<p>Anything requiring time spent outside the scheduled class needs to be disclosed. </p>
<p>What if the student had work? What if the student had family obligations? What if…?</p>
<p>A lot of things. I think it’s in the best interests of both the student and the professor to inform everyone intending on taking the class, PRIOR to the start of class, that there will be required activities outside the times the class is scheduled.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s asking too much of the professor to include that information in the course description. I know that most, if not all, of the classes here are sure to inform students if there are external requirements.</p>
<p>The “a bit much” refers to 2 Saturday nights in a row, at the very beginning of the semester, with little to no advance notice of the dates. Even if the professor had emailed the students over the January break with the dates, DS might have had time to make other arrangements or find out if there was another Interdisciplinary Seminar he could switch into (as I said previously, the college requires one of these seminars for all 2nd semester sophs, he can’t just switch to another random class and take the seminar another semester).</p>
<p>I don’t mind him attending 2 concerts - and neither does DS - its just that the dates the professor chose conflicted with DS’s ski races, and he never guessed that he would be asked to skip 2 weekends of races (4 races total) for this class.</p>
<p>I think that the concert requirement should have been in the course description. I was just perusing our cc’s offerings for non credit courses. Even though the courses are inexpensive and are not for credit, they are very clear about requiring any off campus participation even if the title of the course makes it obvious that the course requires field work. All extra expenses and travel are addressed in the courses. There is much more at stake for someone taking a course at a private LAC, a required course, no less, so anything unusual about such courses should be made clear.</p>
<p>I am surprised that this was not known to the students. THe ski club is not the only one who would be affected by this schedule. Anyone in any activities or taking other courses with weekend commitments would be similarly stuck. Your son is the only one in this predicament? Certainly, I think he should let the school know that the weekend commitment that the course requires should be made clear.</p>
<p>Can he find ANY other jazz performances that are closer than the venue suggested to him? Can those take the place of the concerts? Can he do the concerts during spring break or other weekend after ski season?</p>
<p>I’d say the concert requirement should have been indicated in the course description with “weekend dates to be determined”. Then the student would know that they should ask about whether there’s likely to be a potential conflict. Since the professor has said he can attend a different concert (assuming he can find one), I think the prof is being reasonably flexible too. I do understand though that the prof might not know the dates as far in advance as would be convenient for the students.</p>
<p>Are we talking syllabi or catalog descriptions? The Harvard catalog runs to more than 1000 pages with each course description limited to 100 words.</p>
<p>did the prof announce on the first day of class that there would be another concert at a date as yet unscheduled? That would have been a clue for the student to be concerned about possible conflicts.</p>
<p>This issue also reminds me of the limitations of out-of-the way LACs. There is not a plethora of concerts and similar events close by. I can’t imagine not being able to attend a jazz concert on most weekends in the Boston area.</p>
<p>All three of my college boys were in time consuming activities in college. They HAD to be clear about the time commitments about any other courses or activities they took. If ANY activity had a sniff of unusual out of class time commitments, they had to go and find out what they were because it was important to them that they did not miss any time from their activities. </p>
<p>My oldest was in a music class that required attendance at symphony concerts and other events. Yes, he did make sure there were no conflicts. In fact that was something that the coach stressed at team meetings. In fact there were certain classes and activities the athletes could not do because of conflicts. </p>
<p>My second son would have loved to have joined some music groups in college. Could not. Being in a BFA performance program, it was made very clear that one could not be in this program and join an a capella group or have weekends blocked. </p>
<p>The third one is more like the OP’s son in that he is in a club sport. He has taken a pass on some really neat courses because he would miss games. THose classes require blocks of time for field trips and out of location meeting at non class times. He is considering sitting out for a season maybe next year to partake in one of those courses. He knows he can’t do both at the same time. Looking at his course description book, few courses give specific times as to when there are required off campus, out of schedule events. They just say there will be some. In cases like that, the student has to talk to the professor teaching the course.</p>
<p>Look, this is unfortunate, but hardly a tragedy. The OP’s son was willing to miss some races, and probably didn’t anticipate that a funeral would knock him out of even more. He talked to the professor, the professor was actually pretty accommodating. If the nearest city is Philadelphia, he would have a lot to choose from in perfectly pleasant venues, ditto NYC. There’s an expense issue, sure, but I know darn well (my sister was a serious ski racer in college) that he’s spending a lot more to support his skiing than the cost of a couple road trips and evenings in jazz clubs. (BTW, the cost to my sister of her serious ski racing in college has also included two complete shoulder reconstructions – one after the initial fall her senior year, and the other 20 years later when the first surgery wore out. She hasn’t been able to raise her right hand above her head since she was 20.)</p>
<p>The world of club sports and the world of funky interdisciplinary seminars both involve a certain amount of negotiation and flexibility, which is what seems to have gone on here. I don’t really see a problem.</p>
<p>I took a theater class for fun in college. We had to attend 3 plays, but there was a variety of plays both on and off campus and many dates from which to choose. I agree the concert requirements and dates should have been available earlier, or there should be more options scattered over the semester. The location of his school adds to the problem unfortunately.</p>