Rude and dangerous

[Clara Bow]

Is your instructor crazy?? We have hurricanes down here (joy joy) and I've never heard of a teacher who would expect commuters to stay in inclement weather! And who decides what is perfect and what is not? I think you should have a sit down with the dean.
As far as fairness goes, I don't think it's "fair" to risk a person's safety just so they can sit and stare at the wall. I hope you were able to get some studying in if nothing else....what a wierdo....

[Chocolate Cake]

In this case, I would approach the dean of this department and ask for clarification on the weather/cancellation policy.  Explain what happened (leave out the yelling at the end) and ask the dean how he/she would recommend you respond to this instructor in the future should a similar situation occur.

[stanthedevil]

In this case, I would approach the dean of this department and ask for clarification on the weather/cancellation policy.  Explain what happened (leave out the yelling at the end) and ask the dean how he/she would recommend you respond to this instructor in the future should a similar situation occur.

There's no question about the weather cancellation policy.  Call the hotline number, if the campus is closed, it will be announced there and on the local news channel.  Otherwise, you're responsible for either arriving to class or making other arrangements.

Most profs are really great about it.  When the weather is truly awful, most don't even take attendance because the professors realize that many people commute, even if the school administration won't admit it.

[NEDESAPIO]

I kept shaking my head in amazement as I read your story.  What rude, insensitive, and DUMB behavior from a supposedly intelligent person.  I have learned from experience, though, that some of these academic types have little or no practical sense.

I'd go to the department head about this, rather than just writing something on the professor's evaluation form.  I live/went to school in Northern Virginia, which doesn't even get much snow, yet the university always closed in bad weather; I even had a professor postpone a midterm because of snow.  And this was a school like yours, with a lot of commuter students (including me).

[MommaBear]

I know here that if some of the roads are closed due to incliment weather, the insurance company will not pay if there is an accident. That teacher was rude, crude and becoming socially unacceptable!!! She should be reported.

[goblue2539]

That teacher was rude, crude and becoming socially unacceptable!!!

I swear I thought my mom was the only one who said this.   

[stanthedevil]

I kept shaking my head in amazement as I read your story.  What rude, insensitive, and DUMB behavior from a supposedly intelligent person.  I have learned from experience, though, that some of these academic types have little or no practical sense.

I'd go to the department head about this, rather than just writing something on the professor's evaluation form.  I live/went to school in Northern Virginia, which doesn't even get much snow, yet the university always closed in bad weather; I even had a professor postpone a midterm because of snow.  And this was a school like yours, with a lot of commuter students (including me).

The evaluations for the class go first to the woman who actually runs the class (just not this six week period) then to the Dean.  At our college the evaluations are actually taken quite seriously.  They look at both the numerical score and the comments on the back.

I've also found that places that don't get a lot of snow shut down more often than places that do.  My aunt lives in Washington state and my cousins always got snow days when a couple inches fall.  Now that the first major "snow event" has happened, nothing has shut down even though we got about 4 inches yesterday.

[LadyJaneinMD]

My sister is a nurse in a hospital.  Her workplace certainly does not close down when it snows. In fact,the nurses and doctors just pack a bag and stay there for the duration.  I don't know about all of them, but one of the places she worked actually had apartments across the street where they could catch a few hours' sleep.  Otherwise they worked.  And got paid.  The hospital had volunteers with four-wheel-drive vehicles who would go out and pick up workers, if needed. 

I'm only a computer geek, but at one of my jobs, I got snowed in and stayed at work for 3 days. Nobody else made it in. I slept in the ladies room lounge and ate out of vending machines (ick).  And nobody said a good word.  *sigh*  Oh well, it was a crappy job anyway. 

[stanthedevil]

My sister is a nurse in a hospital.  Her workplace certainly does not close down when it snows. In fact,the nurses and doctors just pack a bag and stay there for the duration. 

I can certainly understand that certain places of business cannot close when the weather worsens.  However, in my case it would have been very easy to allow people to return home before the road conditions got any worse.  In fact, situations like mine create the situations that require doctors and nurses to always be on call.

[kkl123]

At the very least, I'd discuss this with the department chairman and the dean.  On the face of it, it's pretty strange.  I'm assuming you don't live where 2" of snow is a minor matter.

I've taught evening classes in blizzard country a couple of times (before cell phones became so common), and I knew some of my students would be coming from up to 100 miles away.  My announced policy was that I'd be there, but if there were blizzard or ice storm warnings out, people were to call my office phone, listen to the recording, and leave a message -- I know I called off class at least twice, even though the university was technically still in session.  Got a few on-campus students or close-in students both times when I called off class... both times, there were papers due in a couple of weeks, so they and I reviewed what they had done and I made some suggestions for further places to dig for information -- so we hadn't wasted their time, and I ran makeup sessions the next week for the students who hadn't come.  But I wouldn't have dreamed of making someone sit on their thumbs for a couple hours.

IMHO, placing "showing up and staying" over real concerns about safety shows poor judgement on the part of the person doing the demanding.  Classes are not life-and-death or keep-the-infrastructure-going situations.  And I'd bet the school's lawyers would be sweating bullets if someone was injured going home after such a policy.

And taking a cell phone call before dismissing class?  Just plain rude.

[Sterling]

Teacher was wrong.  The School was wrong.  We has snow here at my University last week.  On Thursday it started falling at 10 am.  the professor I work for canceled his classes for the day.  I stayed to work but at 1 pm he called me and demanded I go home because while I couldn't see out side and hadn't checked the new he say the town I commute from was really bad.  He told me if the school didn't close the next day I still shouldn't come it. 

[goblue2539]

On the face of it, it's pretty strange.  I'm assuming you don't live where 2" of snow is a minor matter.

Well, that depends.  On most days where I am outside detroit, 2" wouldn't matter.  On Monday, less than an inch had every highway in the area backed up for miles, and 5 minute trips were taking over an hour.  Of course, that might have something to do with all the ice since it had rained half the weekend.  And my class wasn't cancelled either, but no one was forced to stay or penalized for not being there or leaving.  I'm still trying to get my jaw all the way up from the OP's story. 

[Betsy]

Ive been at two universities now, one for my undergraduate and one for my MBA, undergrad the standard policy was "Class isnt as important as staying alive, if you dont feel safe driving dont come in"  and that wasnt even a commuter school. the place Im at now doesnt seem to have an official policy but every professor had the same "Class isnt as imporatant... " policy as my undergrad. It will be interesting to see what my accelerated course's prof says about inclement weather. Im starting it in a week, we only have 7 class session so its going to go fast.

[Cyndi]

I think it's safe to file a complaint against this woman. That was utterly ridiculous.

[Athos_000]

My sister is a nurse in a hospital.  Her workplace certainly does not close down when it snows. In fact,the nurses and doctors just pack a bag and stay there for the duration. 

I can certainly understand that certain places of business cannot close when the weather worsens.  However, in my case it would have been very easy to allow people to return home before the road conditions got any worse.  In fact, situations like mine create the situations that require doctors and nurses to always be on call.

I agree with you. I think the instructor's excuse that "this is a job" is a very poor one. In a real teaching situation you would not put your students in danger by forcing them out in dangerous weather. Even if college campuses don't close, usually elementary, jr. high, and high schools do! It was apparent by your 3 student turnout that most of the parents were smart enough to keep their kids home and safe.