Dear Editor:
Have you ever had a professor so bad at their job that when other professors find out you have a class with them, they apologize profusely? Have you ever had a professor so bad that another professor in their department organizes tutoring and online lecturing to make up for their colleague’s shortcomings?
I’m not talking about a professor you simply dislike for one reason or another, but one that couldn’t effectively teach their way out of a wet paper bag. What are students in this position supposed to do? How has it become common knowledge across campus amid faculty and students that this professor is horrible at their job and no action is taken?
We, my classmates and myself, have gone to department chairs, we’ve gone to deans and they seem oblivious and unwilling to do anything about the situation. The deans have told us we’re merely not doing enough as students. What is enough? We attend class, we go to tutoring sessions for anywhere from 2-8 hours a week, we meet for an hour or more before class for study groups, plus we study at home for just this one class on top of our other classes and jobs.
We’ve tried asking the professor to reword questions or go over difficult material a second time prior to test day and it’s been met with condescension or outright refusal. What more should we do? Quit our jobs? Drop all of our classes except this one so we can devote more time to it? Trust me, we’d love to drop this class and take it with another professor but unfortunately, it’s only offered by this one professor semester after semester.
We’re not looking for an easy A, we’re looking to be TAUGHT difficult material by an expert in that field. We’re not getting that. We’re not taking this class for fun. This isn’t a blow off elective course that we need to fulfill general education requirement. This class is a pre-requisite that we desperately need to learn and understand for our future beyond Butler.
STEMming with frustration.
