On a rainy Tuesday, I left home for my 9 a.m. class with a warm coat and umbrella in tow. I joined the crowds of hooded and self-sheltered students shuffling from over-hang to covered hallway on the journey from the parking structure to my communication class in the Erhart Agriculture building.
On Monday, the same class had been promptly informed that our professor was sick and although there was some complaining about the lack of e-mail notification, we went on with our day. Imagine the shock of the class when we sat in the same classroom, damp from the inclement weather, until 9:20 on Tuesday morning without any such notice from the professor or the communication department as to whether the class was going to be canceled for the second day in a row. One student actually had to call the department’s office to ask whether the professor was coming or not.
Had this been any other day, I would have probably just let it go, grabbed an iced coffee and read the Mustang Daily as usual. The break would have been duly welcomed. But as I walked away from the Erhart Agriculture building in the rain without a single thing to do until my next class at 11, I got angry.
How hard is it to send out an e-mail to let your students know that class is canceled? In my experience, just three or four words would have gotten the job done: “Class canceled Tuesday.” Then push send. To throw in a pop-culture reference, “It’s so simple, even a caveman could do it.” There is no need to even sign the email, because seeing the professor’s e-mail address would be enough.
With the technology that we have at our fingertips, it’s ridiculous that students should have to accept that some professors simply “don’t use e-mail” as a form of communication, and especially ironic coming from a communication professor. In fact, it’s downright unacceptable.
To be fair, I did receive an e-mail from someone in the communication department — at 9:57 a.m., three minutes before the class in question would have let out anyway— informing us that the class we had already dispersed from was indeed canceled. Thanks so much for the after-the-fact consideration.
Let’s get real, Cal Poly. With faculty furlough days already in play, students are already paying more money for less class time. The next step might be for students to start billing professors for extra canceled classes. It’s only fair if they cannot find a spare two minutes to notify their students of an unexpected absence in advance.
Next time, just get out of bed and send an e-mail. It sucks that you’re sick, but it’s plain common courtesy.
Cassandra Keyse is a journalism senior and Mustang Daily arts editor.