It’s your right to know

It’s always nice to see a note outside the classroom door reading, “class canceled.” It’s not a huge secret that most students and teachers don’t want to be in a stuffy classroom for an hour or so, especially when it is so nice outside. When class is canceled it is always a relief and considered a much needed break.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find out if our classes were canceled before we made the commitment to actually walk across campus to the classroom? It’s great to see the note posted outside the door, but think of the events you miss or the group of friends you had to leave in order to see that note. A decent amount of time would be saved if students were made aware of the cancellation before they left for class. Students taking those pesky classes during lunch and dinner hours would benefit from an advance cancellation system. They could get a decent meal when they wanted to, rather than rushing before class or suffering until afterward — everyone knows it is torture to sit through a lecture on an empty stomach.
People who live off-campus wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of finding a parking place, and people who like to sleep in until the last possible minute wouldn’t have to roll out of bed and walk all the way to their class. Instead, these people could just walk to their computer, log on and check their Bobcat account, if messages about cancellations were sent there.
If professors had a secure way of getting the message to all of their students, it would lessen confusion between both the teacher and the student. There have been many times when the teacher was late for some reason, and students sit there and wait because they don’t know if the class is in fact canceled or if the teacher is only tardy. Also, by providing a way to post cancellations in advance, there would be no reason for others to announce false cancellations. In the past, a prankster has written on the board, “class is canceled,” when in fact it was not, leading to confusion between the teacher and students.
Teachers could e-mail students at least an hour in advance; that way students could make other plans during their class time. If the professor knew even further in advance, they could post their cancellation on a designated sheet that could be posted on the web. If the students cared enough, they could check whenever they felt “lucky.” Who wouldn’t want to save a few minutes of free time?

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 16 2004. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry