feelgood

Basically, in 2 of my course that is taught by the same instructor, he's usually late and often runs anywhere from half hour to 45 minutes pass the class endtime. For some of us in the class, it's becoming unacceptable since we have other classes and other commitments. An example of that would be on friday nights, the class is suppose to end at 5 but since semester starting, it has run until 5:30 or later and I have to start my shift at 5:30. I know it doesn't take me more than 15 mins to get there, but I've been getting there almost 6 which is really going to affect my performance review.

I know the instructor wants to get all of his lesson plan in but his lateness and his inability to stay on course (often brings up stories that last 10 mins) is kind of stupid.

So, I'm going to write a letter to the dean of the program and ask him to rectify the situation. So here is the letter (Yes, it's somewhat informal, but that's the way the dean prefer with his students):

I was wondering if my concern is valid and if the letter above could be improved in anyway.

Carno

Hell yeah your concern is valid. Frankly, I'm kinda surprised that people actually stay past the class end time. If it were me, I would have talked to the professor and the dean after the second time it happened.

The professor being late to class is complete bullshit. I probably would have been a lot more harsh if I were writing that letter.

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The_Jazz

I'd say send the letter. It's neutrally worded and fairly professional. You certainly have a vaild concern, especially if you have a job that starts right after class. I had a similar situation when I was in school, and I took the issue up with the head of the department who also happened to be my advisor since it was for my major. It was all fixed by the next time the class met.

The alternative is to discuss it with the professor directly, but that's up to you.

Kadath

I would rewrite the letter first.
And before you send it, you might try talking to the professor first, as Jazz suggested -- going over someone's head almost always leads to bad blood. When you talk to him, I would just talk about class ending late and your need to get to other commitments, rather than the professor arriving late (and never bring up what the professor chooses to lecture about; that's up the to professor).

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feelgood

I did bring it up to him last week when I told him that I had to go to work after class and I made it obvious fact to him that he was running overtime which affected my ability to get to my job on time.

Plus, I feel that it's not my job to inform him that he's not meeting his expectation of showing up on class on time and ending it on time as well. In fact, it's suppose to be the other way around.

Another option is to bring it up with my student council rep

The_Jazz

I'd say your student council rep will be able to accomplish exactly nothing. School administrations, in my experience, tolerate student government but are not going to be influenced by it unless its an extreme case.

If it were me, I would send the professor an email or letter re-expressing your concerns about the class. You might even throw in that you wouldn't have signed up for the class if you knew that it would let out at 5:30 instead of the 4:50 printed in the schedule. Be as non-confrontational as possible and approach it as a simple problem that needs to be solved amicably.

If he gets nasty or is still habitually late, I would then move up in the chain of command and make sure that you document the hell out of everything. If the professor takes it personally and decides to give you grades you don't deserve, you'll have something to take to a review board, etc.

Again if it were me, I'd try to find the absolutely friendliest way possible to solve it. You may even want to tell him in person that the overruns might make you drop the class since you can't afford to be late to work anymore.

And listen to Feelgood and don't even think of mentioning that he shows up late.

Good luck!

Cynthetiq

shouldn't it go to the department head before it goes to the dean, unless he (the instructor) is the department head...

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feelgood

Actually, the dean is also the department head for this particular program.

He's the dean of the entire Information Communication Technology program and he's just so happens to be the head of the Bachelor of Information Systems program.

I think I'll take jazz's suggestion and start documenting this for the next few weeks and continue to bring up my concerns up with him. I'll get uglier if there's no results.

SirLance

I would send a letter to the instructor, and cc the dean and the department head.

Dear Professor Yammerhead,

[documented instances of lateness]

[effect of lateness on my work]

Please correct the situation.

Signed,

Your Pal, Feelgood.

If this doesn't help, then you ask for an appointment with the department head and ask him/her in person to rectify the problem. Then you send him/her an email thanking them for their time and reiterating what was discussed. Obviously, you keep a copy of the email...

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ratbastid

Yeah, whatever you send to whoever needs to be accompanied with documentation: on DATE, he released the class at TIME. Three or so of those ought to do the trick.

xepherys

Another slight rewrite:

I want to express my concern about two of my courses taught by the same instructor; specifically APSE504-B and APSE502-B as taught by [NAME]. The schedule states that APSE504 runs from 8:00am until 11:50am while APSE502 runs from 1:00pm until 4:50pm. My concern is that Mr. [NAME] is often late; for example, on January 27, he was almost 20 minutes late. Not only is Mr. [NAME] is late, he has also been running the classes almost 30 minutes past the end time. Several students (including myself) in these classes have other commitments such as another class or work.

I understand that this semester has a shorter number of weeks considering reading week and holidays but I wanted to discuss options to have this situation remedied as it causes hardships for the students that have other commitments that are interefered with because of this matter. Thank you for your consideration!



I assume the first class listed does not last 14 hours. If so, perhaps you should look at other schools! ;-) Sounding forceful but polite is VERY effective. Less "I hoped that we could maybe find a possible fix to parts of this issue" and more "I pay to go to school here, and I have a job that incurs additional responsibilities. This job was attained in good faith based on posted class schedules that are being violated". There's a fine line... don't be a jerk, but state what you mean in a straight-forward fashion.

Zeraph

Wow, I'm surprised that could even happen. Everyone I know would walk after 5-10 mins over and most wouldn't wait more than 20-30 mins for a prof to show up. That teacher should be fired, you can't keep students that long, like everyone has said most people have commitments afterward.

I'd personally be pissed and would use a stronger word than "concern" but that's just me.

snowy

I know at my school that if a prof is five minutes over time, people start leaving in droves.

Your concerns are valid, feelgood, but start off with documentation: email your professor if it happens again, especially since you have already discussed the issue with him. If it continues to happen, take those emails, with date/time, and discuss them in person with your department head.

Best of luck.

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TopRamen66

At my school, if the professor is more than 15 minutes late you cannot be held responsible for any work done in class after that time. Also, going late is something you do NOT do! All my classes are on opposite sides of campus, so if they are more than a minute late I'm up and outta there.

feelgood

Well, I think instead of writing a email/letter to the dean, I'm just going to arrange a meeting with him so that it'll put a face to those complaints.

I had the same instructor today and guess what? He was late by half hour, the worst and didn't let us go until 20 minutes after.

Not only that, he doesn't let us have a copy of the powerpoint lecture and when I asked him about it, he expected the students to take their own notes. Well, great, maybe if you'll stop whipping through each one of them for 20 seconds, maybe we'll be able to take notes.

He also made a request to us that we should stick around for another hour so that he could complete his lesson plan, fuck that, I have to work right after the class and my boss has already have enough patience and grace time given to me. In fact, last night I had to leave right at 5 because I couldn't afford to be late anymore and I found out from a friend that he gave out assignments after I left. Great, thanks for fuckin letting me know pisshead. I even told him that I have a job to go to right after the class and he says "Ok, I'll try not to keep everybody too late" and still continues to do it.

He can't even stay on the so-called "lesson plan" he showed up today half hour late, unprepared, forgot to bring his power supply for his laptop, constantly going off topic with some irrelvant stories, his demostration involves extremely tiny object which I can't even begin to guess what the hell is it that I'm looking at.

My other course instructors have no problem of being prepared, complete the lesson plan for the day, and shows up on time. So, I'm gonna arrange a meeting with the dean (department head) because this is clearly gotten to the point where its unacceptable.

I already spoke with my student council rep and she said that so far, I'm just missing the step of bring it up with the dean and if that doesn't work out, a grievance can be filed with the student union.

Zeraph

The only other thing I would recom is that, if you can (without looking bad), rally up the other students in your class. Band together, decide on how long you should allow him to go over and stick with it so that you leave as one. Also try to get more people to complain, just be careful not to hurt your cause by looking mean. The more people that show up at the dean's office, the more likely action will be taken.

Remember that you, the students, are in "power", not the instructor. When it comes down to it, you the "customers" are what really decide things.

Sage

Yeah, jsut go talk to the dean. Remember, be polite, and don't speak for anyone else in the class. Just say "Professor X has done this, this, and this on numerous occasions and it is hindering my ability to get to work on time." Any dean worth their salt will know in about two seconds that your professor is being a total dildo.

Good luck

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ziadel

in my experience, complaints don't do much.

had a teacher from vietnam teaching chemistry of all things, could'nt understand a goddamn word he was saying. talked to other teachers who also avoided him because they couldnt understand a goddamn word he was saying.

made complaints, nothing happened.
I also wasn't the only one to complain.

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Pip

In my experience, teachers and professors can get away with almost anything except lateness. I'm surprised your class has suffered meekly for so long though. Come on, you are worth better than this! Viva la Revolution!