The Upstate Life

Monday, April 13, 2009

Next Class: Passover Punishment

So this is just ridiculous. As you may or may not know, Passover kicked off last Wednesday and I had plans to head home to celebrate the holiday with my family in Upstate New York. Unfortunately, not only did I miss class that night, but I also missed the first quiz since the course just started two weeks ago.

I emailed the professor eight days ago informing him that I would unable to attend class due to religious reasons and inquired when I would be able to make the session up. Below is his reply:

Thanks for letting me know. I would like you to do two things to make up for the missed class (in addition to doing the required readings):

1) Prepare a 3-page case analysis (single-spaced) report answering the questions for the case study. Can you send it to me by Wednesday, April 8?

2) Take the quiz on April 15th at 6:00 p.m. in my office

Please let me know if you will be able to do both these things.

Wait, so let me get this straight. You want me to not only makeup the quiz (which is entirely feasible), but also write a three page, SINGLE-SPACED paper because I’m unable to attend class so that I can spend the forthcoming Jewish holiday with my family? Are you fucking serious? And you wanted it by the next day???

But wait, it gets even better. First off, I immediately asked for an extension since it would’ve been near-impossible to put together the paper let alone read the case in time as I have another class on Monday evenings, and, oh yeah, I work full-time.

I also inquired as to why I needed to submit a three page write-up (which is really six pages since I cannot recall the last time I had to compose an assignment single-spaced) in addition to one of two case studies required as stated in the course’s syllabus. His reply?

Yes, you can submit the case analysis by Sunday evening. This is in lieu of missing the class on 8th so that you don't lose out on the participation grade. The individual case report on either of the required two is still needed.

So there you have it. Apparently every other student contributes at least three pages of discussion during class, even though half of them never say a fucking word.

I was finally able to get him down to a page and a half with an extra day extension after a few more email exchanges, but of course I'm livid and will be taking the appropriate actions to report this.

After conducting some research, this appears to be a direct violation of Section III-5.10(A) in the Consolidated USMH and UM Policies and Procedures Manual - University of Maryland, College Park Policies and Procedures Concerning Academic Assignments on Dates of Religious Observances:

A. Policy
It is the policy of UMP that students not be penalized any way for participation in religious observances. Students shall be allowed, whenever practicable, to make academic assignments that are missed due to such absences. It is the student's responsibility to contact the instructor for each course in which work is missed, and make arrangements for make-up work or examinations.

The smart thing to do would be to contact the Department Chairperson as stated in the document instead of blogging about it, but what fun would that be? Either way, this dude will eventually be the recipient of a gefilte fish jar (with extra gel, 'natch) smashed across his windshield.

Posted by Brett at 7:00 PM |