As an extension to our previous article, “How not to upset your teachers,” the Trop interviewed some students to see what their opinions are about professors and college classes in general. Some students said that the teachers here at Troy are not so bad, while others admitted that with some, just going to class itself can be annoying. It’s time for a lecture from the students.
Shellie Moore, a sophomore communications major from Birmingham, said he highly dislikes unorganized teachers who try to blame their mishaps on the students rather than owning up to them.
“When a teacher changes the date on an assignment, but forgets that they changed the dates really annoys me,” Moore said. “This really happened all the time in my cultural communications class.”
Farrah Gaston, a sophomore biomedical sciences major from Canden, said she hates being in a lecture with a professor who does not test on what they teach.
“I’m in a psych class right now, and the professor gave us ten pages of notes,” Gaston said. She said the problem was not the amount of notes that frustrated her, but that the test was not what she expected.
“I was thinking the test was going to be definitions,” Gaston said. “But all the questions she asked were applied.” Gaston said she was not taught the format she was tested, and that bothered her. The test average for the class was a failing grade.
To add to her angst in her classes, she said that talkative students really bother her. “I hate when students talk in class,” Gaston said. “It’s so distracting.”
Samantha Lawson, a senior biomedical sciences major from Smiths Station, focused on the college experience as a whole. She said she is disappointed in how academic and personal matters are handled around campus.
“The carelessness of student services workers is astounding,” Lawson said. “These employees work in a field whose purpose is to serve students, and yet, they could truly care less about the welfare of students.
“College has the reputation of being a time in which students are completely free to express themselves. However, if a student wishes to do so, they have to follow several bureaucratic rules set by the university. This prevents and discourages students from expressing themselves.”
Lawson also said that some student advisers are seen telling students that they will not achieve their goals or telling them how hard their dreams will be to achieve. “The purpose of an adviser is to advise, not discourage,” Lawson said. She said that it’s great to keep students on track, but some advisers should go about it a different way.
“I understand that advisers need to be honest, but they should spend more time helping students achieve their goals.”
An anonymous student in the music department said that “above it all,” teachers are annoying. The student wished to remain unnamed since, “The music department is small, and there are a lot of sensitive individuals here.”
“The professors with unlicensed egos annoy me,” the student said. “Their egos are much unwarranted. They are here to fill their résumés and nothing else.”
The student said that the way professors teach is exactly the way they are not supposed to.
“We are told not to play favorites, and we are also told not to talk about ourselves (when we become teachers), but our professors do it all the time,” he said. “Most of the drama that happens in our department (music) is mostly because of the faculty.”
Emily Armstrong, a freshman marketing major from Birmingham, felt that some professors think that their class is the only one that matters.
“Professors expect you to do all of their stuff, but don’t think about all the other stuff you have to do,” Armstrong said. She said in anthropology, essays are due every Tuesday, which she has to complete along with all of her other classwork and extracurricular activities.
Also, she said that she wants to be able to use computers in all of her classes. “Teachers go through the notes and slides so fast,” Armstrong said. “I can type faster than I can write.”
Haley Baggett, a freshman music industry major from Brewton, said that she dislikes unprepared students as much as she does unprepared teachers.
“I haven’t had any problems with professors,” Baggett said, “And most of them have been pretty helpful, but they don’t address all ways of teaching.”
Baggett said she has a problem with students who don’t show up for class. “Some people don’t come to class and wonder why they don’t do well,” she said.
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