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Am I in the wrong here?

A

alexjohnson16

Platinum Member
I am currently taking a journalism class online as it wasn't offered on my community college campus and I am interested in it.

We started out with Professor A, but for some reason, Professor B took over the class three weeks in.

In Professor A's syllabus, which is still on the website to this day, it states that all assignments are due at 11:59 p.m. and if this changes, we will be provided with one week notice via email.

Fast forward to this past week. I log in Saturday afternoon to complete my work for this week, and Professor B has totally changed the content for the upcoming unit, saying that we will no longer be going by what is listed in the Course Schedule. There are four assignments due for this week (compared to 7 we've turned in over the first 3 1/2 months of the course) so this represents a large part of our grade. Here's the kicker, it states on the page that all work is due by Friday, April 14.

I immediately get pissed because there was no email from Professor B regarding this change. I do the assignments and turn them in with a note pretty much saying "What happened to what was said in the syllabus?". Professor B replies saying that they will not be graded and that has been posted since Monday that the assignment has been changed. I emailed back with the exact part of the syllabus saying that we would be notified, and she pretty much said tough ******.

So, should I feel like I got screwed here???

Cliffs:
-take online journalism class
-original professor changed after two weeks
-syllabus states all assignments due Sunday at 11:59 p.m., with email being provided of changes
-this week new professor changes totally off course schedule
-assigns 4 assignments for this week due Friday, but sends no email
-i turn my assignments in on Saturday, professor says tough ******
-i get pissed??
 
when i was in school, no matter if a teacher was replaced the syllabus would never be changed. i would look into this and go to the dept head
 
Originally posted by: j00fek
when i was in school, no matter if a teacher was replaced the syllabus would never be changed. i would look into this and go to the dept head
Click to expand...

I concur. IF you can't resolve the issue with your professor, go to the head of the department and voice your concerns. Remember that while your professors may be accomplished in their field, older, and perhaps smarter than you are, they are also you employees (granted, they may get pissed off if you remind them of this in a less-than-tactful manor). You are paying LARGE sums of money to help you learn and to fairly and accurately judge your progress.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. When my professors were jerks in similar ways, I did nothing. Perhaps I am trying to live vicariously through you...
 
No, I don't think you are wrong. If I understand your OP, you went online Saturday to do your assignments by the usual Sunday deadline and found that new assignments had been issued and due by Friday, but you were not sent an email to alert you of the earlier deadline.

That's not fair and you should pursue it. Simply explain to the department head that you had no possible way of knowing that the normal deadline had changed, all of your prior assignments were on time, and these would have been on time as well had the deadline not been moved up to Friday. You could say that you understand that with online classes sometimes there are communications difficulties when things change, but you deserve to have your assignments count under these circumstances.
 
Go talk to the Dean (or whatever the highest power is) and let them know what is going on. Or jsut drop the class and tell them you want a refund since it is no longer the same class you signed up for.

Just make sure you print out all the proof about the times and the notice and everything in case the idiot Prof changes it online.
 
I have challenged similiar situations when I was in college. The teacher had to not only remove the assignments from online, but had to reissue new ones with longer time to do it. From then on out, the prof had to follow original syllabus guidelines. Even though she might taking over for the other professor, they can not change class rules in the middle of the year. Go the Dept. Head and see what they say, if you don't hear what you want go to the dean, that will piss some people off.
 
I don't have a problem with the prof changing the syllabus; however you should have been notified directly, rather than having to find out the way you did. It's a valid complaint.

Just make sure you're polite about it, and claim that you generally budget your time quite well. It wasn't a matter of procrastinating until the end of the week; you just felt that was the best time to do the assignment due to all the other obligations and responsibilities you have.
 
Standard university response says that if a professor changes deadlines or how they handle homework, exams, etc, they can only make them due later, not sooner, as defined by the time required to do an assignment. This keeps professors from trying to fail people by changing a deadline from Saturday to Friday and then failing anyone who had not yet done the work. It should be in your university rules and regulations. In our university, if they say you get one week to work on each item, they can change all future due dates forward but have to let you have at least a week to work on the items. EX: They move all due dates to Friday night instead of Saturday, then this weeks must be due at least one week later, which would be on a monday, so we would have 2 items due NEXT Friday not THIS Friday.

I believe this is a pretty standard rule, that they must give notice and at least a given amount of time for changes to syllabi, etc. I would definately take it to your dean or ombudsman if the professor won't listen, because you have rights as a student.
 
btw, you ARE in the wrong for not using the topic summary and having such a vague thread title.
 
Of course it can vary from uni to uni, but the syllabus is usually considered to be a binding contract with regards to the terms of the class. It can be modified by agreement of both parties (class and professor), but only in that case.

It comes up with my classes every once in a while. Prof wants to move the final or make it the last day of class. We always have to vote on it, all sections.
 
That is definitely wrong; you should check to see if there is a rule against that kind of thing (if there isn't, then what kind of university is that?). Your professor needs someone to put her in her place.
 
Originally posted by: TerryMathews
Of course it can vary from uni to uni, but the syllabus is usually considered to be a binding contract with regards to the terms of the class. It can be modified by agreement of both parties (class and professor), but only in that case.

It comes up with my classes every once in a while. Prof wants to move the final or make it the last day of class. We always have to vote on it, all sections.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing. That's how it works @ my university.

OP- go talk to the dean or dept. head or whatever. You should be able to get this ****** reversed.
 
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