When it comes to college classes, students do not expect to find themselves in an episode of Gossip Girl, especially not in as difficult and prestigious a class as Arabic. But last school year, some students felt as though they were placed in some pretty gossip-dense situations.
The Arabic program is a new language program that IPFW’s Dean of Arts and Sciences, Carl Drummond, is thrilled about bringing to our ever-expanding campus. Unfortunately, the new class has already experienced a roller-coaster ride of emotions in its first two semesters.
Cynthia Brandenburg was hired as the Arabic professor for the first year, but her job was not tenured and had no guarantee of stability. Though the class was initially met with great enthusiasm, a majority of the students began to fall behind because of enormous amounts of homework. Arabic is not a class that one can slack off in, which is apparent by the four consecutive days that it needs for class. Students were inexperienced in the language, and underestimated the time needed to prepare for the class. Unfortunately, it seems that students became aggravated and started to be disrespectful to their professor and give up on the class; some students only came one or two days out of the four day week and a few quit entirely.
Even worse, students felt not only left behind, but left out as well. Some students felt that Brandenburg singled out a select few in her classes and favored those few, inviting them to coffee houses for outside-of-class meetings. However, one student, Wesley Haffenden, reports “Everyone was invited to those meetings, most chose not to go.”
Another student, Tiffany Kravec, was said by another student to be disrespectful towards the teacher and always showed up late to class, one day by forty minutes.
“I showed up forty minutes late that day because my kids had the H1N1 virus. When I opened the door Brandenburg told me ‘Tiffany, don’t bother,’ so I left. I told Professor Brandenburg that I would be ten minutes late every Monday and Wednesday because my kids have school.”
Although some students were saying that Brandenburg was let go because of personal dislike by staff members in higher positions, the Dean stated that, “No that’s not correct, all decisions were based on professional matters.”
In the end, one student, who remains anonymous by choice, left IPFW entirely because of the lack of respect he felt from his superiors for himself and his professor. But this is not the case for all; most students who struggled have plans to retake the first semester.
Drummond insisted that there would not be much to tell in respect to Brandenburg, since it was an issue concerning personnel. He did, however, have great things to say about this year’s program.
“We’re very happy with the person that we’ve hired. She comes to us with three years teaching experience from WestPoint Military Academy. She’s an outstanding person and we’re looking forward to moving forward with the program.”
I’m often surprised at how many students sign up for classes that meet at times when they are unavailable. I can completely understand why a professor would have a problem with a student coming in ten minutes late twice a week, it’s disruptive and disrespectful to the entire class who is able to be on time. I know several professors who feel the same way. Everyone has a life outside of school, but to succeed, especially in something as difficult as learning a new language, schoolwork and class time has to be a priority. You’re paying money for it.