Title has the simple version of this: How do you feel about professors who lock the doors to the lecture hall when they begin teaching and will not allow late students to come in?
Why I ask (the TL;DR version that's just personal stuff and unnecessary ): In my first semester of nursing school, this was a standard policy. I never liked it, but I definitely understood it. Punctuality is a big thing for me, but it isn't for a lot of people these days, and the cohort needed an overarching message that nursing wasn't the profession to get into if you couldn't get it together and arrive on time. None of the other professors we had after that have felt that a locked-door policy was necessary.
That was all good and well, but now I'm on my last semester of nursing school and I have a professor with a personal policy of locking the door when the lecture begins. I disagree with it on principle, because I think it's just childish. We all pay a lot of money for the education we receive. Every moment of it is important to us. We've made it to the final stretch, and I think we've shown the faculty that we're dedicated enough and wouldn't be late without a very good reason. Depriving us of lectures we paid for because that professor refuses to cope with someone quietly coming in and sitting down is kind of ridiculous IMO. But I've always figured, hey, whatever, I'm never late to anything so it won't affect me, and I've shrugged it off.
Well, guess what? It happened. Our class is several hours long, so we get released for 5-10 minute breaks every hour or so. We were released for a 10 minute break at 10 til, and I ended up needing a bit longer in the bathroom than I thought. I got back to the classroom 2 minutes before the 10 minutes was up, and I found myself locked out. I was irate. Ten minutes hadn't even passed yet, and I knew I had to have only missed her shutting the doors by less than a minute. It was unfair and I couldn't do jack squat about it. I couldn't even leave because everything, including my purse, was locked inside the classroom that I was locked out of. It was incredibly upsetting to have to sit outside for an hour knowing I was missing the lecture and being completely powerless to do anything about it.
Now I'm not stupid enough to complain to anybody and make waves about it; you pick your battles wisely, and this one would just be stupid. But I'm definitely still angry that it happened, and I'm going to write about it on that professor's evaluation at the end of the course. It's left me wondering how other students feel about/deal with these kinds of policies, or whether they even have them.
Just read the inservice post above. So much for learning about lateness in the workplace. :/
There is a big difference between lateness to an inservice and lateness to your shift. The former--as you've just read--may be tolerated from time to time.
I can guarantee, though, that at this very same hospital, being late for shift report will result in a write-up. And people do get let go for chronic lateness for their shifts. Now if they could only do the same for the inservices.
Our professor used to make us write our name on the board when we arrived late, whether it be by seconds or minutes. And not the tiny scribble in the corner type, it had to be visual enough for a glaucoma patient in the back row - 30 feet away type - to read. Some say it was a fate worse than a lock out. Kept us in line knowing your peers would be staring at your name for the next 3 hour lecture, plus we learned about how blind glaucoma patients really can be when each letter of your name is 3+ feet tall. Two birds with one stone. Brilliant professor really.
That seems like a huge shooting-yourself-in-the-foot thing. Surely it takes time to write on the board like that. Surely that's a lot more distracting to your fellow students than doing something like having a row available to late students, and they have to sit on that row and not discuss with their peers what they missed.
Though that does sounds good but it may not be always feasible due to the fact that when you have to attend an in service, one may not be able to leave the unit when with a patient. One can't put a patient's life in jeopardy for in service to prevent a write up. That is unfair.
I think the bigger question here is not "what do you think of professors locking the doors?" but rather "What do you think of adults who can't show up on time (that results in instructors locking the doors)?" Would I have been mad if I were the OP? You bet I would have! It always seems that these blanket "punishments" or "lessons" that instructors or workplaces or whatever give never punish the offenders, they end up punishing the people who follow the rules.
I am also of the school that if you're on time, you're late. I live 45+ minutes from my campus, and the closest clinical site to me is just as far (most of the clinical sites were over an hour away, and that was in good traffic). I have had times it has taken me a upwards of 2 hours to get to class or clinicals because of weather/road conditions. You do what you have to do.
I have never been in a class where the instructor locked the door. I believe in treating the people who act like 5-year-olds like 5-year-olds and the people who act like adults like adults. It's a shame that in programs with big girls and boys instructors have to resort to treating students like they are in elementary school...and that happens most often because of a few students, not because of the majority. I don't blame instructors--God love them--I'd be a horrible instructor...I have zero tolerance for the students who have every excuse in the book and try to do what they please...so I totally get the instructors resorting to tactics such as this. But if I were the OP, was on time, etc., etc., I would have been a-knockin' on that door!!
ETA: I also wanted to add that the first day of class I always get at least two other students' phone numbers. Every semester. I had one time I WAS late to class, there was a huge accident that had traffic backup up on the interstate (this was probably 2nd semester?). I called one of my "contact students" and told them what was going on, and they relayed the information to the instructor. I alwaysalwaysalways tell other students to get the contact info for at least 2 people in each of their classes...you never know when that will save your bacon...or theirs!
now, when i was in nursing school, this would have been a problem....there was a group of us that liked the first row and sat in it for every class, every semester....and the 5 of us would get there early and "claim" our seats in the first row by putting our books and such down....
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Ha!! This made me LOL because this is SO me! Two years of nursing classes with the same people, and I swear at pinning I was like "Who is that? Who's THAT person? Where did they come from?" because I always sat in the front and usually never noticed who sat in the other 95% of the seats behind me
I think the bigger question here is not "what do you think of professors locking the doors?" but rather "What do you think of adults who can't show up on time (that results in instructors locking the doors)?" Would I have been mad if I were the OP? You bet I would have! It always seems that these blanket "punishments" or "lessons" that instructors or workplaces or whatever give never punish the offenders, they end up punishing the people who follow the rules.
I am also of the school that if you're on time, you're late. I live 45+ minutes from my campus, and the closest clinical site to me is just as far (most of the clinical sites were over an hour away, and that was in good traffic). I have had times it has taken me a upwards of 2 hours to get to class or clinicals because of weather/road conditions. You do what you have to do.
I have never been in a class where the instructor locked the door. I believe in treating the people who act like 5-year-olds like 5-year-olds and the people who act like adults like adults. It's a shame that in programs with big girls and boys instructors have to resort to treating students like they are in elementary school...and that happens most often because of a few students, not because of the majority. I don't blame instructors--God love them--I'd be a horrible instructor...I have zero tolerance for the students who have every excuse in the book and try to do what they please...so I totally get the instructors resorting to tactics such as this. But if I were the OP, was on time, etc., etc., I would have been a-knockin' on that door!!
ETA: I also wanted to add that the first day of class I always get at least two other students' phone numbers. Every semester. I had one time I WAS late to class, there was a huge accident that had traffic backup up on the interstate (this was probably 2nd semester?). I called one of my "contact students" and told them what was going on, and they relayed the information to the instructor. I alwaysalwaysalways tell other students to get the contact info for at least 2 people in each of their classes...you never know when that will save your bacon...or theirs!
I agree with you. The idea of getting phone numbers of two students is a good idea especially in the case of traffic back up related to an accident- you called another student and they relayed that to the instructor. The instructor at least was aware that you were on your way and was making an effort to be there.
I have enjoyed this thread so much. When I was an undergrad in the 70's, the thought of locking the door was absurd. Many men in the class had fought in Viet Nam, and the rest of us had shut down the university on several occasions. Autonomy and independence were important concepts. Any professor who resorted to such an arbitrary and ridiculous show of authority would be drummed out of the university. The entire class would have gotten up and walked up. It is really surprising to me to find that this is a fairly common practice and that it is tolerated by so many current students.
No ... if you are going to disrupt my class ... and waste my time and the time of my students by coming in late, be prepared for me to deal with it right then and there in class, in full view of the class. Your classmates are entitled to know that you have been properly punished for having disrupted THEIR class and wasted THEIR precious time.
(I don't actually lock the door, but I do give late-comers a dirty look and may say something out loud about their tardiness. But as I said, I'll give a little leeway to allow for the unexpected.)
Doesn't that take more time and cause more a disturbance though?
Tardiness is rarely a problem in my school so that's nice. No one really cares (except clinical, never be late to that).
On one hand, don't be late and disturb class. You're an adult.
On the other, don't lock the door and keep students in like kids. You're an adult.
I think it's silly to be late and silly to lock the door. Giving a nasty look usually works though
I've had one professor though call out a student who was late and it was very annoying. The disturbance of the late student was annoying, but the professor lecturing her just wasted more time we didn't have.
Our nursing instructors always locked the doors one minute past the start of class time but many of my teachers from non-nursing classes did the same thing. I grew up with parents that were on time for everything! If they were going to be late (very rare) they would not even go. So, I was raised in this type of home and it is a habit for me.
): In my first semester of nursing school, this was a standard policy. I never liked it, but I definitely understood it. Punctuality is a big thing for me, but it isn't for a lot of people these days, and the cohort needed an overarching message that nursing wasn't the profession to get into if you couldn't get it together and arrive on time. None of the other professors we had after that have felt that a locked-door policy was necessary. 
RebeccaMedley
6 Posts
Just read the inservice post above. So much for learning about lateness in the workplace. :/