Pitting asshole professors who lock the door

The BBQ Pit
1

Today, I showed up to my accounting class at 4:00 because that’s when it starts. As I walked into Beam hall, 10 feet from the classroom door, my instructor shut it and LOCKED IT while I looked at him through the window in the door.

I am so pissed off I can’t even begin to express the frustration.

Where does this asshole get off treating people like that? Is this his idea of how you earn respect? Does he think people will take him more seriously if he’s an asshole? Or is it just a shitty powertrip attitude, his way of reminding himself and his students that common decency and understanding don’t mean shit and the only thing that matters is who holds the keys and the gradebook. How god damn insulting.

Fuck you, prof.

It’s too late to drop it because I have to keep 12 credits, so I’ll go to the stupid class. I’ll take his quizzes and read the book, and pass his tests, but what little respect I had for him is gone. You got to give it to get it. I hope the rush of power locking the door was worth it, because he just lost himself a good attentive interested student in exchange for a bitter frustrated one.

2

Were you really there at 4:00 exactly? If so, then that is pretty extreme. Did he warn the class that would happen?

3

I’m with you all the way here, unless…

…your professor made it clear previously that he would lock the door at 4:00 sharp and expected all students to be in the classroom before then so that he could start class on time.

I’ve never locked my classroom door, but it can get pretty fucking annoying to have students sashaying in all through the first five or ten minutes because they can’t be arsed to get there before the actual start time of the lecture. (To be fair, I’ve been late to class sometimes myself, so I didn’t always set a very good example.)

4

Common decency involves showing up for class a little before the lecture is scheduled to start. That way the Prof and students don’t have to wait for you to get your shit together.

5

Shagnasty, it was in fact exactly 4:00, maybe 3:59, based on the clock in the classroom which I could see from the door.

Kimstu, the policy that we were informed of was that on pop quiz days (like today) the door would be locked at the beginning of class so there weren’t stragglers interrupting the quiz. My problem is that when I walked to the door, there were students in the classroom not even seated yet. This wasn’t 5 minutes late. This wasn’t interrupting a thing. There was no cost to the professor at all in letting me in. Total asshole power trip thing, as far as I can tell.

Squink, bullshit. Class starts at 4. I was there at 4. It takes me approximately 10 seconds to plant my ass in a seat. As a professor, nitpicking 10 seconds because you can, because you want to play boss instead of teacher, is stupid and insulting

6

Sorry, dude. I agree that it would have been nice of the professor to hold off on the door-locking to give you a break, since you were late by such a tiny amount. But you were fairly warned. I can’t see that the prof was actually out of line here.

Sure, he may have just been strict because he was power-tripping on it, which isn’t nice. But he might also have been concerned about fairness issues; if he holds off on locking the door because you’re only five seconds late, then what does he do next quiz day when somebody else is running down the hall saying “Wait, wait, let me in!”? Trust that person to pitch a fit about “Well, you waited to let Ooner in last week but you wouldn’t wait for me! It’s not fair!”

By all means, though, go ahead and be bitter and frustrated from now on, if you feel you get more out of the class that way.

7

I’m with Ooner 100% on this one. I personally think students should be free to come and go as they please, so long as they aren’t disruptive. If they come late to a quiz, they have that much less time to finish it. If they miss part of a lecture, they know that much less than everyone else come test time.

Locking the door at all is ridiculous, let alone locking it exactly at the start of class. What’s next? Hall passes to go to the bathroom?

8

My bitching is about today specifically because it affected me today, but also about the policy in general. The attitude of this professor and others like him is insulting and excessively rigid and really does ruin much of the sense of enjoyment one might get out of school.

In particular, it reeks of superiority and power tripping in a situation where that should not exist. He is not my boss. He is not my father. He is not a police officer or social authority figure. I pay for classes and we have a general agreement that he will teach at the given time and the students will be there. If someone is a minute late and doesn’t disrupt the class, the appropriate response is “big fucking whoop.” It is insulting to me, as an adult, that a professor feels it appropriate to establish themselves as in charge and not to be disobeyed OR ELSE.

9

Locking the door? Was there panic hardware present on the interior? If not, Mr. Professor is in a world of shit with the local Fire Marshal. Were I a student, I’d raise hell if egress pathways and exits are being arbitrarily blocked/locked because a staff member has authority issues.

10

Oh, and I also think the professor should probably have been more explicit about the door-locking policy. If what he meant was “I will lock the door at 4:00 sharp, and if you’re at the door at 4:00:01 then you’re out of luck, sorry”, that’s what he should have said.

Saying “I will lock the door at the beginning of class so that we don’t have stragglers interrupting the quiz” leaves the policy open to misinterpretations like “I will lock the door just before the actual quiz-taking starts, so you better be there by the time everybody else is all seated and ready”. Which is what you thought it meant, not unreasonably.

In my experience, if misunderstandings can occur about any classroom policy, they inevitably will. Looking on the bright side, though, you have served a useful function in making it frighteningly clear to everybody that they really need to get into the classroom before 4:00 sharp! :slight_smile:

As I say, I’ve never been a clock Nazi myself, but I can’t agree that promptness doesn’t matter. A professor is not a TV program that you can tune into halfway through if you feel like it. Many professors feel strongly that casually dropping in and out of class whenever you feel like it is disrespectful and distracting, no matter how “non-disruptive” you think you’re being. (And by the way, students and professors often have widely divergent opinions on whether and how much a student disrupts a class by showing up late.)

And I have to say I’m a bit puzzled at your apparent rage just because the professor is setting strict rules and acting like an “authority figure”. Why is that not appropriate? The professor is an authority figure as far as this class goes; he’s in charge of conducting it. As long as he’s honest and clear about what the rules are, why can’t he enforce them strictly?

11

Hey, when you’re a low-paid, disrespected, small-minded bitter prick stuck in academia you have to satisfy your power urges and establish yourself in the pecking order somehow!

I once had a prof that started picking up test papers five minutes before the end of the period–just, literally jerking them out from under pencils. He collected about half, said “Okay, the test is over, pass the rest of the tests across,” and thirty seconds later walked out of the room with only the tests he had in hand. Since many of them hadn’t made it over to him (large lecture hall class) he left without them, presumably resulting in a non-grade. I collected a group of about a dozen students whose tests he didn’t pick up, marched over to his office (locked, abandoned…knowing him, he was probably already at the bar) and then went to the department chair’s office and deposited the tests with him with an explaination of what happened. There was no disciplinary action, of course, with a tenured full professor, but he didn’t pull that crap again.

That being said, as a student, you are responsible to be in your chair (or at least, in the classroom) when the class starts, not “getting there”, so as to minimize disruptions for the instructor and the rest of the class. Your prof’s attitude was excessively rigid, especially if he’d not otherwise made it clear that the door was to be locked, et cetera, but next time make the effort to be in class, pencil out, ready to go on the tick.

One more point (in your favor)–locking the door is possibly (probably) a violation of fire codes for an institution, even if it can be unlocked from the inside. T’were it me as the prof and I felt you were unduly tardy, I’d dock you points on the quiz or refuse to grade yours (“Late–no credit!”) rather than lock the door, but then, I don’t think I’d be such an unbearable prick about it unless it were a pattern of disruptive behavior. But like I say, for an academic, you have to build your self-esteem somehow, even if it means squashing a few whiny undergrads to do it. :rolleyes:

Stranger

12

And I have to say I’m a bit puzzled at your apparent rage just because the professor is setting strict rules and acting like an “authority figure”. Why is that not appropriate? The professor is an authority figure as far as this class goes; he’s in charge of conducting it. As long as he’s honest and clear about what the rules are, why can’t he enforce them strictly?
The problem I have with that sort of attitude and policy is that it is insulting to me as an adult, as a paying customer of the school, to be treated like a child, a subordinate at the workplace, or generally someone who can be “bossed around”

I don’t think that sort of attitude is at all conducive to learning and communication and education. It turns the classroom atmosphere, which should be welcoming, into something unpleasant and hostile and threatening and rigid. I understand the goal is to make people be there on time. In reality, it makes me not want to go at all.

Basically, it just turns something that should be good into something bad, all for the sake of power and control with very little productive or logical purpose.

13

Oh man.

I completely went off on a prof for this when I was an undergrad.

The setting: Biology 101 - big lecture hall, 300 students.

A few people came in late. They were not disruptive. Prof gets pissy about it and does something kind of dumb. She tries to lock the doors, but can’t do it. Realizing she doesn’t know how, she stomps back to her overhead projector. Class titters.

A few minutes later a girl asked her to return to a previous overhead for a moment. Prof refuses, saying, “We don’t have time to go back. And anyway, it’s all in the textbook.”

Prof resumes lecturing. The girl then stands up and begins to leave. Prof does something a little more dumb - she actually stops and asks the girl where she’s going. She replies, “Well, you’re not going back to the overhead I asked you to. And if it’s all in the textbook anyway, why do I need to be here?”

Class titters. Prof looks mad, but doesn’t answer as the girl departs. Prof’s jaw sets and she returns to lecturing. Only the class is still tittering.

Then prof does something irretrievably stupid. She looks up and asks sarcastically, “Does anyone ELSE having anything they’d like to discuss?”

So who do you think raised his hand? She looked surprised when I spoke up, clearly having thought she’d asked a rhetorical question.

“Yes, I do. I’ve been sitting her for the last ten minutes watching you try to lock doors and fight with students instead of teaching us biology. I don’t come here to be treated like an elmentary school student. And another thing, I’m paying for my education myself, and I don’t expect to be locked out of a class that I’m paying for. One day it might be me arriving a few minutes late for some reason, and I assure you I’m coming through that door!”

Class applauds. She goes back to lecturing. Later in the day she found me in the lab and, get this… Gave me the opportunity to apologize.

I looked at her carefully and explained that I was sorry if I was rude, but that I meant everything I said. And that if she tried to lock the doors again I’d speak with the dean. “Besides”, I said, “you asked if anyone wanted to discuss anything further.”

I don’t know where these profs get their balls. However, I’ve only run into one or two types like that in all my schooling, so I think they’re in a very small minority.

I’m a teacher myself. I understand the need to run an organized classroom. But locking students out preemptively is not a way to do it.

I also understand not to ask stupid questions to a group of people you think are cowed - but I knew that before I was a teacher.

14

You mean, you shouldn’t have to follow a professor’s rules in a class that he’s conducting? I don’t get that. How much freedom from being “bossed around” in such a situation do you feel you need? Should you be able to read a newspaper in class? Talk to your neighbor or on your cellphone in class?

I realize that you don’t want to be disruptive, but who gets to set the standards for what constitutes unacceptable disruptiveness? Suppose one of your fellow students feels it isn’t disruptive for him to hold a short whispered cellphone conversation occasionally during class. Is it okay to “boss him around” by telling him he can’t? Hey, he’s paying for his education, after all.

What about the students who find it disruptive when other students come in late? Why should their preferences be ignored? They’re paying for the class too.

All in all, I think everyone’s probably better off just accepting that one person—the professor—sets the classroom conduct rules that everybody has to follow. As long as the rules are clearly stated and fairly enforced, why worry about whether they’re strict or lenient? Believe me, most professors do not set rules simply in order to get off on a power trip (bossing around a classroom full of students just isn’t all that exciting). Most of us are simply trying to run a class in a way that we find practical, effective, and fair.

After all, you’re spending what, twelve hours a week or so actually attending classes? All the rest of the time you put into your education is completely at your own discretion and can be conducted at the times and in the manner that you personally choose. Is it really that terrible a hardship to have to follow somebody else’s rules of conduct for twelve hours a week?

(Of course, violating building codes by locking doors when you’re not supposed to, or wasting class time arguing with students about how they ought to behave, is definitely a wrong call.)

15

Actually, this has been an enlightening exchange. I still think it makes sense to have a consistent set of rules for class behavior rather than just letting anybody do anything they consider “non-disruptive”. But it’s clear that many students feel very strongly that they need to be able to have some input into what class behavior should be, in order to feel that they’re being treated as independent adults.

From now on, maybe I should hand out a questionnaire at the start of a course asking for students’ preferences on basic classroom behavior: coming in late okay or not? reading or talking in class okay or not? Then the votes are tallied and the class is conducted according to the rules that most people prefer. That way we have a consistent set of rules and everybody knows what to expect, but the students don’t feel they’re being arbitrarily bossed around or treated like children. What do you think?

16

I don’t know why anyone would want to read a newspaper in class, but yes I should be able to if that’s what I want, so long as I’m not flipping pages loudly. The professor’s job is to profess. It’s not to demand a certain level of attention. If interaction/participation is part of the grade, the professor would be justified in adjusting the grade accordingly, but if not, it’s not his place to make such demands.

As far as cell phones or talking to neighbors goes, that is clearly a distraction to the other students and a professor is in the right to not allow it.

Keep in mind I’m not talking about waltzing into class 15 minutes late here. If someone is terribly distracted because until 4:02 a few people come into class and quietly find a seat and sit down, my only response can be, as I said earlier “big fucking whoop.” I honestly can’t see a militant policy about that kind of “distraction” being anything but excessive and silly, and a disservice to both the on-time students who are more distracted by the knocks on the door, and the kids who are being denied the education they are paying for, for being (barely) late.

Because the difference between the two changes the entire atmosphere of the classroom and relationship between the professor and his students.

17

Sounds like a good idea to me. I’ll bet $10 these are the answers:

Coming in late: discouraged but not punished, no door-locking or grade effect

Reading: disrespectful, but nondisruptive and ok, assuming there is no “participation” component to the class

Talking: disruptive, not ok

18

OK, so 4:15 is bad, 4:02 is not. What about 4:07? 4:05? 4:10? Why should you, of all the people in the room, be the one to make the decision? Doesn’t it make more sense to allow the teacher to do that? And doesn’t the time that’s printed on your schedule make sense as the time chosen? Or, how about letting the entire school choose - as they have by making the schedule, and which you agreed to by signing up for the class?!

Was he an ass? Yes, absolutely. As far as I’m concerned, holding the door open for someone who is within visual distance, and certainly if making eye contact, is the polite thing to do. I’d no more lock the door on you than I would push the Door Close button on an elevator you were running toward. It’s a politeness thing.

But you’re also a bit of an ass to make such a big deal about it.

But, again, why should you get to decide the atmosphere or relationship between the professor and his students? His classroom, his kingdom.

I’ve never before agreed with the “Entitlement Attitude” bemoaning of college profs, but now I get it. You’re not entitled to an atmosphere, a relationship or anything but an education. And if you can’t adapt your attitude to gain that education from a man you don’t have respect for, then you have no business being in college.

19

Well, I hate to compare college to the working world, but coming in late is rather more than “discouraged” when one holds down a full-time job. If so-called “adult” college students can’t be bothered to show up to classes for which they are paying on time, I can’t imagine how they will fare in the world of paying jobs, where timeliness is frequently imperative for continued employment. Keep showing up at a McJob 2 minutes late, and see what happens. Keep showing up at a Wall Street job 2 minutes late, and see what happens.

They don’t lock the doors. They just tell you not to come back. Just ask the woman who had the office next to mine until last week.

20

Locking the door with you standing there is a bit assholish.

But, I used to lecture in a room with a door up front and a door in the back. I’d always close the front door at the beginning of class because I hated, hated, hated when some dickweed would waltz in ten minutes late and cross in front of me. It also sent the message that I didn’t like people being late.

I also once slammed a book shut about a nanometer from the ear of a sleeping student, but that’s another thread.