As Anand Giridharadas,@@http://anand.ly/@@ prominent New York Times columnist and established author, wrapped up his presentation at last week’s Ruhl Lecture@@http://www.kval.com/about/calendar/89748787.html@@ in the EMU Ballroom, he faced something that almost every University professor experiences near the end of lectures — a rapidly emptying room.
Before Giridharadas could even take questions from those in attendance, more than half of the students in the room slammed notebooks, zipped backpacks and began chattering as they exited the room in a wave of disruption. This is just one example of the disrespect that professors and presenters all over campus deal with.
It is a problem that needs to stop but never will.
It’s understandable that students can get a little anxious to leave class at the end of a long lecture, especially these days when the sun is shining. Others may have another class to get to across campus and want to get a head start on the hike. Or some are simply hungry or want to meet friends after class, so they try to clear out as quickly as possible.
However, if the professor is still at the head of the class trying to explain a subject or an assignment, there is no excuse for shoving your binders in your backpack and waiting for the word to bolt from class. Some students throw all of their materials in their bag and keep their hands on the table as if they are in the starting blocks for the 100-meter dash at Hayward Field, and that’s with five minutes left in class.
No matter where your next class is, you have at least 10 minutes to get there. It is possible to walk from Agate Hall to Lillis in 10 minutes, and there are few farther walks from class to class on campus.@@checked on interactive map@@ Even if you can’t make it on time, as long as your teacher knows you have a long walk they won’t mark you late.
Your friends, your meal, and the sunshine will all still be around if you wait the extra five minutes of class to let the teacher finish the lesson.
But the issue is not just with trying to leave early for class. The problem of disrespect to professors stems from texting and the use of social media to flat out falling asleep in class.
I understand that people want to stay connected with the outside world when having to sit through a class. I want to see what LaMichael James@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=LaMichael+James@@ is tweeting about “Swamp People” just as much as anyone else. But if you made a commitment to be in a class for 50 minutes, the Twitterverse@@https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23twitterverse@@ can wait. Whatever gossip your friend wants to text about will still be relevant news after the teacher lets you go for the day.
It is not difficult to give a professor the attention they deserve for an hour or two a day. As students we pay a lot of money to go to classes, so we might as well get everything we can out if it.
Courtney Thorsson,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Courtney+Thorsson@@ an English professor specializing in African American literature, says that maximizing class time is vital in her classes.
“Given the brevity of a term in the quarter system and the fact that my class is, for many students, the only course in which they will read African American literature, I hate for them to lose even five minutes of that work,” Thorsson said.
Professors put in a lot of time and energy putting together lesson plans and preparing to teach classes. They have studied their respective fields for years and are experts at what they do. If they didn’t feel that the information they were giving at the end of class was important, they wouldn’t be teaching it.
Even if you have somewhere important to be, some students actually want to listen to what the professor or presenter has to say. Be respectful to other students and to professors.
So slow down. It doesn’t matter what you have to do after class. It can wait.