The MSU math instructor email that has gone viral nationally

[kired]

She didn’t have to be such a snarky ***** about it. I’d say she’s getting what she deserves from social media.

Also, not sure why an unexcused absence is a big deal. Honestly I don’t even remember college caring about excused / unexcused. I just remember if I missed, I’d get notes from someone else. There were some classes I skipped out on a lot and it was no big deal. If I had to miss an exam I made sure to clear it with the professor ahead of time, but otherwise I can’t remember ever bringing any kind of excuse to a college professor.

 

[Dawghouse]

I agree with the professor but it was also a dumbass move to email that sentiment out to the public.

My kid is a freshman there with no car. I told him a week ago to go buy some snacks or something just in case. I havent talked to him since, pretty sure he's alive or his mom would have said something.

Been laughing my *** off on the parents pages at all these people having an anyurism about this one teacher giving out some valuable life lessons. This is FAFO on a small scale.

"But what about the disabled or the commuters" says my wife. Let them plead their case, I sure they'll be accommodated, the rest are just dumbasses.

This email was targeted at the pansy *** helicopter parents who are attempting to ruin our society. The sane advice I saw on the parent groups said leave your kids there, they'll be fine.

 

[paindonthurt]

She is not. @ClintonInHelen would though…

She shouldn’t be fired over it, but it was absolutely a dick move on her part and if I was a parent and my kid had come home to ride out the storm and couldn’t get back to class because of road conditions, she would have heard from me about it if she played that game. It was a stupid email to send and just shows that she thinks she’s special. Hopefully she learned from it, but I doubt it.

Damn. Parents reaching out to college professors! What a world we live in!

My parents didn’t know $h1t about what my college professors said to me or emailed me or how to even begin to think about how to get in touch with them.

 

[paindonthurt]

I can't imagine emailing or calling any of my kid's college professors.
She is an adult and the student- why would they give a 17 what I thought? Why would they even talk to me?

Damn we agree on something?!

...they can't even talk to parents about anything specific unless it's noted that permission by the student is given.

The above is a really stupid policy though. If parents are paying for the education, they should have access to grades and such.

 

[paindonthurt]

I know that if I get an email with a Bible verse at the end that there is an excellent chance that I am going to be very pissed off by the time I make it to said verse

Same with pronouns!

 

[DawgNsuds]

Damn we agree on something?!

The above is a really stupid policy though. If parents are paying for the education, they should have access to grades and such.

sort of like physicians wont talk to you about your children's medical, even though they are on your insurance and you are paying. This apparently is very convoluted as I tried to search when and what they would discuss with you. I just remember at a certain age they would ask them if they wanted me in the room or not. I certainly understand this for certain evaluations but others I was like WTH?

 

[DawgNsuds]

No they wouldn’t have. There have always been instructors like this, and there have always been adults there to overrule them.

your reply seems to be pretty absolute, just curious, when were you in school? Not being argumentative, just curious as to when you are basing your experience on?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

All that being said. Don't make it hard, copy the dang university release and be done with it.

The students likely got a version of that release emailed to them.

Having done things like this before, I’d refer to the release, say we have normal operating hours today, and let me know if you can’t make it.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The kid should be shamed more than the professor. First for running TO Memphis when Starkville-Oktibbeha Co were barely in the warning area, and secondly for having his mommy email the professor and get up in his business.

Being that the university sent out a schoolwide statement saying to excuse absences for the next two days before she sent her email out kinda trumps her hardasş card.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

Calling for her to be fired is over the top dumb much like her being a hardasş about class for a couple of days. A two day grace period like the university put out would suffice and then unexcused absences start after that. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.

Lol. Had a TA in American History try to be a hard ***. Profs and TAs get their sensibilities hurt and do stuff. So what if someone without the power says "well she should be fired". Its not like the university is going to say "you know, Bob from bogue chitto is right, we gonna fire her"

 

[Villagedawg]

I can't imagine emailing or calling any of my kid's college professors.
She is an adult and the student- why would they give a 17 what I thought? Why would they even talk to me?
...they can't even talk to parents about anything specific unless it's noted that permission by the student is given.

Unrelated, but interesting sidenote to FERPA is that they CAN if said student is a dependent of the parent for purposes of financial aid/FASFA.

 

[Villagedawg]

Damn we agree on something?!

The above is a really stupid policy though. If parents are paying for the education, they should have access to grades and such.

People think that is the policy of FERPA. It isn't. It's exactly what you say it should be.

 

[mstateglfr]

The above is a really stupid policy though. If parents are paying for the education, they should have access to grades and such.

It's an excellent policy because the students are adults and many parents aren't paying for the education.
It's the same for Healthcare, fyi. Your over 18yo adult kid may be on your health insurance, but their doctor won't give you info unless your child has given permission to release medical records/info to you.

I get it as a parent- an 18 or 19yo really isn't independent and because of that, I just want easy access to what I am helping them with.
...but adult privacy law doesn't work that way.

 

[thatsbaseball]

Threads like this tell me three things this time of the year :
1) Football is over
2) Basketball sucks &
3) Baseball hasn't started

 

[OG Goat Holder]

I agree that she seems like a dickhead. Most professors are.

100%.

She’s right though

In what way? Name ONE, other than old boomer/gen-x 'be hard on everybody for no reason' energy. I'm sure it's real easy for her to get back and forth from campus, but the ice is real. Folks have families. Should have converted the whole thing to on-line/virtual this week, we have the tech to do this. Wanting to be in-person is just wanting to assert little man power.

 

[mstateglfr]

Unrelated, but interesting sidenote to FERPA is that they CAN if said student is a dependent of the parent for purposes of financial aid/FASFA.

From what I understand, a college may(not must) release info if a student is marked a dependent for tax purposes, but many schools don't.
And releasing financial info is different from releasing academic info.


Regardless, I can't imagine emailing my kid's college professor over this(or anything).

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Today kids stay on their parents insurance until they are 26. They stay on their cellphone plan longer than that. Our society has moved the age of adulthood to later and later in life. We didn't have the word "Adulting" when I was first starting out. So universities don't treat today's student like they did in the last century.

If she is going against the established school policy that is an issue and should be addressed, as it seems it was. Firing is overkill, but that's what we do now in America. Everything is a disaster.

 

[Predestined]

She is not. @ClintonInHelen would though…

Exponentially, no doubt.

 

[paindonthurt]

It's an excellent policy because the students are adults and many parents aren't paying for the education.
It's the same for Healthcare, fyi. Your over 18yo adult kid may be on your health insurance, but their doctor won't give you info unless your child has given permission to release medical records/info to you.

I get it as a parent- an 18 or 19yo really isn't independent and because of that, I just want easy access to what I am helping them with.
...but adult privacy law doesn't work that way.

Looks like you are wrong and that’s not surprising and thank god!

A parent can access students grades as long as they are still a dependent. THE WAY IT SHOULD BE IF THE PARENT IS PAYING THE BILLS OR CO-SIGNING ON A LOAN.

 

[paindonthurt]

Regardless, I can't imagine emailing my kid's college professor over this(or anything).

2 completely separate issues.

A. yes don’t be a helicopter parent and set your kid up for failure by doing their work for them.

B. Whoever is paying the bill should be able to see the grades. That’s not hard logic to understand.

 

[ETK99]

The instructor was stupid but the parent is the problem here. Her son might as well drop that class, and everybody has seen a helicopter parent, so the kid is labeled now. Parents being stupid is an epidemic.

 

[HailStout]

Same with pronouns!

Can’t say I’ve ever gotten one with those

 

[jethreauxdawg]

The instructor was stupid but the parent is the problem here. Her son might as well drop that class, and everybody has seen a helicopter parent, so the kid is labeled now. Parents being stupid is an epidemic.

Just wait until she emails all the companies junior applies to work for. “Now, y’all be patient if he’s running a little late to the interview. He had a belly ache this morning. Do yall provide snacks during the interview. You should. He has celiac, well he doesn’t really have any allergies, I just think it’s best for him to have a special diet. He’ll also needs to be off work on June 4-9, July 8-13, and the weeks of thanksgiving and Christmas every year. We always go to the lake for memory making two weeks each summer and holidays are very important to our family.”

 

[mstateglfr]

Looks like you are wrong and that’s not surprising and thank god!

A parent can access students grades as long as they are still a dependent. THE WAY IT SHOULD BE IF THE PARENT IS PAYING THE BILLS OR CO-SIGNING ON A LOAN.

I clarified the FERPA exception in a different post, but I will do it here too.
A college CAN release financial info and other info if a student is marked as a dependent for taxes. A college IS NOT REQUIRED to release this info without express consent from the student.

And when applied to the current world, I have only seen colleges take the position that they dont release info without student consent.
Examples that I know of over the last 4 years-
- Northern Iowa
- University of Iowa
- Iowa State
- Mizzou
- Arkansas
- Alverno College
- Marquette University
- Loras College
- St Ambrose University
- Creighton University
- Grand View University
- University of Chicago
- Northwestern University

This is obviously not a list of every college in the US. It is a list of large publics, large privates, small privates, and prestigious privates that all just take the position that the student needs to agree for academic info to be released.
It is a noted trend, per two admissions folk.

 

[mstateglfr]

Can’t say I’ve ever gotten one with those

Its nice when you dont know the person and their name is Taylor or similar. 20 years ago it was a 70% chance thats a dude. Now it seems like a 70% chance thats a woman.
Blake, Parker, Riley, Alex, Jamie, etc- 17 if I know if the person is a man or woman based on the name alone.

Hell, even Michael is used for women...I think I have met/known of more Michaels who are under 30 that are women than men in the last few years. That name seemed to die hard for guys in the mid-90s and apparently a few parents in the late-90s and early-00s were like 'lets name our daughter that now!'

 

[mstateglfr]

2 completely separate issues.

A. yes don’t be a helicopter parent and set your kid up for failure by doing their work for them.

B. Whoever is paying the bill should be able to see the grades. That’s not hard logic to understand.

For the record, I would be totally good with both of these. If our law was that whoever pays must have access, I wouldnt think twice.

 

[jethreauxdawg]

B. Whoever is paying the bill should be able to see the grades. That’s not hard logic to understand.

Parents can always tell the kid to show them their grades. Problem solved.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Some additional info to add to my original post. If the state is issuing a state of emergency order, that overrides a math teachers power. Now you can ask for proof you are in the affected area as the teacher. I am pretty sure her class does not qualify as an emergency.

 

[Xenomorph]

2020: The China Virus is here. Please log into my class portal and download all the lectures because this virtual learning is just as good as in-person.

2026: You drove home before the storm of a lifetime hit and now you can’t make it back for my in-person class? Well… 17 you.

/seriously though… this chick looks at her email address with the .edu on the end and doesn’t realize she’s really working for .biz and those students are her employer’s customers.

If I was her manager I’d use this as a teaching moment and she’d get to spend some time in remedial training so our company doesn’t make this error again.

 

[johnson86-1]

I agree with the professor but it was also a dumbass move to email that sentiment out to the public.

My kid is a freshman there with no car. I told him a week ago to go buy some snacks or something just in case. I havent talked to him since, pretty sure he's alive or his mom would have said something.

Been laughing my *** off on the parents pages at all these people having an anyurism about this one teacher giving out some valuable life lessons. This is FAFO on a small scale.

"But what about the disabled or the commuters" says my wife. Let them plead their case, I sure they'll be accommodated, the rest are just dumbasses.

This email was targeted at the pansy *** helicopter parents who are attempting to ruin our society. The sane advice I saw on the parent groups said leave your kids there, they'll be fine.

Parents contacting college professors is crazy.

That said, she is a math instructor. Why is she even worried about attendance. She should be worried about whether students are learning, which she should be able to tell from testing them. If somebody needed to go to north mississippi to take care of parents or grandparents or property or for whatever reason, why does she care?

Make the material available to them and let people take make up tests if they miss a test. If they can learn on their own, good for them. IF they can't, then only they can weigh the tradeoff from not being in class. No need for a teacher that is pms'ing to say or do anything.

 

[PhredPhantom]

Its nice when you dont know the person and their name is Taylor or similar. 20 years ago it was a 70% chance thats a dude. Now it seems like a 70% chance thats a woman.
Blake, Parker, Riley, Alex, Jamie, etc- 17 if I know if the person is a man or woman based on the name alone.

Hell, even Michael is used for women...I think I have met/known of more Michaels who are under 30 that are women than men in the last few years. That name seemed to die hard for guys in the mid-90s and apparently a few parents in the late-90s and early-00s were like 'lets name our daughter that now!'

 

[The Peeper]

This is something "viral nationally", for real? I don't see anything wrong with it at all.

Get your azz back to campus asap and borrow the "lecture notes from somebody. Damn, some people just aren't going to be able to cope with being an adult, and obviously some adults can't cope either........

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Get your azz back to campus asap and borrow the "lecture notes from somebody. Damn, some people just aren't going to be able to cope with being an adult, and obviously some adults can't cope either........

Being smart is part of being an adult.

Encouraging more people to get out on the roads so they can come back to a class is not smart. That's what are these muhcountable oldass energy folks aren't getting......intelligence is a part of the equation.

 

[PrimeDog]

We had a group of us engineering students that would show up at P Chem and decide which of us were ditching and who was staying behind to take notes.

None of us failed, we all graduated, and none of our mommies were even aware that we were skipping a class.

 

[Villagedawg]

Today kids stay on their parents insurance until they are 26. They stay on their cellphone plan longer than that. Our society has moved the age of adulthood to later and later in life. We didn't have the word "Adulting" when I was first starting out. So universities don't treat today's student like they did in the last century.

If she is going against the established school policy that is an issue and should be addressed, as it seems it was. Firing is overkill, but that's what we do now in America. Everything is a disaster.

We are the society that made "adulthood" so young as we industrialized and the powers that be wanted/needed workers dependent on them rather than the extended family. Traditionally, a man would stay in the same household as his father or father in law kind of like an "apprentice adult" but still under the direction and authority of the older man and everyone worked for the mutual benefit of the household. Only when the older man could no longer do it or was dead did the younger man become the "adult" and the household began deferring to him. We, in the West, made adulthood and full independence younger in the first place. For good or ill, maybe it's now just trending back.

 

[DT4248]

Looks like a great email to me. Wait until you graduate and tell you boss you won’t be in on Monday because you traveled over the weekend. You won’t get fired for that alone, just as this teacher didn’t say it would necessarily have any negative impact on your grades. People are whiners.

That boss will wonder why within 6 months they "have so much turnover" and "no one shows loyalty" or "no one wants to work anymore".

It does cut both ways. Putting yourself in a conflicting scenario with your employees leads them down the road to not feel like you're on their team.

Your choice in how you want to run your business just as it's your choice in how you want to be a worker.

 

[DT4248]

I had a professor at state that said he didn't care if we were in the hospital we better turn something on on time if it was due. We were met getting an excuse because in the real world we wouldn't get extensions on deadlines. He told a story about being a motorcycle accident and still being asked to submit assignments.
That being said, there are so many exceptions even in the real world. Only the sith deal in absolutes.
She's a dick for that and if someone was in an accident traveling to get back for her class that would be a shame. A math class missed is not the end of the world and not worth busting it.

I have had folks get stranded traveling before and they were not given their pto back. They were allowed to take additional but nothing was alloted to recoup.

All that being said. Don't make it hard, copy the dang university release and be done with it.

I train people fresh off the boat in the real world and this is the biggest thing I have to reprogram. Timelines are flexible if you are communicative.

 

[patdog]

I don't know, when Hurricane Michael hit in 2018 my boss said to take care of my family and let him know when I could come in to assist the rebuild. I took off 10 days until power was back on at my blown up house and went back to help rebuild the 400k sq ft building. I stayed in MS at my Dad's until then.

Yeah. Every boss I've ever had has treated me fairly like this. And of course I've never abused it by taking days I didn't really need to. If my boss tried that email, he'd be looking for a new employee.

 

[paindonthurt]

Can’t say I’ve ever gotten one with those

I get a lot more work emails with pronouns than i do with bible verses!!

 

[paindonthurt]

Its nice when you dont know the person and their name is Taylor or similar. 20 years ago it was a 70% chance thats a dude. Now it seems like a 70% chance thats a woman.
Blake, Parker, Riley, Alex, Jamie, etc- 17 if I know if the person is a man or woman based on the name alone.

Hell, even Michael is used for women...I think I have met/known of more Michaels who are under 30 that are women than men in the last few years. That name seemed to die hard for guys in the mid-90s and apparently a few parents in the late-90s and early-00s were like 'lets name our daughter that now!'

You are such a cuck.