How about the rest learn to put up with the noises? What are you going to do when you start working, and your coworker in the next cubical is munching on HER lunch, crinkling papers, and making other noises?
Again, some people do NOT have time between classes, depending on how they’re set up. And ever have a four hour class? I have.
Suck it up and deal with it.
I don’t teach much, but I encourage the students to eat (unless I’m teaching a lab, obviously.) I tell students this at the start, so that they have a chance to pop a ritalin or change sections if they have special needs.
I ask for no food when they’re taking a quiz or something, since it often gets smeared on the paper. I do not want your cheeto-prints wiping off onto my other stuff, thanks.
Everything you’ve said boils down to “I can’t be arsed to accommodate the people around me in the classes I’ve scheduled for myself.” Why is it the responsibility of people who don’t want to hear crinkling paper or smell sushi during a lecture to suck it up and deal with it?
I’ve been in a situation where I had two, one-hour-and-half classes straddling the lunch hour, with only ten minutes between them. Those minutes were devoted to manic speed-walking across campus, so there was no time to eat.
So I would bring in a snack during class to tide me over. Like a sandwich or a candy bar.
Eating in class doesn’t bother me as long as I can’t hear it. I’ve actually had professors make that a rule, so as not to impinge on quiet eaters.
Put on my iPod headphones and turn up the volume. Unfortunately, I can’t do that in class.
I don’t think I really see the problem.
On my campus, we’re all on the meal plan. Which is kind of convenient, except that the meal times offered are short and hard to arrange a schedule around–especially with the high number of required courses most people have to take. Most people will have at least two days a week where their classes are booked solid through the lunch hour. Our house dining halls are at least ten minutes away, which means that there’s clearly no time to even drop by, and most classes are at least a 7 minute walk away from each other (even walking at an absurdly brisk pace). The school understands this problem and actually makes available a bag lunch pick-up location in the middle of campus that is specifically designed so you can pick up a lunch on the way to class and then eat it in the lecture hall.
I’ve never found the sounds of eating to be annoying, and I’ve never encountered anyone at school who has mentioned it, either–we just regard it as a fact of life. What is far more annoying, to me, is the people who sit towards the front of class where everyone can see their screen and then watch distracting YouTube videos on their laptop (admittedly, this doesn’t happen very often). Unfortunately, the world is not perfect and there will be occasional distracting sounds (and sights) in the lecture hall.
People who are apparently totally unaware of the sounds they’re making and makes not attempt to be even a little bit quiet? That can be disrespectful. But otherwise, I see no problem.
On preview, I recognized that my experience is probably not typical, largely due to the fact that everyone here lives on campus and no one’s got a car. Who knows, maybe I’ve just never come across behavior like what the OP is experiencing.
I don’t know about other campuses, but in some departments at my college, classes are on a three- or four-year rotation, which means that an opportunity to take the class will happen once during most people’s undergrad careers. If you have one class that lands in between two other classes that are pre-reqs (which are sometimes on two-year rotations), you aren’t going to have time to eat in between.
Sure, you could ask for a waiver, but “So I can eat lunch without offending my classmates” probably isn’t going to fly with the powers that be.
Of course, there’s a difference between bringing a Big Mac combo into class with you and and quietly eating a peanut butter sandwich.
I am always suspicious of comparisons like this. In the workplace, I am getting paid to do a job. The employer is the client. In college, I am paying tens of thousands of dollars for an education. I am the client. Big difference. There are all sorts of rules that apply to one and not the other. An academic setting is not a workplace setting, and I see no reason to force arbitrary comparisons.
When I went back to school I tried to schedule all my classes so I could go 2-3 days because of the far commute. I’ve had back to back classes and was starving at the end of the day. Most of my classes were lab classes and you weren’t allowed to eat or drink in a lab or I might have. I’d probably have done it quietly in the few minutes before the class started.
That’s a good rule. I have been in classes where students act like they’re at the movies munching on popcorn or chips. That’s more about snacking than being hungry. They’re usually the same people checking their cellphone or playing on their laptop.
A quiet snack is one thing, and understandable in most cases unless there is a rule against it. But something loud? Doritos in that noisy bag? Crunchy cornflakes? Give me a break. And it’s just wonderful for the next student who has to use that seat to have to deal with cheese smears and crumbs. (Been there, dealt with that.)
It seems as if a common factor in a lot of pit threads is that people feel they do not have to be considerate of others anymore. If they want it, they want it right now, and the effect on anyone else is not at all important. I think it is very sad.
When I was in college, I attended classes in a solid 16-hour block that left no time interval for eating or anything else. Each class began 15 minutes before the previous one ended—except for the first class of the morning, which would actually start the previous afternoon. (Even the simplest explanation of my schedule would require a number of vector diagrams.)
To complicate matters, I suffer from a rare medical condition that requires me to move my bowels every 73 minutes (give or take 41 seconds) or I lose the ability to recognize Roman numerals or operate a ball-point pen. Trips to the restroom were out of the question, so I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances: fitted myself with adult diapers and relieved myself during lectures.
Of course there were the fussbudgets—of the same sort you see whining in this thread—who objected to the odor, the sounds of evacuation and flatulence, the occasional leakage and pooling beneath my chair (as though the manufacturer’s exaggerated claims of absorbency were somehow my fault!) I used to tell them the same thing you should say to your boorish classmates who have the gall to complain about your regimen of Cheetos, Poppycock, Funyuns, Triscuits, Cap’n Crunch, Snyder’s of Hanover Olde Tyme Pretzels, Toastchee Peanut Butter Crackers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Chicken McNuggets with sweet & sour dipping sauce, granola with yogurt-covered raisins, and Lay’s Salt & Vinegar Flavored Potato Chips:
“Suck it up! I’m here to learn.”
Since my classes are limited (some are offered one time once a year) and the buses don’t run very often, I have classes from 11 am to 4 pm on Monday/Wednesday. There are supposed to be breaks between the classes but I’ve noticed the honors professors tend to run over. I have two classes in the same room and often the one professor will still be handing out papers or talking one on one with students while the other comes in. I don’t blame them, we cover a lot of material and I often end up in their offices discussing more.
I am hypoglycemic, I’ve passed out before after 4 hours, but I think 5 hours without a break for food is a bit much for anyone. Some of my classmates come straight from their jobs to school. I’ve seen students bring in whole meals they grabbed from a fast food joint on the way in. That is distracting to me but only because of the smell. I haven’t been disturbed by anyone eating so far, even those who eat dorritos. None of the professors say anything unless the student is eating in a computer or science lab or someone starts eating in a class that has an eating break.
I go to a community college so the needs of our students might be different than those of yours. Some of our students are homeless (their “home” is a bush) and use our lounge’s mini-kitchen to cook their meals and make themselves coffee. The smell sometimes ends up in the nearby classrooms.
I eat Bananas or specialty bars most of the time. If I’m having bad day and have to eat something crunchy like cereal then I let it sit in my mouth and melt so it makes less noise.
This is true, but I also think people can be overly sensitive, and that their concern about other people’s behavior can be prudishly self-centered.
I’m not saying this applies to the OP, because I too have been distracted by loudly eating people. But only their sounds get to me. The smells? Unless it’s something pungent like cabbage or sardines, I can’t see why folks can’t just suck it up and deal. Your mind will not stop working just because someone is eating McDonald’s french fries in the back of the room.
Eating in class? In Indiana sixth graders are so busy they have to have sex in class. Save your outrage until there is fucking in class.
Read my second post. I have no problems in general with eating (and especially drinking) in class. I do it myself. I get woozy myself on occasion (no specific condition) and have to bolt something down quickly in the few minutes before class, usually a Kashi bar or some juice.
And yes, I have had classes for six hours straight, and I have had to sit at my junior college for 12 hours a day with nothing to eat. (And I have had a car held together by duct tape that I could barely afford to put gas in, fetus. You are hardly the first poor student on the planet. And as a Classics major, believe me that I sympathize with limited class availability. Yet I manage.). I have been there and done that.
There is no reason not to afford people basic respect just because you can’t afford time or a fucking orange instead of a bag of Doritos. If I can hear your eating over the professor talking (as happened yesterday with cornflake girl), you’ve crossed the line from self-indulgent twat into a genuine asshole. If you’re (generic you) hypoglycemic, I’m guessing an orange is going to be a lot better for you than a bag of Doritos, not to mention cheaper.
Tuesday/Thursday Schedule:
9:00 - 10:30: Elements of Directing
10:30-12:00: Dramatic Structures and Genres
12:00 - 1:30: Stage Management
1:30- 3:00: Scenic Design
3:00-6:00: Production
6:00- 10:00: Rehearsal
I did this type of schedule for several semesters.
So tell me, when am I supposed to eat? Let alone study.
If I eat quietly, I should not be expected to skip my meals for an entire day.
As a professor now, I expect people to exercise restraint when they do things in class. Talking, eating loudly, (no limberger cheese) arriving late and leaving early are all frowned upon in my classes. With a lecture class of 100 or more it is important that noise be kept to a minimum. However, I’ve never had to throw someone out class. because of food noise.
Cut your classmates some slack. Talk to the professor about the obnoxious ones. Sit towards the front of class so that they are behind you and are harder to hear. Cornflake girl, you have a justified complaint against. Pastry chick however, how does quietly pinching off pieces of a pastry bother you? Is it that you are jelous that she has a nice piece of pound cake and you don’t?
I am complaining about noise. Pastry chick was a bad example, granted, although she seemed after every bite to have to roll the bag up to reseal it. Cornflake girl WAS seated behind me (Where’s your reading comprehension, Professor?). Listen: I don’t care if people eat in class. Some of us have had hard shit to deal with to get where they are. I’ll be 27 when I finally get my BA. But there is no reason not to have basic courtesy. If I can cut MY fellow classmates some slack, they can cut everyone else some, too.
Another tail end of the bell curve. What percentage of students in American Universities have schedules like that? Who in the world schedules zero time between classes?
That seems like the key to me. Everyone involved needs to be a little tolerant of the folks around them and not try to turn the whole thing into an Issue of Principle. Issues of Principle that revolve around Really Petty Shit tend to be thinly-veiled selfishness, IMO.
Daniel
I’m not saying that the eaters shouldn’t compromise as well-at least don’t bring anything too crunchy, smelly, or messy. AT THE SAME TIME, sometimes one does not have a choice-you must eat in class, or you have to go without food. Going without a meal is NOT fucking healthy. Nor can some people concentrate when one’s stomach is growling.