Profs also need to respect students

I am a second year student at WLU who is struggling through most of my classes. There are a lot of things that happen on campus that bother me.

But last Tuesday I experienced something that enraged me to a degree as never before.  When in class (a class of 100 students or so) my professor’s cell phone rang in the middle of lecture and she answered it.  This would not be such a big problem if the professor had the decency and professionalism to tell us that there was an “emergency” and that she would need to answer her phone should it ring, but if no such disclaimer is made I can only assume it was a personal phone call.  This is a problem because when Laurier preaches academic integrity, professors often ridicule students for texting in class. But if my professor does not care enough for her own class so much as to take a personal phone call in the middle of class, then why should I care about her class? If she doesn’t take it seriously, then I won’t take it seriously. 

—Turlough Myers