Hilarious exchange between a prof and a student
There’s so much I like about this prof’s response to a student email:
Prof. Galloway,
I would like to discuss a matter with you that bothered me. Yesterday evening I entered your 6pm Brand Strategy class approximately 1 hour late. As I entered the room, you quickly dismissed me, saying that I would need to leave and come back to the next class. After speaking with several students who are taking your class, they explained that you have a policy stating that students who arrive more than 15 minutes late will not be admitted to class.
As of yesterday evening, I was interested in three different Monday night classes that all occurred simultaneously. In order to decide which class to select, my plan for the evening was to sample all three and see which one I like most. Since I had never taken your class, I was unaware of your class policy. I was disappointed that you dismissed me from class considering (1) there is no way I could have been aware of your policy and (2) considering that it was the first day of evening classes and I arrived 1 hour late (not a few minutes), it was more probable that my tardiness was due to my desire to sample different classes rather than sheer complacency.
I have already registered for another class but I just wanted to be open and provide my opinion on the matter.
Regards,
xxxx—
xxxx
MBA 2010 Candidate
NYU Stern School of Business
xxxx.nyu.edu
xxx-xxx-xxxxThe Reply:
—— Forwarded Message ——-
From: scott@stern.nyu.edu
To: “xxxx”
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 9:34:02 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Brand Strategy Feedbackxxxx:
Thanks for the feedback. I, too, would like to offer some feedback.
Just so I’ve got this straight…you started in one class, left 15-20 minutes into it (stood up, walked out mid-lecture), went to another class (walked in 20 minutes late), left that class (again, presumably, in the middle of the lecture), and then came to my class. At that point (walking in an hour late) I asked you to come to the next class which “bothered” you.
Correct?
You state that, having not taken my class, it would be impossible to know our policy of not allowing people to walk in an hour late. Most risk analysis offers that in the face of substantial uncertainty, you opt for the more conservative path or hedge your bet (e.g., do not show up an hour late until you know the professor has an explicit policy for tolerating disrespectful behavior, check with the TA before class, etc.). I hope the lottery winner that is your recently crowned Monday evening Professor is teaching Judgement and Decision Making or Critical Thinking.
In addition, your logic effectively means you cannot be held accountable for any code of conduct before taking a class. For the record, we also have no stated policy against bursting into show tunes in the middle of class, urinating on desks or taking that revolutionary hair removal system for a spin. However, xxxx, there is a baseline level of decorum (i.e., manners) that we expect of grown men and women who the admissions department have deemed tomorrow’s business leaders.
xxxx, let me be more serious for a moment. I do not know you, will not know you and have no real affinity or animosity for you. You are an anonymous student who is now regretting the send button on his laptop. It’s with this context I hope you register pause…REAL pause xxxx and take to heart what I am about to tell you:
xxxx, get your shit together.
Getting a good job, working long hours, keeping your skills relevant, navigating the politics of an organization, finding a live/work balance…these are all really hard, xxxx. In contrast, respecting institutions, having manners, demonstrating a level of humility…these are all (relatively) easy. Get the easy stuff right xxxx. In and of themselves they will not make you successful. However, not possessing them will hold you back and you will not achieve your potential which, by virtue of you being admitted to Stern, you must have in spades. It’s not too late xxxx…
Again, thanks for the feedback.
Professor Galloway
I’ve sent a few of those — although they’ve been less smarmy and free of vulgarity. Well done, Professor Galloway.
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My favorite line:
I hope the lottery winner that is your recently crowned Monday evening Professor is teaching Judgement and Decision Making or Critical Thinking.
Wow. Good come back! But was that "student" serious? I'm embarassed for that person.
Rather sad that it had to be sent.
I actually read the exchange to some students, with the caveat: Galloway IS kind of a d*ck…
Smarm and vulgarity have their place.Professor Galloway, 1; the endlessly-rationalized, bottomlessly-narcissistic self-absorption of the modern twenty-something, 0.Bravo, Professor.
Gee, I dunno. I kinda think the kid has a point, though he's barking up the wrong tree. At Marlboro College, where my oldest is enrolled, the entire first week is devoted to allowing students to sample the various classes they'd like to take to see what would be a "best fit." After that first week, they choose and everyone's happy. The student doesn't get saddled with a professor (as I did) who stands up at the front of the room and drones on in a manner that would put a hyperactive Jack Russell Terrier in a coma, and the professor doesn't get saddled with a student who realizes too late that the class is (for whatever reason) not going to meet his or her needs as a learner.It's a policy that's full of WIN, with no downside (except possibly for those professors whose instructional skills are so lackluster that no student ever chooses to register for their classes — that has a certain Darwinian beauty all its own, IMO). I say these things as a professional educator who is, frankly, sick and tired of the endlessly perpetuated notion that subject matter expertise is sufficient — that there is no real skill to teaching and that anyone can do it. It's simply not true, and I think students are *right* to want to know who and what their mountain of student debt is buying them.
David — that's interesting! How do you know Prof. Galloway?
As enjoyable as I know that response was for the professor to send, and for other professors to read, he did not exactly take the high road. As I said earlier, the kid has a legitimate point — he's thinking outside of the box and got smacked for being honest about it, and that's unfortunate. Rather than setting his ego aside and saying, "Is there anything I can learn from this person and this situation," the professor got bent out of shape and framed the student's arrival as an affront and an insult when, as the student tried to point out, it was intended to be no such thing.Maybe NYU — and much of the rest of entrenched Academia — could learn a thing or two from the way a small, independent liberal arts college like Marlboro does things. As someone who is now up to my eyeballs in grad. school debt, I think there's a lot to be said for knowing in advance that I'm going to get what I pay for. I was very, VERY lucky in that, for the most part, I had excellent professors and feel I got my money's worth in every class I took at Champlain.But let me put it another way that may make my point better…We get to test drive cars before we buy them don't we? No dealership on the planet says, "You want a GM car. Here. This is the GM car you will drive. Give me your $30K. If you don't like the car we gave you, it is not our problem. You may give it back to us, but we will not refund your money."You may get a shiny new Escalade with all the bells and whistles (that's a professor like our dear Matt here), or you may get the rusted out, beat up, muffler-dragging-on-the-ground 1971 Chevy Nova.Wouldn't everyone here, including Professor Galloway, like to have a ~little~ more say than that before registering for a class and committing that kind of money, time, and energy to it?
LOL. I am not to familiar with the practice of “sampling classes” in my day you chose a path and took the classes necessary to reach your goal, making the most of variables such as schedule and the teaching style of the professor. Class was not about having a good time, an easy schedule or some similarly inane detail. So yes, I do see the Processors point, he is protecting the rest of his class from the unnecessary distraction of sightseers. Oh the other hand, while I feel his frustration, I also think that it was unnecessary and a pity that the Professor reduced himself to the students level with his sarcastic reply.
Good conversation. I'm not sure I agree with Patty — there's lots of things in life you don't get to test drive. I think college should prepare you for the real world — and in the real-world we must accept that some bosses/co-workers/situations may not be to our liking. I see it as a lesson toward acceptance. Even if I were to assume your argument that students should be able to "test drive" their profs, the proper way to do it would be to make the professor aware ahead of time and ask for permission to come in late. And, by the way, http://www.ratemyprofessors.com is a great tool toward this end.
Hi Matt
What do you think of the Marlboro model where students (and professors!) have an entire week on the front end dedicated exclusively to letting students sample classes though? Sure, there are a lot of things in life we don't get to test drive…just not many that *I* can think of that cost as much as a college education does, not only in $$$ but in time and energy invested.While I appreciate your insight that this could be a lesson in acceptance, I think I've gotten those lessons plenty of other places, and I didn't need to *pay* to get them. 
When I pay for something, I guess I'd like to be able to know that what I'm buying is of acceptable quality.
I am just as amazed with people who routinely run 25 minutes late to church and are insistent about doing the offeratory blessing because they like to create ad hoc prayers.