What Can I Do?

[LosingMyReligion]

Last weekend I marched with my class at the graduation ceremony. Well, long story short, I cannot get my degree until my final course(which I took last semester) has been graded. It has been TWO weeks since I took my final exam in the class I am refering to. To make a long story short, out of four classes, this ONE dumb fuck professor has NOT graded my class yet! I have checked online every single day and there is NOTHING.

 

I called the admissions office of the school, left several messages on his voice mail(because he NEVER answers his office phone), and I have recently left a message with the dean of the department. I honestly cannot believe this is happening, and it is really infuriating.

 

My former professor is a 66-year-old fucker egg who would forget his head at home if it were not attached to his body. This is why old @$$ people should NOT be teaching at University. If you can't remember what you said to me 30 seconds ago then you should be FORCED into retirement.

His class was total colossal bullshit waste of time. All he did was regale us with tales of his debaucherous youth(when he smoked weed, had tons of sex, and protested), and sexually harass the female students.

He never kept up with his grades and one class period he would compliment you on your work and the next day he would forget you were even in his class to begin with. Well, he told me I made an A in the course...Yet, here I am WAITING for my grade to be posted so I can OFFICIALLY graduate. I can't do jack shit until I have my credit.

 

What can I do? can I sue the university or something? I called the dean and that is, I guess, my last best hope. I don't want to take the course again after I PAID for and passed the class...

[Warrior_of_god]

Call the president of the Uni or if they have some sort of HR department, call that.

[AtheistMommy]

Last weekend I marched with my class at the graduation ceremony. Well, long story short, I cannot get my degree until my final course(which I took last semester) has been graded. It has been TWO weeks since I took my final exam in the class I am refering to. To make a long story short, out of four classes, this ONE dumb fuck professor has NOT graded my class yet! I have checked online every single day and there is NOTHING.

 

I called the admissions office of the school, left several messages on his voice mail(because he NEVER answers his office phone), and I have recently left a message with the dean of the department. I honestly cannot believe this is happening, and it is really infuriating.

 

My former professor is a 66-year-old fucker egg who would forget his head at home if it were not attached to his body. This is why old @$$ people should NOT be teaching at University. If you can't remember what you said to me 30 seconds ago then you should be FORCED into retirement.

His class was total colossal bullshit waste of time. All he did was regale us with tales of his debaucherous youth(when he smoked weed, had tons of sex, and protested), and sexually harass the female students.

He never kept up with his grades and one class period he would compliment you on your work and the next day he would forget you were even in his class to begin with. Well, he told me I made an A in the course...Yet, here I am WAITING for my grade to be posted so I can OFFICIALLY graduate. I can't do jack shit until I have my credit.

 

What can I do? can I sue the university or something? I called the dean and that is, I guess, my last best hope. I don't want to take the course again after I PAID for and passed the class...

 

I suggest making the issue more public before you go with something as drastic as attempting to sue them. Have you talked to any other well respected professors? How about your academic advisor? Do you know of any other classmates who have had this same problem with him? If so, did they get their problem solved? If not, how about a nice exposé on him in the school paper.

[Thranil]

have you tried the office of the ombudsman at the university? They're supposed to be there to help with issues like this.

[godlessgrrl]

I'd probably try to figure out what the chain of command is at the school, and follow that.

 

So if the prof doesn't respond after X number of prods (which he hasn't), I'd call the dean. If the dean hasn't responded by X number of prods (which it sounds like he either hasn't, or will run out of chances soon), then go over the dean's head - who does the dean work for? It's bound to be some administrative department or other - Instructional Services, or Admissions, or whoever. Every college titles it a different way, but even deans have a boss - somebody has to hire them.

 

So I'd find out who it is, and then keep going up the chain of command. I'd follow every email with a voicemail and/or phone call, sent at the same time, with the message, "I've also left this message <insert location>". And I'd probably say something - politely - along the lines of: "If I do not hear from you by X date, I will follow up with <your immediate superior>." I'd give everybody a few days - maybe up to a week - to respond, before moving on to the next level. Sometimes these things take time, even though they shouldn't.

 

And I'd probably try to utilize the Ombudsman's office, if the school has one, before going higher up - because they're supposed to handle conflict resolution. Not every school has such an office though.

 

No college with its shit together will let a problem like that get as far as the president's office. At least, they shouldn't. If it does make the president's office, and the president is a conscientious individual, they'll be pissed off that it got that far, and heads lower down will roll bigtime.

 

If I got no satisfaction with the president's office, then I'd probably head to the state Board of Education, and possibly CC the State Attorney General. Colleges are required to comply with state regulations of all kinds, and timely grading may be one of them. Additionally, I might well contact whatever board or organization accredits the school. Schools don't like it when the gov and the accrediting bodies are breathing down their neck about noncompliance.

 

I'd also suggest keeping records of everything - every phone call (use phone records if necessary), every email (CC to other deans, or department heads, etc.), every snail mail letter, and so on. I'd probably also make my case more explicit the higher up I go - if for some reason it should reach, say, the state BoE, I'd probably put together a packet of my records and clearly spell out my frustration that something that's really so simple should have had to go before a statewide governing body because of the negligence of the school in question.

 

But then, that's what I'd do. So your mileage may vary.

 

Good luck in any case, and keep us posted.

[LosingMyReligion]

Thanks guys! I went up to my campus today and got with his Administrative assistant. She guaranteed me this problem would be fixed today...

So I should know, atleast by tommorrow, what my grade is.

[Mongo]

Thanks guys! I went up to my campus today and got with his Administrative assistant. She guaranteed me this problem would be fixed today...

So I should know, atleast by tommorrow, what my grade is.

 

 

Kudos! Ya done good.

 

I was suprised by the other answers. There are some very aggressive people out there.

 

As someone who is capable of barking, I am also aware that too much aggression can trigger the vengence reaction which then, if you are dedicated to the fight, will drag your ass down a long corridor of quibbling, letters and possibly fees. "Justice" costs; what you want is favoritism which you can get by creating sympathy. You really don't want him to arbitrarily flunk you.

 

You stand a good chance of getting what you want if the dork could potentially be embarrassed over his/her lax habits but still has a chance to save face.

 

Only when the bugger has nothing to lose or you stand losing a lot by being nice, should you go ballistic on the administration.

 

Lacking large breasts, blonde hair and a giggly voice, it's the best you can do unless the guy behind the counter is gay.

 

Mongo

[Grandpa Harley]

Best tutor I ever had was a guy in his 70s... ex-copper miner in the Raj, with around 5 Ph.Ds to his name, and a passion for huge motor bikes (Classic British TT racers to be exact) He broke his pelvis on coming off one on a race track while I was studying Theoretical Computing with him. He rebuilt the beast. I hear he died in his late 80s, having hit an ice patch on one of his less powerful beasts and losing an argument with a tree... Giant of a man with a ZZ-Top style beard, and a taste for navy cut pipe tobacco. He was very seldom bored, or boring...

[Piprus]

I've been where you are, LMR.

 

IMO, some college profs get their position as an opportunity to really, truly, be a teacher. Others get it as an endpoint in their lives. Many fall somewhere in between. Translation: I've had really good professors, and I've had shitty ones. Issue: I paid the same tuition for both. Do I have a remedy? Maybe. But again, maybe the fight isn't worth it when the path before you seems more important. Your decision, LMR...is it worth the investment, or are there bigger fish to fry in the world ahead of you.

 

In any event, congratulations on your achievement, and best wishes for your future.

[R. S. Martin]

I guess you would have your report by now. I assume you passed?

 

I've seen cases where profs had to be quick about grading graduating students but because I wasn't graduating I had to wait much longer for my grades.

 

I think you're right, Mongo, about not being too aggressive too early in the process. Kurari said to give each level a week or so before going higher. She also indicated that only in very worst case scenarios should it be necessary even to get to the level of school president. If a week is allowed for each level, then the grade should be in long before it ever reaches high administrative levels, even if the prof is several weeks late. Well, in a very tiny school it wouldn't take as long as in a larger school.

 

Sometimes just knowing the system and how to work it is helpful. Makes me feel less vulnerable when I know where to go for help in the very off-chance that it is necessary.

[R. S. Martin]

Another thing I find helps move a system, whether school or business or whatever, is to let them know that there will be major consequences for your life if they are slow. This is probably not needed for your situation at the moment but maybe it helps someone. Let's say you have a job offer that depends on your grades. Let people such as your prof's assistent know that you absolutely need your grade by a certain day and that if you don't have it you will be by-passed for the job.

 

Sometimes it's okay saying stuff to an assistent that one would never dare say to the prof. Just being heard can help relieve the pressure. The assistent will then tell the prof something along the lines of, "So-and-so is really anxious for his grades. Can you possibly get them to me by tomorrow night so I can give them to him? He has a job offer that depends on his grades."

 

One priority of schools is that their graduates get work. It's their selling point--it's the one thing that justifies post-secondary education. If schools want to continue operation they have to do what they can at the very least not to hinder their graduates from getting into the work force. Other systems have similar "selling points" that can be used to hurry them up when needed. Being a person with a good track record also helps get systems (or the people in it) to move a bit faster, or maybe work late one night.

[R. S. Martin]

I've been where you are, LMR.

 

IMO, some college profs get their position as an opportunity to really, truly, be a teacher. Others get it as an endpoint in their lives. Many fall somewhere in between. Translation: I've had really good professors, and I've had shitty ones. Issue: I paid the same tuition for both.

 

This is where understanding the system has a benefit. Both those profs were probably accountable to the same system or school. Think of it in those terms. Then you are not paying the nasty prof but you are paying the school to teach you a certain skill or set of information. If they keep nasty teachers then they will be in trouble. It doesn't change the situation but it helps me feel less vulnerable. And that can have an impact on how well I deal with it.

 

Students do have a voice; that is the purpose for the course evaluations at the end of each semester. Not that I ever feel like my evaluation is going to make a difference. But I've been around profs enough to know that course evaluations are taken seriously by the schools, esp. by those people who are responsible for the hiring and firing of teachers.

 

For example, I dropped a certain course because I had serious problems with the prof. I was also taking a course with another prof, whom I trusted with my frustrations about the other guy. It so happened that the prof I had problems with was a new faculty member who was in his first semester at that school. And the prof I vented to had been responsible for hiring him. So he wanted to know exactly what my problem had been. He told me the student reports at this person's former school had been good. This happened the best part of a decade ago and the guy's still at that school so I guess it was just me not clicking with him. However, that tells me that student evaluations are taken seriously by schools.

 

I have also had the opportunity to see one of my favourite profs, a most friendly middle-aged woman, stand outside the classroom while the evaluations were being written. I had finished mine and was heading off to the washroom while the rest of the class were finishing up theirs. Outside the door I found the prof huddled in fear of the outcome. I asked if it's Judgement Day and she said it feels like it. So far as I know she's still there so I guess she passed.

 

I don't know if you have student course evaluations in American schools but here they are part of the normal operation of a school. And those incidents tell me that they are taken seriously, esp. regarding new tenure-track professors. Professors who care about their work also use the evaluations as a guide to teaching the course in the future; if many students complained about a certain aspect of their teaching method, they would know to try something new next time they are teaching that course.

[Flyby Stardancer]

Yep, there's course evaluations at the end of every semester here too. Ugh. I hate filling them out, even though my school takes them seriously (not every school does, though).