Admin may switch K professor 4 times in one year - what would you do?

[AverageJoe]

At my law school, we had professor X for Fall Semester for Contracts I because Professor Y was on sabattical. However, Professor Y came back in the Spring so we had him for the first 6 weeks of Contracts II. Due to a serious accident, Professor Y was in the hospital and our class has had professor X again for the last month. However, Professor Y is feeling better & there is a possibility that our class may have him for the last 3 weeks of classes and take his final. Both professors have COMPLETELY different teaching styles and emphasize different things. People in my class are sick of the switching and want to have professor X for the rest of the semester but they don't want to say anything to the adminstration because: (1) they don't think they will actually listen to us and (2) they don't want to be rude/insensitive about the other professor's recovery.

What would you guys do if you were in this position? What kind of options do we have to keep Professor X?

Thanks!

[xferlawstudent]

Complain to the Administration.  What do you want me to tell you?  You either need to speak up or not worry about it. Don't forget that you pay tuition.

[johns259]

I think you should call your parents and have them come talk to the administration about it, since you sound like a child.
OR
How about you act like an adult and suck it up. Everybody else in your class is dealing with the same thing. It's the product of unfortunate circumstances, that's life and you need to learn to deal with it before you have to go out into the big bad world on your own.

[drbuff123]

It isn't an ideal situation, but remember everyone is in the same boat.

[LibertyBell]

It isn't an ideal situation, but remember everyone is in the same boat.

Agreed.  It isn't like college with a straight percent curve (90%= A, whatever).  You will be curved against your peers and will be dealing with the same thing.  Good luck.

[ericptk2000]

I think you should call your parents and have them come talk to the administration about it, since you sound like a child.
OR
How about you act like an adult and suck it up. Everybody else in your class is dealing with the same thing. It's the product of unfortunate circumstances, that's life and you need to learn to deal with it before you have to go out into the big bad world on your own.

Very helpful advice isn't it.  Johns, you must be a stellar student because your insight and the way you handle people is very uplifting.  I agree that everyone is in the same situation and therefore it really shouldn't effect the curve; however, I am sure the extra stress of not knowing what will show up on the final is not needed. 

[johns259]

I think you should call your parents and have them come talk to the administration about it, since you sound like a child.
OR
How about you act like an adult and suck it up. Everybody else in your class is dealing with the same thing. It's the product of unfortunate circumstances, that's life and you need to learn to deal with it before you have to go out into the big bad world on your own.

Very helpful advice isn't it.  Johns, you must be a stellar student because your insight and the way you handle people is very uplifting.  I agree that everyone is in the same situation and therefore it really shouldn't effect the curve; however, I am sure the extra stress of not knowing what will show up on the final is not needed. 

God forbid you have stress in law school. A lot of stuff in life is not needed, but it happens anyway and there's no use whining about it. If you know the material, who the hell cares what the exam looks like. If they have model answers to old exams, you may want to get an idea of what they like in an answer and format, but that shouldn't take you more than an hour.

Furthermore, I'm guessing that you've never been in a leadership position where something unavoidable happened and you had to deal with whiners on top of making the best out of the situation. The administration and students should be focused on letting the professor recover. If you would put avoiding a little stress to law students (which they'll no doubt have to get used to anyway) over a man's health, then you have some problems. There's a lot of stuff in life more important than a little stress over a K class; you could be in Iraq.

[norman1l]

How about your Dean of Students?  Typically this would fall under an administrative duty.  It seems like the Dean of Students would be the perfect liaison to help...

[exceptionaljoe]

Oh *&^%, you are in my track. Hmmm....I wonder who's average in track 3 at my school...

For those not at the school where this happened, let me fill you in.  Our prof fell and really, really injured himself.  A bunch of cry-baby d00shbags went nutz because we got our old prof back.

Guess what Track 3ers...IT'S STILL CONTRACTS.

[AtlantaSteve]

I would definately not be shy about complaining, and I wonder what school you go to where the students would be intimidated or reluctant to do so. 

I don't agree with the attitude that everyone is in the same boat, so it doesn't matter since you're all graded on the same curve.  That's fine as far as competition, but for purposes of the bar exam (not to mention general practice) it would be nice to actually LEARN STUFF rather than just sit through a few months of class and collect your ranking number.  How are the students supposed to master the material to their full potential if there is a dramatic change to the teaching style and curriculum emphasis every few weeks?

If this were mid-terms, I could understand throwing the original professor back into the mix.  However, what on earth is the point of bringing him back in just to teach the final 3 weeks of class?  The semester is essentially over at this point!  There has to be some kind of political consideration there, because there certainly doesn't seem to be any consideration being given to the students.  I wouldn't raise hell in an unprofessional manner, as life certainly isn't always fair... but I wouldn't hesitate to pass around a petition and take it to the administration if a sizable portion of the class signs.