By Danny Alarjawi ’28
Staff Writer
Classes should be taught as presented in the syllabus during the add/drop period. College students have a wide selection of classes they have to choose between and many priorities. An accurate class syllabus during add/drop is essential in helping students make the choices best fit for them. Because of this, a professor should be committed to delivering their class as promised throughout the semester. Different class dynamics, snowdays, sickness and other factors can get in the way, but it’s the professor's responsibility to manage the class and make sure to teach things as planned. At the very least, professors should teach the class’s most essential components during the course.
One of my favorite things about Mount Holyoke has been its professors, so I find it disappointing that important units have been cut out of courses at the last minute because of some professors’ lack of planning. Last semester I took social psychology — PSYCH-210 — a class I’ve been waiting to take ever since high school. I begged to get off the waitlist for multiple semesters before finally getting in. Though the course was fun, it lacked an essential unit that I had been most excited to learn about: Relationships. Studying relationships is very important to social psychology, as close relationships can play a role in intensifying other core aspects of social psychology like conformity and social influence. The topic of relationships is also really fun and interesting. Cutting this unit meant we didn’t learn about attraction, interpersonal relationships or attachment, which are essential aspects in the field of social psychology. As someone who was considering going into that field, I felt like I missed important pieces of information that would enable me to figure out if it could be the right path for me.
Because other units had run over time, the professor chose to skip the relationship unit. The professor justified skipping the unit by saying that there are other psychology classes at Mount Holyoke that discuss relationships. That is not only a weak excuse, but an irresponsible one. I didn’t take the class to hear excuses from a professor not teaching an important unit, or to be told to take an additional class. The point of taking a class is to learn what I signed up to learn. Other classes in the department wouldn’t explore relationships through the lens of social psychology, which was the reason I chose to take this class specifically. Additionally, the classes offered shift from semester to semester, so there is no guarantee that another class covering relationships will even be offered when I, or another student, could take it. Needless to say, I was incredibly sad, and I regretted taking social psychology over other important classes I could have taken for either of my majors or distribution requirements. This class isn’t the only one in which important content has been cut; however, for me, it was the most disappointing.
I’ve also noticed a related issue of professors being too “nice” and letting the class stray off topic. The issue stems from students providing unnecessary anecdotes during class time, which takes time away from more crucial content.This additional misused time contributes to the issue of missing important units.
For these types of situations, the professor should either stop calling on the off-topic student or recommend they come to office hours to talk about their thoughts instead. Letting that student continuously interrupt the class and take important time away from lectures restricts the amount of content being taught. If these interruptions are frequent, they are truly frustrating for the rest of the class. It is also important for the student causing the disruption to learn when their contributions are relevant and when they should consider going to office hours. This could also encourage these enthusiastic students to build a relationship with their professor outside of class. It is important to help them interrupt the cycle and understand that they can talk about these thoughts with their peers and friends or the professor at a later time.
I know professors can do an excellent job of teaching everything promised in their classes. I’ve been a part of many classes where the professors have managed to teach everything necessary in the course, even when there were unexpected interruptions in the schedule. This semester, I’ve been very lucky to have research methods (SOCI-225) with Associate Professor of Sociology Ayca Zayim. She’s probably the most organized professor I’ve ever had, with a beautiful syllabus and class schedule. Not only did the class teach all the topics necessary and planned in the syllabus, but Professor Zayim also taught statistics in a really fun and comprehensible way, which you know is really impressive if you’ve ever taken statistics before.
Zayim’s class schedule and syllabus together all explain when assignments are due and what each class entails. Having a snow day this semester was a big deal because of how important each class is, but the professor shortened some of the parts of a unit and explained it in a more basic way so we didn't have to miss out on anything too important and could still understand the big picture. Through this class, I’ve gained a lot of respect for her and her organizational skills and think that if every professor were a little more like her, a lot more would get taught.
Professors have a responsibility to teach courses as planned in the syllabus. It’s essential for students’ education to get what they were promised out of these classes. After all, these courses can influence the path a student might want to take in the future. It is also important to honor that students invested their time and money in these classes and that they deserve to be taught everything they signed up for. Letting the class stray off topic and allowing time management issues to get in the way of teaching the whole curriculum is unacceptable.
Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact-checking.