I had a bad experience w/ my professor, do i drop it or go above his head to the department head?

Question

here's the email i sent him and the one he responded to me back.

In the future, in the event of a class cancellation, could you please put an announcement on d2l or send everyone an email? Apparently you announced it in class last Thursday, however, I missed because I was representing college at a conference ; therefore, i had no knowledge of the cancellation and tried to show up to class Tuesday AND Thursday, bewildered that no one else was there.

Miss ___,
I did not like the TONE of your email and would like you to refrain from sending such an email to me AGAIN. As you know...or probably should have KNOWN...that week was reserved for you to work on your final project WEEKS ago. I did announce it in class and YOU should have known about it WAY before your representation to the Honors College in Denver. Also, for FUTURE reference, you should have gotten in touch with your classmmates as I
> asked you to do in the BEGINNING of the semester when you were suppose to
> get their EMAIL AND PHONE NUMBER. Furthermore, I will not have you tell me
> HOW to announce information to my class. It's obvious that you are the only
> one that didn't get the information. ________________________________

p.s. i informed him of my absense prior to missing, asking him if there would be anything i'd miss. he didn't inform me of the cancellation.

AND he didn't put notification of cancellation in our class syllabus, in fact, he has a very strict attendance policy, after 2 absences your grade is dropped by 10% for each additional miss.

Answer 1

You should go to the dean of the college. The professor's TONE is rude.

Answer 2

Let it drop. If what he says is true, it was your responsibility to know there was no class. It's not your professor's job to baby you. If you cause a stink for this professor, that kind of thing has a way of making it around among the faculty of that department, and will ultimately make YOUR life hard. And if you do have a REAL problem someday with a professor, the dean will remember this incident and think you're just a tattletale or a whiner. Professors have no obligation to be polite. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. You think it's bad in college, wait till you get in the working world. Write your professor back and say you are sorry and that you did not mean for your email to have an offensive tone. Maybe add something else like he's right you should have called a classmate. You don't have to mean it, but do it so your life won't be a living hell in the future.

Answer 3

Sweetie, I'm sure you are a good student, and I don't think this professor gave you the most professional response, but I would really just chalk it up to experience. I doubt that anything productive can happen if you complain to the chair or dean. Seriously, if this guy has tenure, he can very likely show up for work drunk (I've had fellow professors that did it!) or cancel class for the rest of the year and not tell anyone (happened to one of my father in law's classes when he was a student) and the professor MIGHT get a mild warning. If that happens, most likely he'll just take it out on you.

The bottom line is that the professor told the class during class time about the cancellation, and legally that is all that he is required to do. Sure, it would have been nice if he'd posted a reminder, but you never know what goes on behind the scenes, this guy could be working 12 hour days on ground breaking research, and the school is not going to pressure him over minor details.....

Another reason that I would let it drop is that it's very likely that the dept. chair has already seen a copy of your email. I'm sure you may not have meant to seem rude, but the instructor was right in that your email didn't convey as sense that you respected his authority or his schedule (if you want him to respect your valuable time, you have to be willing to show some appreciation for his..... example: Prof. Jones, I know you are busy, but it would be most appreciated if you would post the class calendar...). A smart instructor will very likely have forwarded your email along with a copy of their documentation to the dept. chair. If that's the case, the dept. chair will probably have his or her mind made up by at least 90%. You'd be fighting a losing battle.....
My suggestion is to write another very carefully worded email, explaining that you did not mean to seem rude, you were just concerned because you want to be a good student and try to use your time wisely.

Next semester, you can sign up for a different class!

Answer 4

Frankly Victoria, I don't think it would serve any purpose other than to increase the hostility between you and your professor. That could endanger your grade in some way. He was very rude but he did make a point about telling the class to get phone/email info to help in cases of absence.

His attitude is already very contentious and irritable and you've already expressed your point. If you had hoped for an apology I'm afraid you were being a bit naive. What would you accomplish by going to the administration? I doubt they would compel him to apologize.

At the end of the semester do they do teacher evaluations? They did when I was in school. If they do use that as the time to complain about the professor and his deficiencies. But, if you do complain about him be very courteous if you want to be heard and taken seriously. Remember to respect his position even if you cannot respect the man. You'll go farther and get more help.

Answer 5

While this is a very rude email, you must realize that to some extent he is right. I would go back and check in all you notes and make sure you didn't write it down anywhere, check your syllabus and check the website, and if you cannot find it anywhere then I would take both of the emails to the person in athority over you professor. Make sure you are very polite and present yourself in a confident way so that the individual will not think you are just trying to cause trouble.

Answer 6

it is not probably approximately sturdy or undesirable, it truly is approximately alpha traits and masculinity. The undesirable boys have it and the forged boys do only no longer look to and so as that they do no longer turn you on. a sturdy boy which you will wrap around your finger and make bounce on your each command. What the heck relaxing is that? What you're able to desire to do is finally end up a sturdy boy who is familiar with the activity and would play the area with out actual being undesirable and tearing your existence up, or possibly a sturdy boy with tough edges. like a fighter pilot or some thing. the two way, no longer something is loose in this international and in case you opt for for to play with the undesirable boys you need to be prepared to pay the fee. So, what's your starvation. Are we conversing Johnny Depp form undesirable boy or large beefy butt kicking undesirable boy? LOL

Answer 7

I would go to the department head. The professor is trying to make it look like it is all your fault and is also talking down to you, which is unacceptable. Please ,when you go to the department head, have a notebook with all the rebuttals to his references ex: getting in touch with the classmates etc. Is there a laptop assessable for you at the school so when you are talking with the department head you can also let him read this e-mail, if not you'll have to copy it down on paper. Be prepared and be confident, if he can get by with this attitude on an e-mail who knows what else he will try to pull.

Answer 8

Sorry,

You are a grown up now and in college. It is your responsibility to know what's going on in your classes. Because you were missing a class, you should have talked to your professor prior to the missed class to find out what you could do to make up for the missed class and what the schedule would be for after you got back.

BTW, this goes for your work life after college too. Get used to it and take some responsibility for your own education.

Answer 9

That's really rude of him to respond that way. It's his responsibility as a professor to notify his class if there's a cancellation. You should report this to the department office so this doesn't happen to other students.

Answer 10

Probably too late to drop the class, and I would not drop it over this exchange, as rude as it might be.

I would recommend you speak to the head of the department, particularly if the professor did not do all those things he claimed he had told you about in earlier classes.

Answer 11

That's really rude. I'd show that email to your professor's boss, because even if you should have known about the cancellation, his response was way out of line.