionist much? ;p

This actually happened to me one one of my finals as well, I got a 89.47 on the final somehow and his book rounded it up to an A, but he reported a B.. lame. But then again, I didn't have a 4.0.

His spreadsheet rounded my grade up to 95%, I actually got 94.7% which was under 95% so I got the 3.9 in the class.

Dropped my GPA to 3.99!

What a pisser!

[Crittias]

ScurvyDan: does your school not have some sort of Honor Court or something you could have appealed to? Sounds like you got totally shafted.

I have had to deal with lots of academic misconduct cases in my classes (roughly 10-20 a year. Yeah. Stupid freshmen!), but some of the cases I am obliged to report are...iffy. So my hands are somewhat tied by the bureaucratic process, and yet I know the students had a reasonable argument. MOST of those cases I can handle outside the normal rule structure, giving the student a much lighter penalty. Others cases I can't, but I always encourage those students to ask for an Honor Court hearing. If the Court decided in the student's favor, then I did my job, and the student gets the appropriate punishment (or lack thereof).

I'm sorry you got such a raw deal.

[PathMaster]

First day of college classes as a freshman. Go to Comp Sci, professor screws up "Hello World". Students actually corrected him on it. Entire course was like that. At the end of the semester I had a 53 average. Only reason I passed, was he curved every single student's average by 10 points, giving me a 63. And still only 10% passed. Thus ended my comp sci career.

[Ancalagon]

One of my professors asked me to talk to her in the other room, as I was handing in my Final. As in, the class was over, the professor evaluations had already been finished, there was nothing left.

She took me into the next room, and informed me that she was accusing me of plagiarizing my final paper (which had been turned in a week prior to the Final exam) and failing me. When I asked how she could have come to this conclusion, she showed me my final paper. I had left out one, ONE, in-text citation. She said since I failed to acknowledge the information as from another source, I was plagiarizing. I tried to tell her i had merely forgotten to add the citation, but she didn't care. I then pointed out that immediately before the cite in question, I had named the Author of the original article by name, clearly pointing out that it was meant as a reference. She didn't care.

The real punch in the nuts though? I failed the class, she got her way. She didn't report it to the university though, so it was only an issue in that class, between her and I. She hands me the paper, and I flip through it..at the end she's graded and noted the paper.
..."A-, great paper, and very interesting."

...For which I received a failing grade. Bureaucratic bullshit. I should have guessed she would try something like that though, as she had made it obvious that she disliked me. One time I walked in a minute late, and she informed me that we were taking a quiz, which I was receiving a zero on for showing up late. A week later, we had a quiz and one of the girls in my class came in halfway through the quiz, and she let her take it anyways. She was a feminist, I was a man, and she made it perfectly clear that I was a second-class student because I had a penis.

You should have taken it up with the Dean. Most things like this happen because students dont speak up. My university handled plagiarism very seriously, if it was a serious case the Law Department would investigate. I bet I can guess what a university legal department would conclude about your "plagiarism".

[LongStepMantis]

You should have taken it up with the Dean. Most things like this happen because students dont speak up. My university handled plagiarism very seriously, if it was a serious case the Law Department would investigate. I bet I can guess what a university legal department would conclude about your "plagiarism".

Which would have been a viable option...if I had kept my cool. I told her she was a stupid bitch who had no right to teach there and walked out. I let my anger get the best of me, and decided to go out in a blaze of glory rather than salvage my grade through the proper channels.

After my outburst, I decided to just move on and pretend it never happened.

So the rest of you still in school, take a note. Don't do what I did. :p

[Bad Buddha]

Perfectionist much? ;p
Totally! :D

I'd been a System's Analyst and Project Manager for 15 or so years and had recently been laid off. This was the start of a new direction in my career and I was taking it very seriously!

Oh well, when interviewers saw the 3.99 on my resume, it gave us something to talk about. ;)

[frederec]

One time I walked in a minute late, and she informed me that we were taking a quiz, which I was receiving a zero on for showing up late. A week later, we had a quiz and one of the girls in my class came in halfway through the quiz, and she let her take it anyways. She was a feminist, I was a man, and she made it perfectly clear that I was a second-class student because I had a penis.

I wish I didn't hear about things like that so much.

However, I did something just last Friday that probably gave a student a story so they can tell what a bastard I am. I took a quiz away from a student when they had maybe half of it finished and just told him "You're done." He said "No I'm not." I said, "Don't use your phone during quizzes." He spent something like thirty seconds a few minutes earlier texting someone in the middle of a quiz. I just watched him do it, and let it slide, but then when he checked his phone again later, I kicked him out. Pissed me off. Aside from how rude it is, I wouldn't have been surprised if he was trying (very badly) to cheat.

[LongStepMantis]

I wish I didn't hear about things like that so much.

However, I did something just last Friday that probably gave a student a story so they can tell what a bastard I am. I took a quiz away from a student when they had maybe half of it finished and just told him "You're done." He said "No I'm not." I said, "Don't use your phone during quizzes." He spent something like thirty seconds a few minutes earlier texting someone in the middle of a quiz. I just watched him do it, and let it slide, but then when he checked his phone again later, I kicked him out. Pissed me off. Aside from how rude it is, I wouldn't have been surprised if he was trying (very badly) to cheat.

I actually agree with your course of action. The difference between my situation and yours (aside from who's the student and who's the teacher) would be if someone else on another day used their cell phone during a quiz, and you didn't penalize them at all.

I've barely scratched the surface on the screwing-over this professor gave me aside from the plagiarism part. She really did dislike men, and me more than others it seems. She would routinely have back-and-forth conversations with her female students during lecture. Nearly anytime a question was asked by one of the few guys in our class, she would either dismiss it as our failure to understand correctly or flat-out disregard it. She would often listen to well thought out points we made by simply answering "Yeah..." and she would go right on as if no one had said anything to her.

One of the other guys in the class was talking to me near the end of the semester, and he said he stopped by her office one time for clarification on a reading assignment only to have her tell him she didn't have time to see him. He said he was waiting across the hall from her office for his advisor to get back from lunch after (his advisor's office was directly across the hall) when one off the female students in our class came in and he heard her ask our professor nearly the same thing. She didn't understand the reading. The professor invited her in and broke everything down for her. He told me he was tempted to go over and ask if it was ok for him to listen in, since she wouldn't talk to him...but decided to let it go since he figured she would penalize his grade simply for doing so.

That kind of shit pisses me off, but it happens. Hell, one teacher I had in high school hated white people (she was black) and made no real effort to hide it.
She once gave me detention for tardiness, and I asked her how that was possible because I was always in my seat minutes before the bell even rang, and never talked during class. She said, and this is a direct quote that I won't forget, "The rules say you have to be in your seat, facing forward, not talking when the bell rings...several times I saw you talking while the bell was ringing." Are you fucking kidding me? :mad:

[frederec]

I actually agree with your course of action. The difference between my situation and yours (aside from who's the student and who's the teacher) would be if someone else on another day used their cell phone during a quiz, and you didn't penalize them at all.


-fucked up shit clipped out-

That professor should be fired for that. Hopefully she isn't allowed to do that indefinitely.

One of my biggest priorities is to be as fair as possible. But within that, I also always admit that if you are ever borderline on a grade, then if you have come to my office and asked for help and shown that you give a shit about your grade, I'll be inclined to be lenient. But if you're on the border and you barely show up to class, then you just get the cold, impartial grade. I like to joke with my students that I give them whatever grade I feel like giving them, but ultimately I try to give them whatever grade they honestly deserve.

[Ancalagon]

... long post about useless lecturer

I'm a firm believer in equality of the sexes, but when I hear of misandry (the hatred of men) being disguised as feminism, it really grates my carrot. If a man hates women, hes a misogynist, and the same applies to women in reverse. No excuse either way.

Anyway... on topic, it sounds like she needs a formal complaint against her. A lot of the worse teachers and lecturers get away with their antics because they are comfortable where they are and nobody says anything.

I think I should be very grateful for my lecturers and teachers, all of them were pretty fair and decent. I cant think of any I really didnt get on with.

[frederec]

it really grates my carrot

I'm sorry, that's awesome. Can I use it? Have any more?

[Ancalagon]

I'm sorry, that's awesome. Can I use it? Have any more?

I think its a South Africanism. I cant think of any more offhand, but I'll let you know. Yeah, go ahead.

[EternalGamer]

Woohoo! Now I'm going to barge into this thread as a college professor myself!

Those of you that have teachers that just read notes or slides or have the class do shit all class, I feel for you. People like that shouldn't be allowed in front of a classroom.

Now I'm going to rant the other direction for a second. I've got two sections of the same class this semester, one at eight in the morning, one at ten. One of these sections generally has about a dozen people showing up each day, the other about four. The weird thing is, it's the eight o'clock that is the more crowded, and has the better average. But it gets stranger. Lately I've even had people from the ten o'clock section showing up at the eight o'clock.

I never would have expected the crazy early section would be the better attended, more lively, and the section with decidedly the higher average out of the two. My ten o'clock section is a ghost town.



I can never really figure out why classroom dynamics form the way they do. I think it has something to do with the conversations that probably occur before class when you aren't around. But this happens to me all the time. I have two identical classes. One of them will have a really good attendance and work ethic, and the other will go to hell. I also find that my morning class students are almost always better (which makes since because they show the initiative to get up and go to an 8AM class).

My biggest pet peeve about students is that many of them show an inability to do anything without you telling them precisely what to do. They are used to being coddled in high school. So they don't turn in a paper or take an exam, and they expect me to keep track of it and go and talk to them about it. Or to go to them and tell them what they missed last time. Or read their minds when they don't understand something. I just wish they would take some initiative sometimes. Far too many students try the "head in the sand" approach. Note to all students here: the problems you are having in courses don't "go away" because you avoid the class for a few days or because you chose to ignore the crappy situition you've put yourself in.

Any job that requires a college degree is going to require people to think for themselves every once in a while. Nobody is going to tell you exactly what to do at all time. Sometimes you will need to take initiative and figure things out for yourself. If you want a job where someone just condescends to you and tells you exactly what to do all the time, then get a job at a fast food restaurant or in retail. You don't need a college degree for jobs where just want to mindlessly be ordered around.

I also wanted to bring up a paradox: sometimes crappy professors end up being experiences where you learn far more because you have to pull yourself up and teach yourself. And to be honest, to my mind, that is what college is supposed to prepare you for to begin with. It is not that once you get your degree you know everything you will ever need to know. It is that you should at least have the tools necessary to figure things out for yourself.

[frederec]

Hey students, start bitching about professors again! Don't let a couple of stuffed shirts hog all the fun.

Note to all students here: the problems you are having in courses don't "go away" because you avoid the class for a few days or because you chose to ignore the crappy situition you've put yourself in.

I tend to be of the opinion that people (myself included) tend to rise or fall to whatever is required of them. If you are used to have endless second chances and ways out, it can be hard to adjust to a situation where that just doesn't happen. Hopefully they can make that adjustment and start succeeding before you flunk out of college, but not everyone can.



I also wanted to bring up a paradox: sometimes crappy professors end up being experiences where you learn far more because you have to pull yourself up and teach yourself. And to be honest, to my mind, that is what college is supposed to prepare you for to begin with. It is not that once you get your degree you know everything you will ever need to know. It is that you should at least have the tools necessary to figure things out for yourself.

When I was an undergraduate, my school liked to brag about its physics program, saying how awesome the students who graduated with physics degrees were. What they didn't tell you was that freshman year there were about fifty physics majors, but each spring only about four people graduated with physics degrees. That's because the department was mostly populated by people who couldn't, or wouldn't, teach. So the few people who made it were VERY good at self-teaching.

I'm sad to say I wasn't one of them. I started as a dual major, but dropped physics like a bad habit when I saw how it was taught. I learned physics better from my math classes than the physics department taught it.

[tombofsoldier]

(Voice of Ren) Ooooh do I have story for you. Oohhh what I'm going to tell youuuuuu(/Voice of Ren)

Philosophy! Day 1 of class: I'm fairly new to college. I need philosophy for GE and it seems easy enough right? Sitting down in the auditorium alongside maybe 50 other people we wait patiently. Out comes this bedraggled looking woman in her early 40's. Her hair is something of a mess and she's wearing a suit of all things that's rumpled and out of shape.

Initially I don't think anything of it. She starts speaking, doing the whole "introducing the class" spiel. One of the first things that comes out of her mouth is her bragging about how Berkely professors are impressed with her and how she keeps in contact with them and how her students are the ones "prepared" for going to a higher level college (this is at a community college). Still, I wasn't overly concerned, I hadn't had enough professors to recognize this as something definitely out of the ordinary and odd already.

But this is just the beginning. She mentions that no recordings will be allowed because she's gotten in trouble because of them before. She goes onto explain in a voice that's growing from fervent to slightly manic that this class will teach people to "think" and "use logic" because every other course in college doesn't do that and this one will teach them what the world is really like. By now my eyebrows are raised and I'm definitely not the only one.

To my surprise this is just the beginning of her tirade though. She next somehow explains how Jesus, yes that Jesus, Santa's friend and the guy who liked wine a lot, somehow translated into the Greek word for logic. Yep, according to her Jesus is logic, or something. She was very fervent about it, whatever the hell it was. She then ended the class with a story of how she went to Chichen Itza when "the planets were aligned" to absorb the "cosmic energies". Thankfully she then let the class out.

Needless to say I dropped it forthwith, but the guy I was sitting next to didn't. I came across him later in the semester working at a Starbucks and asked him how he stood it. He shrugged his shoulders and said he mostly just tuned it out. He also confirmed that the first day wasn't some freak trip out. He suspected she was bipolar at least as she would often show up to class either disturbingly happy and energetic or crying melodramatically. I think that it wasn't a coincidence that across the street from the college is a state mental institution.

[Shrinn]

I'm sad to say I wasn't one of them. I started as a dual major, but dropped physics like a bad habit when I saw how it was taught. I learned physics better from my math classes than the physics department taught it.

My roommate is a math major. He spends an hour every day with our friend James learning how to do physics because his teacher refuses to do example problems in class.

I'm in a class right now with a professor who doesn't know when her office hours is and where her office is. After our first quiz, where I got a 65 (HUGE change for me) she stated that we only had one week to dispute the quiz grade and double check her work. I obviously asked for my quiz back after the class. She said she didn't have the graded quizzes with her, and wouldn't for 2 weeks. I came back two weeks later and she told me it was too late to question my grade.

Every time I ask her about office hours she just tells me to e-mail her. She never answers my emails. Ever. I'm really struggling in this class, and she seems very passionate about teaching it, but it's so hard for me to grab her outside of class ever since this mid-term that I bombed.

I have an 8:30 AM class, Intro to Political Thought. POLS-100.
I'm sitting down waiting for that professor to show up, surfing COG and just BSing, he enters the door and says "If you ever see me teaching a class you need at 8:30 in the morning, don't take it. I honestly don't want any of you in my classes. " This is coming from the guy who suggested that the entire class was "extremely stupid" for not going to the extra credit lecture he informed us of. And I quote "Not going to that lecture is probably the stupidest thing you'll do involving my class this semester. It was extremely stupid. Stupid Stupid Stupid." Not even taking into consideration that I HAD A FREAKING CLASS AT THAT TIME. He enjoys putting down his students, and then wonders why they're not very responsive in class. It's ridiculous. If I didn't need that class to continue my major I'd be out so fast.

My mythology professor enjoys uploading outdated (by multiple years) assignment guidelines, and then MAYBE correcting them via email that might get to you, but it'll get to some of your classmates. She also doesn't answer questions until you get pissy. I once emailed her asking if the assignment required picking one answer out of a list or all the answers and she replied with "it's 3 pages." She also has us read papers that she presumably had published, authored by her, riddled with falsities and grammatical errors. Finally, she keeps incorrectly fixing my grammar when it's already correct. Costing me valuable points on my papers.

And that's just this semester... don't get me started on my ecofeminism class that was SUPPOSED to be a class covering all contemporary civilization.

[Nameless]

I've actually been lucky with profs. After five years, I've had few bad profs, and even then, I don't think I've been screwed by any of them. I'm currently in Teacher's College, so most of my profs this year are pretty fantastic (what with skill at teaching being a significant part of the job and all), but some of the Math profs I had were pretty weird.

The first, seemed like a hobo. He wore dirty, smelly, unkempt clothing, a hat with so many holes I can't imagine it gave him any protection from the elements, and a beard so huge and stringy I imagine it'd been years since it had even been combed. He mumbled his lectures so everyone had to sit up front, and gave tons of homework that was worth practically nothing (a total of 10 homework assignments that were worth - combined - 5% of our final grade). His office was even worse than his dress, with it literally being crammed with books and papers all over the place. Students would hesitate to enter because to do so, they would have to step onto the assignments of other students. The prof would just smile and beckon them to enter. That said, however, he was a fair prof, and graded pretty nicely, so both courses I had with him went well.

Another prof was a great guy. He was nice, funny, and loved chatting with the students. He was clearly brilliant and also clearly wanted us to understand the subject (a 3rd-year Intro to Mathematical Statistics class), but he just could not convey the subject matter. There were about 8 of us in the class by the end of the year (I'd say 5 students dropped out after the mid-term), and none of us had any idea what was going on. Most of us failed every assignment, and just barely squeaked by in the mid-term. Then the final came along, and we were all terrified. I didn't even understand half of the questions, and even the ones I did, I had trouble with. Clearly, there was some craziness with the mark because after failing four out of five assignments, getting a 62 on the mid-term, and answering about half of the questions on the final, I still ended up getting an A. Thankfully, I learned most of what I was supposed to learn in this course the following year in my next Stats class.

The last was another great mathematician. He was a great lecturer, had well-organized board work and was a fair grader. Clearly the guy was a genius (having done his Master's and PhD at much more prestigious universities than ours), and mostly the class went well. However, I was late handing in an assignment once and went to see him in his office to hand it in. When I asked him what he would do about my assignment being late, he just stared at me, for at least a minute. It was unnerving. He was just staring and thinking, I guess. Eventually I got tired of the silence and said 'Will you just dock off some marks?' and then he blinked and looked at me, saying 'Yeah, that'll work.' It was a weird experience.

So yeah, no bad professors, just a bunch of quirky experiences that I only ever had with Math profs. It seems most of my Sociology and English profs were pretty tame throughout the rest of my studies. Math: it's clearly for weirdos (like myself). ;)

[frederec]

So yeah, no bad professors, just a bunch of quirky experiences that I only ever had with Math profs. It seems most of my Sociology and English profs were pretty tame throughout the rest of my studies. Math: it's clearly for weirdos (like myself). ;)

When I was an undergrad I took a literature class. As part of introductions at the beginning of the semester, we went around and said what our majors were. When I said I was a math major, the professor took that opportunity to tell a story. A while back she took a trip to Africa, and on the bus to wherever they were going she saw someone sitting at the back alone. She went there to introduce herself. When she approached him, he threw up his hands and said, "I only talk about two things: higher mathematics, and chess." So she took that as a not so subtle hint that he wanted to be alone. Within a few weeks he went home, at that point the only thing he was capable of doing was barking like a dog.

That was her impression of people that like math. Sounds like you've met some winners too. I haven't run into any quite that quirky myself, but I can't say I'm surprised with some of the stories I hear.

[Ghostbear]

Math makes my brain hurt, I am actually terrified of going back to school for that express reason. I just don't think the way I am supposed to in or to understand what the fuck this number has to do with the other. My math teacher in high school (same one all 4 years) helped me every day and I barely squeaked by with a D, except geometry, I did fine in that one.

[J Arcane]

Since high school teachers are apparently fair game, here's a few of the highlights:

The angry, bitter English teacher who was quite up front and honest about the fact that the only reason he got an English degree was because he thought he could get away with living like Hemingway and spending most of his time getting drunk and knocking up women while occasionally slapping something out with a typewriter. Of course, the real world doesn't fucking work like that, and so of course he wound up a high school teacher in a dead end town, and took it out on his students by being the shittiest teacher he could be. His entire method was basically to point us all at a pile of books, and then plop down at his desk staring downward with the pained look of someone going over an overly tight budget, and occasionally require us to fill out some random test or quiz or pump out a glorified book report.

There was the Drama teacher with no theatre qualifications to speak of. She was actually a science teacher who pushed the administration into giving her the job at the expense of one of the teachers who actually had real acting experience (instead he became my favorite math teacher ever). She had no fucking clue about acting, directing, or really any creative pursuit, and basically handed out parts and grades based on who sucked up to her the most, and in my case, systematically went out of her way to ensure I was never given any parts or even any real recognition of my in-class performance because I was "too hyper".

There was the computer/technology teacher who literally did nothing whatsoever with computers, and was actually almost entirely computer illiterate, and so the class consisted of us being dumped in a room full of random equipment, and the only part where he actually taught us anything or did anything but sit there doing nothing was for a brief two week crash course in drafting (by hand, mind, not computer), that made up the majority of our grade.

There was also the A+ computer repair course, whose teacher again, didn't know a goddamn thing, and so the class consisted of us watching a 20 minute snippet of that stupid fucking Mike Meyers bastard, and then getting let loose on what was quite literally a bunch of garbage, which we had to try and turn into working computers. Oh, and it was somehow a two year fucking class, which my advisor failed to inform me of despite the fact that I was taking it in my 4th fucking year.

[LongStepMantis]

There was also the A+ computer repair course, whose teacher again, didn't know a goddamn thing, and so the class consisted of us watching a 20 minute snippet of that stupid fucking Mike Meyers bastard, and then getting let loose on what was quite literally a bunch of garbage, which we had to try and turn into working computers. Oh, and it was somehow a two year fucking class, which my advisor failed to inform me of despite the fact that I was taking it in my 4th fucking year.

My A+ professor at community college didn't even have a working knowledge of computers at all...it was pretty sad. Test questions were like:

Q.What output device would you use to transfer text onto paper?
A. Printer
:eek:

My buddy in the class would infect the network with viruses like NetBUS and take control of everyone's computers just for shits and giggles. She could never even figure out that they had viruses. So every once in a while he would repeatedly eject and close the cd-rom tray in her PC or take control of her mouse cursor while she was lecturing. I think she thought it was haunted. :p

[Codicier]

I also wanted to bring up a paradox: sometimes crappy professors end up being experiences where you learn far more because you have to pull yourself up and teach yourself. And to be honest, to my mind, that is what college is supposed to prepare you for to begin with. It is not that once you get your degree you know everything you will ever need to know. It is that you should at least have the tools necessary to figure things out for yourself.

I could teach myself for free. I and every other university student are paying large tuition fees to receive a certain level and quality of education.

[J Arcane]

I could teach myself for free. I and every other university student are paying large tuition fees to receive a certain level and quality of education.
Man, I hear you, especially given that my chosen profession is culinary. If I spent $100k to go to a good culinary school and I got a chef instructor that taught like some of my high school teachers did, I'd be fucking pissed.

[5y1v4r]

Another prof was a great guy. He was nice, funny, and loved chatting with the students. He was clearly brilliant and also clearly wanted us to understand the subject (a 3rd-year Intro to Mathematical Statistics class), but he just could not convey the subject matter. There were about 8 of us in the class by the end of the year (I'd say 5 students dropped out after the mid-term), and none of us had any idea what was going on. Most of us failed every assignment, and just barely squeaked by in the mid-term. Then the final came along, and we were all terrified. I didn't even understand half of the questions, and even the ones I did, I had trouble with. Clearly, there was some craziness with the mark because after failing four out of five assignments, getting a 62 on the mid-term, and answering about half of the questions on the final, I still ended up getting an A. Thankfully, I learned most of what I was supposed to learn in this course the following year in my next Stats class.

Oh man, I have one of those for my Monogastric Nutrition class, awesome guy, really fascinating. He also teaches the free Karate classes at the rec center, and he's been all over the world doing nutrition stuff. The problem is that he spends all of classtime telling funny and interesting stories about his travels and you never have any clue what he's saying that's important to know and what's just amusing anecdote. The tests in his class are all open note but he'll say maybe a few sentences worth of actually notes and then you're just expected to know the stuff on the test. Then we have these complex homework assignments and nobody knows how to do them or what's going on at all. I'm hoping the class ends like yours with a generous curve because I'm pretty sure everyone's doing terribly.

[EternalGamer]

I could teach myself for free. I and every other university student are paying large tuition fees to receive a certain level and quality of education.

In my opinion, what you are largely paying for is access and for legitimation. It's a lot like paying for a gym membership. The membership alone isn't going to excersize for you. It just gives you the tools. The library, the instructors, the texts, and the environment of the university are all tools to help you get to where you want to go. And the degree is the official certification that you more or less have arrived somewhere. But learning is not nor has it ever been a passive experience.

To some extent, a lot of the complaints seem similar to people complaining that a fitness coach doesn't berate them enough about their eating habits or doesn't push them hard enough. Ultimately you are responsible for the development of your own mind just as you are responsible for the development of your body. Nobody else can do either for you.

[A. S. Houdini]

By the way, I'd say "Woe unto he that gets a foreign graduate student as a teacher" is a more accurate warning. :-)

I dunno, this isn't necessarily true either... my Iranian Honors Calc TA is definitely foreign, and besides being a goddamn genius, he's a brilliant teacher, despite the fact he's clearly not a native speaker of English ("squared" becomes "esquared" and so on). Of course, that could just be in comparison to the professor who is Indian (also with a confusing accent), not a particularly gifted teacher--it's not really her fault, it's not like she doesn't prepare and work hard at teaching, she's just not very good at it. It took me forever to figure out she was talking about "epsilon" because she kept calling it "ep-SI-lom".

But then, I'm only a freshman, so I probably ain't seen nothin' yet.

Wait... Nameless... is that sort of grade curve normalization uncommon where you are? On our recent Intro Chem midterm, the average was 43%, and so my 55 wound up being a very high B... I sort of assumed that was normal. The prof only rubbed his forehead a little and said it "wasn't quite as high as he'd have liked."

[Codicier]

In my opinion, what you are largely paying for is access and for legitimation. It's a lot like paying for a gym membership. The membership alone isn't going to excersize for you. It just gives you the tools. The library, the instructors, the texts, and the environment of the university are all tools to help you get to where you want to go. And the degree is the official certification that you more or less have arrived somewhere. But learning is not nor has it ever been a passive experience.

To some extent, a lot of the complaints seem similar to people complaining that a fitness coach doesn't berate them enough about their eating habits or doesn't push them hard enough. Ultimately you are responsible for the development of your own mind just as you are responsible for the development of your body. Nobody else can do either for you.

So you agree with me then? When you say I am "paying for the tools" I am well aware that simply paying tuition does not guarantee me a pass, I work hard to get the marks I get at school. However as you noted in your list of tools the instructors are one of those things I am paying to have access to. I'm not requesting that people do the work for me. What I am requesting is that I be given the quality of "tools" I am paying for. The operating systems professor I mentioned previously is not a quality tool; he is, however, a tool. ;)

[5y1v4r]

It seems to me that a lot of students don't really put all that much effort into paying attention to foreign teachers and TA's, sure a lot of the time you have to focus a little bit to hear through the accent, but the majority of the time it seems to me it's not that bad. That said, here's a thought, my friend once mentioned to me that he was kind of conducting an unofficial poll on accent comprehension in people of different nationalities. He said that there were distinct differences, for example, Chinese students had a particularly hard time understanding professors with Nigerian or Kenyan accents. Has anybody else noticed trends like this?

[Nameless]

I could teach myself for free. I and every other university student are paying large tuition fees to receive a certain level and quality of education.

This rings true with me right now, as I'm taking an online course right now, on arguably the most important topic related to teaching, and it basically follows this format: read some chapters in a book and reflect on what you read in a blog entry on a discussion board. I can do that shit without paying the university $600 of tuition for that course, thank you very much.

The student body is rebelling, and we managed to get a course that was scheduled to be online next semester turned into a traditional-style course. Just goes to show that if you can get everyone to have a meeting with the director of your Faculty saying the same thing, you can get shit done. :D

[Ancalagon]

Some good reads....

UK's OPen University sets plagiarised gibberish paper for course (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/13/verity_stob_open_university/)

The Open University Replies (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/stob_open_university_trick_question/)

The Open University tries further PR to salvage its broken repuation. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/14/verity_stob_further_eduation/)