You stand outside an empty classroom with about 20 other sleepy students. It’s early in the morning, and you already miss the warm comfort of your bed. The clock reads 8:25 a.m. and the professor is five minutes late.
You pluck at the frayed strands of your jeans pocket annoyed and wondering what to do.
“Usually, what I’ve done in the past is I’ve waited about like 10, 15 minutes,” said Ashley Gresham, a sociology sophomore. “Then if the professor does not show, everyone is just standing out in the hallway, so we have a brief meeting with other students. Everyone’s like ‘Should we stay? Should we go?’ and then, like 15 minutes past, we all come to an agreement that we’re just not going to show up for class.”
Gresham said she usually waits a bit longer.
“I’m kind of a chicken.”
Jacob Suderman, a business freshman, said he had no such qualms.
“I’d give it about 15 minutes,” he said. “That sounds about right, but I wouldn’t converse with anyone. I’d just go. I’d just stand up and leave.”
Gail Gates, the secretary of student affairs, said she recommends a different approach.
The 10 to 15 minute rule is “a complete fallacy,” she said. “I remember it from when I was in school all those many years ago, and I have no idea where it came from.”
Gates said no official time limit exists and that she recommends students contact the department office. She said contacting the department would not necessarily mean that students would have class or be assigned a new teacher.
“It probably will depend on the department,” she said. “They’ll probably either let them know if something happened to the instructor, if they know what happened, or probably try to contact the instructor to find out what happened.”
Four of the four students interviewed for that topic either never mentioned calling or said they would not contact the department office.
What to do when a professor routinely keeps the class late
“You know, I’ve had some that have done that before,” Gresham said. “I’m such a chicken that I don’t say anything, but I know some kids around me will start getting their stuff and slowly get up and ease out the door. I’d probably be annoyed, but the odds of me saying something are rare.”
Gresham said she doubts she would approach the professor.
“I might convince somebody else to do it,” she said. “I’d be like, ‘Yeah, you do that, you talk to the professor,’ and I’ll just sit in the back and pretend like I had nothing to do with it.”
Suderman said he would talk to the department manager.
“I’d talk to the professor first yeah, but I’d go to the department manager and be like, ‘You know, I have other classes I have to be at them on time. This is unacceptable,’” he said. That approach falls in line with OSU policy.”
Gates said students should first talk with the professor and explain the situation.
“If that continues to be a problem then I would recommend that the students talk to the department head,” she said.
Suderman was the only student interviewed who said he would talk to the department head.
What to do when a professor gets a grade incorrect
“If it is legitimately wrong and you have the proof and stuff, I would just get that and go to their office and be like, ‘Change my grade,’” said Will Streight, a hotel and restaurant administration sophomore.
He said the situation can be difficult because some professors keep the papers and make students wait to see their grade.
“I’d ask him if he had a copy of that assignment because they have to keep some grading record. I’d ask to see something that showed that I got this grade and that it wasn’t switched with someone else’s.”
“Students really need to keep their graded papers until after they get the final grade,” Gates said. “If the instructors keeps the papers or the exams, which some do, then you would go and talk to the instructor and ask to see the graded paper again. If they keep the papers, they are required to keep the papers at least four months after the grades are due, so typically through the next semester.”
However, professor can make mistakes. Gates said she has lost a student’s paper before.
“And then I have the friend who left the graded papers in the seat of the airplane,” she said. “In the case of leaving the papers on the airplane, you just have to give the students the grade that they earned for everything and give them the opportunity to make it up. It was clearly your fault so you can’t make the students take the test again.”
Gates said policy allows a professor to change a grade after the semester has ended.
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