College professors who cancel classes before Thanksgiving - RANT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you on this one. DD is freshman and every single one of her classes was cancelled on M,T, & W. They think they are doing a favor for the out of state kids, but they are not. I rebooked a new flight at a $200 change fee plus the flight cost almost $100 more to fly her home last Friday so she did not have to sit in largely empty dorm for 5 days with nothing to do.

+1. Same at an in-state university. nonrefundable tickets for later dates, so had to scramble at last minute when professors cancelled to make arrangements not in sync with the university calendar. So now child can return earlier but by then all the train seats were taken. We ended up driving down and back because everything else was booked.

I don't understand this. When my professors did this when I was in College, I always found friends, activities, or homework to do until my originally scheduled departure time.

I mean, who are these kids who can't occupy their time without a two-hour scheduled class? I'm seriously confused

me too!! I keep reading the post again thinking I missed something. So bizarre! If this is an issue I cannot imagine how insanely stupid the rest of these peoples lives will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in college, we all lied to our parents about when we were done so we could go out one more night before going home.

Are you sure your kids really want those tickets changed?

Thank you, yes! Most of us took that extra time to do stuff we wanted to do before we had to go home and deal with parents and family and that nonsense.

+1 I know that's what I did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

At least some do. We had my sisters college friend come home with her one year because she couldn’t stay in the dorm but it was too far for her to travel home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

My college kept dorms open for Thanksgiving and Easter, but there was no meal service. This sucked if you had no family to go home to or you lived too far away/lacked the funds to travel. Res Life always made sure international students were hosted by local students or professors, but as a poor kid, I had to smuggle food out every year before Good Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in college, we all lied to our parents about when we were done so we could go out one more night before going home.

Are you sure your kids really want those tickets changed?

Thank you, yes! Most of us took that extra time to do stuff we wanted to do before we had to go home and deal with parents and family and that nonsense.

+1 I know that's what I did.

Yep. We always felt sorry for the ones who were picked up right after their last class ended or had to hustle for trains/buses/flights right away. There was something really nice about enjoying your campus for a day and night without any classes or meetings to go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

My college kept dorms open for Thanksgiving and Easter, but there was no meal service. This sucked if you had no family to go home to or you lived too far away/lacked the funds to travel. Res Life always made sure international students were hosted by local students or professors, but as a poor kid, I had to smuggle food out every year before Good Friday.

These days, Uber Eats and other delivery services are shuttling food to college dorms every day. No one is up a creek without food over a break anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

My college kept dorms open for Thanksgiving and Easter, but there was no meal service. This sucked if you had no family to go home to or you lived too far away/lacked the funds to travel. Res Life always made sure international students were hosted by local students or professors, but as a poor kid, I had to smuggle food out every year before Good Friday.

These days, Uber Eats and other delivery services are shuttling food to college dorms every day. No one is up a creek without food over a break anymore.

It is nice to have money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, students can decide to not show up and let the chips fall where they may.

Not to show up where?

I'm a bit perplexed by some of the posts:

"lying to the parents to stay a bit longer at school" - why would my kid lie when he could easily say "Mom, I'd like to stay a day before heading home" and I would say "sure thing"? I have no doubt that my son keeps a good chunk of his life private; why would I make him lie about silly stuff.

"find something to amuse themselves for a day" - of course my kid could do that quite happily (and he did), but he actually wanted to come home before midday on Thursday.

"worried about kids who can't..." - who is worried?

Really, this is a post about scheduling and how annoying it is when ones time and money is not respected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you on this one. DD is freshman and every single one of her classes was cancelled on M,T, & W. They think they are doing a favor for the out of state kids, but they are not. I rebooked a new flight at a $200 change fee plus the flight cost almost $100 more to fly her home last Friday so she did not have to sit in largely empty dorm for 5 days with nothing to do.

+1. Same at an in-state university. nonrefundable tickets for later dates, so had to scramble at last minute when professors cancelled to make arrangements not in sync with the university calendar. So now child can return earlier but by then all the train seats were taken. We ended up driving down and back because everything else was booked.

I don't understand this. When my professors did this when I was in College, I always found friends, activities, or homework to do until my originally scheduled departure time.

I mean, who are these kids who can't occupy their time without a two-hour scheduled class? I'm seriously confused

The poster isn't worried about her kid's ability to survive this, but perhaps her kid wanted to come home and see her friends and family? Not all kids have an adversarial relationship with their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you on this one. DD is freshman and every single one of her classes was cancelled on M,T, & W. They think they are doing a favor for the out of state kids, but they are not. I rebooked a new flight at a $200 change fee plus the flight cost almost $100 more to fly her home last Friday so she did not have to sit in largely empty dorm for 5 days with nothing to do.

+1. Same at an in-state university. nonrefundable tickets for later dates, so had to scramble at last minute when professors cancelled to make arrangements not in sync with the university calendar. So now child can return earlier but by then all the train seats were taken. We ended up driving down and back because everything else was booked.

I don't understand this. When my professors did this when I was in College, I always found friends, activities, or homework to do until my originally scheduled departure time.

I mean, who are these kids who can't occupy their time without a two-hour scheduled class? I'm seriously confused

The poster isn't worried about her kid's ability to survive this, but perhaps her kid wanted to come home and see her friends and family? Not all kids have an adversarial relationship with their parents.

You don’t have to have an adversarial relationship with your parents to cope with waiting a few more days to go home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, students can decide to not show up and let the chips fall where they may.

Huh? Why would he want to do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, students can decide to not show up and let the chips fall where they may.

Not to show up where?

I'm a bit perplexed by some of the posts:

"lying to the parents to stay a bit longer at school" - why would my kid lie when he could easily say "Mom, I'd like to stay a day before heading home" and I would say "sure thing"? I have no doubt that my son keeps a good chunk of his life private; why would I make him lie about silly stuff.

"find something to amuse themselves for a day" - of course my kid could do that quite happily (and he did), but he actually wanted to come home before midday on Thursday.

"worried about kids who can't..." - who is worried?

Really, this is a post about scheduling and how annoying it is when ones time and money is not respected.

You are sincerely hyperbolic. Your kid can't figure out what to do with some free time, YOUR kid's problem. No one says you have to scramble to buy Pumpkin new tickets.

If a class is doing exceptionally well schedule wise, then a cancellation is a gift to most students who will enjoy and use the free time.

[Anonymous]

Also, tell your kid welcome to the real world. No one is under any obligation to schedule things around what your kid would like to do. If he wanted to come home he could have missed class.

I teach University and I rarely cancel. But if I do, I won't know ahead of time because I can't predict how well my class will be doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a professor at UMd. Teachervone vlass this semester that is on Tues and Thurs evenings at 7.

He planned on teaching but university shut down dorms at 7 pm. Rather than asking kids to bring luggage etc to class, and try to leave from there at 830, he cancelled.

They shut down the dorms for Thanksgiving and kicked everyone out? Is every student there within driving distance?

I was wondering the same thing. Do the colleges actually kick the kids out for a 4 day weekend?

My college kept dorms open for Thanksgiving and Easter, but there was no meal service. This sucked if you had no family to go home to or you lived too far away/lacked the funds to travel. Res Life always made sure international students were hosted by local students or professors, but as a poor kid, I had to smuggle food out every year before Good Friday.

These days, Uber Eats and other delivery services are shuttling food to college dorms every day. No one is up a creek without food over a break anymore.

It is nice to have money.

Yeah, even if UberEats has existed, I still would have been hungry if I hadn’t smuggled food out of the cafeteria. I was dependent financially on the meal plan. I was better off than the students selling plasma to eat, but still.