<p>DS is a sophomore at an LAC, and a member of the ski racing team (club sport, not varsity). Their season is short - just 5 or 6 weekends in Jan & Feb. They often go away to a mountain on Friday night, race on Saturday and Sunday, then return to campus. He loves it.</p>
<p>2nd semester soph year, his LAC requires all students to take an interdisciplinary seminar, and they offer a variety of topics. He signed up for one on Jazz. He was quite enthusiastic about it.</p>
<p>Now that the semester has started, he found out that the course requires him to attend a jazz concert this Saturday night and next Saturday night. This means he can't go with the ski team to those two weekends of races. He had to miss last weekend's races due to a family funeral. Missing the next two weekends means his season is effectively over. He told the professor about his problem, and was told that the "alternative assignment" was to drive himself to the nearest large city (1 1/2 hours away) and attend a jazz concert at his own expense. He doesn't know if any of his friends like jazz enough to go with him.</p>
<p>My question - shouldn't the fact that this course requires attendance at Saturday events at the beginning of the semester have been disclosed in the course description when he signed up? Then he would have known that this class was incompatible with ski racing season, and he would have signed up for something else.</p>
<p>I think that when the course ends (after he gets his grade, so he doesn't tick off the professor) he should complain to someone - a dean or department head - to be sure that if this class is offered again, the weekend requirement is disclosed in advance. I think it's too late to do anything about it now. He's not going to switch classes at this point, he's already trying to switch another class and it's wreaking havoc on his schedule.</p>
<p>What do you think he should do? And shouldn't this have been made clear to him before he signed up?</p>
<p>I am sorry this happened to your son but I have to say it is not a suprise. I would expect a seminar about jazz to involve a jzz concert or two that would generally take place on a weekend evening. This is really not that uncommon. Since the professor also offered an alternative I don’t think that there is really much that he can complain about about after the class is over. What he should do is contact is course professors for next year 2nd semester to make sure that the two schedules will work together.</p>
<p>Murmur, he’s currently planning to study abroad 2nd semester next year, if so he knows he will miss next ski racing season altogether. </p>
<p>The actual course title involved the words “Jazz Recordings,” so it wasn’t clear that it required attending live concerts - and even if he should have figured that out, I don’t think he should have assumed the concerts would have been the first 2 weekends in February. If it weren’t for the timing of these concerts, he’d be more than happy to attend them.</p>
<p>Not in the course description, but in the syllabus. Did he get a syllabus at the start of the school year? Usually such things are listed in there. Good professors also discuss all the key issues at the outset since students may not read the syllabus, and this way they can drop/add before its too late.
But if it’s in the syllabus, the burden falls on the student to read it. </p>
<p>Did he just find out about it? That is terrible.</p>
<p>I’d just do the alternative concerts. Think of it as a fun adventure, something different to do! I’m sure he can find friends willing to have a new experience!( Maybe a new date!!!)</p>
<p>Should have been made clear the first day of class, when the syllabus is gone over. At that point there is time to drop the class if you are not happy with the syllabus.</p>
<p>Not saying that’s how it was… but that’s how it should have been.</p>
<p>I’m sure there is a jazz ensemble on campus? Or a chamber group that plays jazz? Possibly he could use these to fulfill the requirement?</p>
<p>Does the prof know he’s on the ski team? Could the coach talk to the prof? Could your s approach the prof with an alternative such as listening to the jazz group on CD or the same music from another performer? Could he find out how much of the total grade is the two performances, and in what way would his grade be jeopardized by missing? Could he split the difference, attend a concert one weekend and ski the other?</p>
<p>Just off the top of my head. I’m sorry your s is faced with this dilemma.</p>
<p>OT but I’m curious what is LAF? I googled and got Lance Armstrong Foundation and Lebanese Armed Forces, but I doubt you’re an alum of either of those :)</p>
<p>I, too, would encourge him to attend an alternative concert. Perhaps there are other people in the class for whom those two weekends are bad, too, and they can carpool. If not, do you think it would be an issue for him to go by himself? Does he have transportation? I (or D2) would have no problem going to things by ourselves if we wanted to bad enough, but not everyone is comfortable with that.</p>
<p>D1 was upset one year at Christmas because I was the only one in the family not sick, so on Christmas Eve I went to church alone (was trying out a new church), and D1 didn’t like the idea that people might think I didn’t have any family or friends. Doesn’t bother me in the least. But it takes a certain mindset to be able to do that.</p>
<p>Did he not know of this the first day of class? Professors usually go over this stuff so that students can withdraw from the class and/or take another class. I’m in a similar class. It’s Theater and it requires us to go to plays outside of class time and at our own expense. The first day of class there were like 38 students, and the next class it dropped to about 33 students more or less since the students knew what to expect. This is standard for all the classes I’ve ever taken at college. So why didn’t your son drop the class? In any event, the professor’s alternative is a good one. You don’t need friends to go to events. Have him google for jazz events in the town he’s going to be going to for the ski events. He should find something.</p>
<p>People, we need to remember that the OP said that all second-semester sophomores have to take an interdisciplinary seminar, and this is the one the OP’s son chose.</p>
<p>He can’t just drop this course in favor of any other course available on campus. It would have to be another one of those interdisciplinary seminars, and switching might be difficult.</p>
<p>By second semester sophomore year, most students know about add-drop and use it in a fairly sophisticated way. But this course is in a special category that might preclude such manipulations.</p>
<p>^^^ Marian, you are exactly right. Plus, he’s already switching 2 other classes and having issues with getting all the necessary signatures.</p>
<p>As for the syllabus, he found out about the first concert on the first day of class. There was another event on campus this weekend that he had sort of wanted to attend as well, so he was willing to miss this weekend’s races for the concert and the event. But he wasn’t notified about the second concert (on the following weekend) until after the second class - the professor sent out an email. He said that the course description did include events outside of class, but he thinks it didn’t give any dates because they didn’t know them this far in advance. </p>
<p>This is a club sport, not Varsity, so there’s not really a “coach” to speak with. (Well there is a coach, but he’s not on-campus and doesn’t really have any clout with faculty).</p>
<p>He’s decided to give up on the rest of this racing season. I guess it’s just one of those unfortunate conflicts that happen in life.</p>
<p>My D. participated in club sport during Freshman year. Club sports usually are very flexible, they are not required to participate in competitions at all. She participated once. Later she realized that she is too busy for it anyway primarily because of academic requirements.</p>
<p>He needs to talk to the prof about his situation, and arrange an alternative concert to attend. It would be best if he is proactive about this – not only going to talk to the prof, but having some ideas of alternative concerts to attend.</p>
<p>Your S needs to be doing far more about this than venting to you.</p>
<p>Usually things like this are on the syllabus and the profs mention them the first day of class. Did your S somehow miss the first day of class?</p>
<p>This sounds fair enough on the part of the prof. He was not in control of the concert schedule and notified the students after the second class. Would there have been time to drop the class then?</p>
<p>“This sounds fair enough on the part of the prof. He was not in control of the concert schedule and notified the students after the second class. Would there have been time to drop the class then?”</p>
<p>In a perfect world, when the student saw that concert attendance would have been required, the student would have told the prof about his sports schedule, and would have asked whether he’d be able to substitute other concerts if there was a conflict with his sports team or whether he should switch to another class. Student should have raised hand, asked in class. More than likely, other students were worried about the same problems due to jobs, sports, planned travel, etc.</p>
<p>If student was too shy to ask in class, he should have approached the prof after the class.</p>
<p>Sitting back and hoping things would work out isn’t what the student should have done.</p>
<p>Once the conflicts arose, the student also should have talked to the prof.</p>
<p>^^^ He DID talk to the professor, and was given the “alternate assignment” choice I mentioned earlier. He doesn’t really have the money to attend a concert on his own, plus the 3 hour round trip driving time. </p>
<p>DS IS handling this on his own, he was just venting to me because he’s had a very frustrating start to this semester, with multiple issues that need resolving (dorm issue, meal plan, class/schedule changes, etc). To add to the mix, he got back to campus late due to a family funeral, and missed the first day of his all of his other classes (but not the jazz class). So he’s handling it all himself but he’s stressed out and venting to me about it, which I think is totally appropriate </p>
<p>I just posted this because I wondered if you guys thought that these concert dates were information that should have been provided to him in ADVANCE so he could make an informed decision when he chose this class. But now it sounds like the professor didn’t have the info in advance anyway. I still think requiring concerts 2 Saturday nights in a row is a bit much for a class that was titled “Jazz Recordings in the 20th century.” Aren’t we in the 21st century now?</p>
<p>Oh well. He’s given up ski team races for the year. It’s a bummer because he LOVES it and it’s his only real EC, and he sort of re-arranged the rest of his life to accomodate it. But he’ll survive.</p>
<p>I have to laugh–pardon the pun–because every time I see Lafalum’s name, I read it as La Falum, pronounced La Faloom. :D</p>
<p>It took me ages to realize that it is LAFayette Alum. </p>
<p>I won’t tell you how long it took me twig to ellenemope. It’s too embarrassing. ;)</p>
<p>BTW, I think that if the prof knows that attendance at concerts, possibly on a weekend, will be mandatory, that a line saying so ought to appear in the course description, even if he doesn’t have the specific dates. The requirement is certainly not obvious from the course title.</p>
<p>Why is it " abit much?" Attending a oncert is a very very different experience from listening to a recording. See the thread started by Barrons who wondered about paying $875 to attend a concert. I suspect and other concert-goers have the recordings and know the music by heart.</p>
<p>Course descriptions are different from syllabi. Students should never ever go by the descriptions alone.</p>