15 min. rule: fact or fiction?

If your professor is more than 15 minutes late arriving to your class, does that mean you can leave without suffering any penalties?

There have been rumors circulating around college campuses everywhere for years about the validity of this rule. However, it really comes right down to your specific school’s policies. At GC&SU, the so-called 15-minute rule is much more of a legend than an actual rule.

Dr. Beth Rushing, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, explained that the rule is simply a myth and that students can be penalized, depending on the professor’s own attendance policy.

“Everyone thinks it exists! I remember when I was an undergraduate, like 150 years ago, we all thought it was true, too,” Rushing said, laughing. “I think it is simply courtesy to wait for your professor because I mean they could be dealing with a last minute emergency with a student. But professors owe it to the students too to make good use of their time. If I was 20 minutes late, I wouldn’t have thought that the students would wait. I think that if we are to expect it of students, then it should also be expected of the faculty.”

Versions of this legend are circulated on campuses all over the country, and one characteristic of the legend is that it changes and varies depending on its particular location of origin. One variant used by college students says students must add five minutes per degree of the professor. For example, one waits fifteen minutes for a professor who has a Ph.D but only 10 minutes if the professor has a master’s degree.

Ana Col?n-Olivieri, a junior exercise science major, doesn’t want to test the rule.

“I disregard (the 15-minute rule). I always stay at class until an official comes by the class and tells me otherwise. There is always that teacher that shows up with like 10 minutes left and then penalizes those who left before he or she got there,” Col?n-Olivieri said. “Its kind of like an urban legend because you really don’t know if its true or not, so it’s better to just stick around and play it safe.”

Other students hold the opposite opinion. Junior Cristin Athans, a mass communications major, feels that if she has to be there on time, then so does the teacher. “If students are expected to be on time, I think that it is only right for the professors to be on time as well,” Athans said. “I have walked out on a class before, when the professor hadn’t gotten there and it was 20 minutes after the class had begun. And it was the first day of class too!”

In essence, the 15-minute rule is a legend. It is up to the student to decide whether or not to abide by this rule. However, students should keep in mind that if they leave, it is either their parents’ or their own hard earned money that is going to waste if the teacher shows.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 11 2005. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry