as a university student I’m spending upwards of $6000 a year to be there, and I would really like to hear the professors. To the people who think whispering is OK you are assholes IT’S A FUCKING AUDITORIUM SOUND FUCKING TRAVELS. I can hear every word our of your mouth even when you’re in the back and I’m up front. So show some fucking consideration and shut your mouth or I will do it for you
—Actual student
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
“Internet Tough Guy”?
Depends on the auditorium. If it’s like many of the old auditoriums at Dal, you never have an issue hearing the prof. Mind you, they were built with detail. Perhaps the talking bothers this guy so much that he hears whispers wherever he goes; so much so that it’s becoming a problem.
Clearly the cost of university tuition is far too low.
Too many clueless kids who don’t want to be there, necessitating the use of those giant lecture halls—a waste of everyone’s time and money, especially their mommy’s and daddy’s.
Feel free to remind those idiots firmly and often that University isn’t high school, and that they need to let the people who really want to be there get a real education.
You’ll be doing everyone a favour.
I find it very interesting a post that starts with “CLEARLY the cost of university tuition is far too low….” contains any grammatical errors at all let alone the so-hard-to-get-your-head-around comma splice. “CLEARLY” someone is speaking from the SIDE of their head.
I’m with the OP on this one. However, as much as you are a student and pay for the education, the school bares responsibility in seeing THEY deliver a quality product. My instructors could give a rat’s ass if you showed up to realize the value of your tuition but it was another story entirely if you showed up late and disrupted the class. In that case you were simply not welcome and not invited. I think if I were the OP and if I wanted to avoid confrontation I think I’d remind that instructor “quality” education is up to THEM to deliver. An orderly classroom or lecture hall is required to deliver such a thing, is it not? Go get your money’s worth, OP.
OP, I’ve had this happen to me when I went to university and it is a pain in the ass. It was especially annoying because I was a proctor note taker for students with disabilities and if I didn’t hear what the professor was saying, my notes and the student I was helping suffered.
I would talk to your professer about it. Simply moving to the front of the class doesn’t always work. In the end you may have to turn around and say (it doesn’t have to be rude) “Listen, I’m trying to hear what the prof is saying and I can’t hear over your whispering; can you wait until class is over to finish your discussion?” –Unfortunately, if the people are anything like the rods I went to school with, they’ll most likely shut-up for five seconds and start again or purposefully talk louder to piss you off…
I’m so glad I’m done university! Good luck OP!!
Oh, yes, it’s the professor’s responsibility to keep the 50+ “young adults” in line. The prof is there to impart knowledge, not babysit a bunch of fresh out of high school yoga skanks, who are typically the main offenders. I think the OP is a first year student, and is just frustrated. Take heart OP, these people won’t be around next year.
I do yoga =(
I had a few profs at acadia who would kick people the fuck out of class if they were talking/whispering to each other in class. I’m not talking leaning over to ask “hey, what did he just say, I missed that point” I’m talking habitually carrying on a fucking convo during the lecture. He’d tell them if they want to carry on a conversation they could go up to the SUB to do it and told them to scram.
Pretty effective because my classes with this particular prof were some of the quietest classes I’ve been in *shrug*
If I was a prof I’d kick “talkers” out and have no problem with it. Talking during a lecture is just rude to other students and the professor themselves.
I wasn’t bitching at the OP, I was agreeing with him/her that there are far too many people who show up at university who don’t seem to notice that the time spent there is costing them, and other people, money.
Perhaps if the tuition fees came out of their own pocket, rather than mommy and daddy’s, they would understand the value of what they are doing, and would be less interested in talking/texting/sleeping in class.
I don’t believe that bloated auditorium-style classes are the best way to deliver a quality education, and I think if the people who don’t want to be there were weeded out early then the real students could have a better experience.
I’ve asked/told people in class to be quiet before. There were incidents in which PK and I would be doing presentations at the front of the class and people in the back would carry on conversations.
Ironically if anything was said to the chatters/whisperers in back, they took it as a violation of their rights.
Ruby.. it’s very interesting to get the point when you actually say what you mean. Funny how that works, huh? And I agree. When you are paying for your eduction yourself suddenly you want it and easily become annoyed with anything that comes between you and the value of your tuition.
Fever, despite all the sarcasm I’m glad you get it. Yes, a quality education is to be delivered by the facility. If 50+ students can’t be controlled well enough to deliver quality education to every last one of them I dare say the institution AND the students have a serious problem with far reaching consequences. The students will move on (prepared or unprepared) but the quality of eduction remains and is eventually reflected by tuition charged followed by loss of accreditation which provides for a certain level of quality. It is 100% the responsibility of the school to deliver. It’s NOT up to the student to provide for nor police the classrooms of said institution.
Well, These things do tend to be written on the fly, in between other things . . . they can’t all be as perfect and polished (and comma-splice free) as my soon-to-be-published 1500-page, highly-researched historical novel will be.
: )
And yes, there is lots of room to reform education at all levels, from elementary school right through college and university.
It’s literally a big business, though, with lots of competing interests, and lots of people there for all sorts of different reasons—some legit and some less so. It’s a massive and uncompliant beast to try to tame.
I teach from time to time at the undergrad level, and I have to say the range of attitudes and abilities with first-year students is shocking.
Many students, in fact a great many, are smart, informed and motivated, while others haven’t even mastered academic or life skills appropriate to grade 5 or 6, yet somehow they have the (inflated) “good grades” that get them in the door.
As an instructor, I try to meet each student where they are, with the intention of bringing their skills up to the necessary levels, but if they are starting from close to zero (and some are) that is a significant challenge that goes beyond the structures and policies of any given institution.
And, because they are (technically) adults, the instructor can only do so much “for” them. The student is the one who has to show up, who has to participate, who has to engage with the information, who has to make decisions about what it all means for their future.
I strive to make the class engaging and relevant, but I am not hired to be an “entertainer.”
And I DO ask people to leave if they would really rather be doing something else.
This all has serious repercussions for society as a whole, as everyone grows up and moves into the workplace and family life. We have a serious divide between the knowledge “haves” and “have nots” that is growing all the time.
If you want to a good laugh (or even a good cry) check out “nothired.com” and take a look at who is really out there attempting to compete with your job—or in your case, Kay, attempting to get hired on at your company.
Doh! Typo! I meant to write “compete with you FOR your job”
Coffee time!
I checked out nothired.com‘s facebook info… and I quote, “In our jobs, we see thousands of cover letters and resumes every month…”
Ruby, this is a very good example of a comma splice.
Ah the things that are funny when you’re me.
“In our jobs” isn’t a complete sentence on its own so, by adding a comma the phrase, it is forced to stand alone and “splices” the sentence into 2 parts. If the sentence leaves you wanting, don’t add a comma like I just did now because this is a “comma splice”. And transitive verbs (words that join) like “and,” “but” and “so” serve the same purpose as a comma so no need to “double-up”. I really hope you do well with your 1500 page historical novel and take no offense to unsolicited advice from a fellow bitch.
I am in the middle of “fixing” the most unbelievably incomprehensible, badly-written document at this very moment, so comma splices (among other grammatical crimes) are weighing rather heavily on my mind.
On LTWWB, however, I’m more willing to slack off on the grammar rules and get right to the good stuff.
Such a relief.
You wimp. My friend pays 50 grand per year in Mass.