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Students complain about professor absenteeism Print E-mail
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Written by Violina Krasteva and Boyan Simeonov   
Sunday, 23 November 2008 20:06
emptyclasses_final
Illustration by Lum Ceku

 

Professor absenteeism was discussed at the SG meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The SG has received six e-mails with student concerns regarding the absences of political science professor Katja Michalak as well as verbal complaints regarding the absences of economics professor Nadeem Naqvi, SG President Vasile Valcov said.

SG Senator Zikica Pagovski was appointed as a mediator in resolving the problem with student complaints directed to Michalak. "So far I have had a meeting with one student and with the professor herself, and we ultimately managed to find a solution to the concerns that the student had expressed." Pagovski did not go into further detail about the solution.

"I personally have not received any complaints from students regarding my classes, and I have issued a mid-semester survey about student satisfaction," Michalak said. She added she has never received complaints from her surveys. "I have not been skipping classes. I was sick for two classes and I have scheduled for make-ups."
Sophomore Maria Lambova, who is in Michalak's Public Policy Analysis class, said if Michalak misses classes, she schedules make-up sessions, where she always takes attendance.

SG Senator Daniyar Abenov is currently taking advanced microeconomics with Naqvi and said he has spoken to him about student concerns regarding the absences. "So far we have had four classes canceled with prior notice and two without. Therefore, I asked him to schedule make-ups for those two classes, and he agreed." According to the Faculty Handbook, "the faculty member should arrange to make-up or have missed classes covered."

Naqvi denied receiving any complaints directly from students regarding his classes or any absences.

The initial intention of the SG was to form a task force to deal with professor absenteeism, which is the usual procedure in such cases. During the meeting on Wednesday, senators faced the reluctance of Dean of Faculty Steve Sullivan to engage in public evaluation of professors.

"I'm not a believer in petitions or in people power. I'd rather talk to students personally than to the SG," Sullivan said. "If a complaint comes to me through the SG, then it falls into the category ‘I heard that...' and doesn't present any evidence."
"Students don't want to complain to professors because they are afraid of any form of retaliation from the latter that might affect their grade, so they send messages to the SG," Abenov said.

However, Sullivan said the easiest way to resolve any issues between a student and a professor is if the student contacts the professor directly. In case the student is reluctant to talk to the professor in person, he or she can go to Sullivan and report the facts. "Then I try to contact the professor and hear his or her version of the facts." The SG is currently encouraging students who have classes with professors that tend to miss them to talk to the professors in person, Valcov said.

"From a purely economic point of view when students pay tuition and the professor skips classes, the students don't get proper return on their investment," Abenov said.

Comments

avatar Joro
0
 
 
The upper comment is bugged, but the "Student" is right - here is the link to the Defacto materials, please see the comments below the article about Nadeem Naqvi... It is such a pity...

http://www.defactobg.com/prosepoint/story/professor-disru pts-presentatio n
Friday 15 January 2010, 12:01
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