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[cc_alan]

It sounds bad, but then again you have to look at the whole package. I have a very senior colleague who is 10+ minutes late to every class.  He makes up for it by keeping the students ten minutes late! He is a very imposing fellow, no one says a word about it. He is also a tremendously valuable member of our institution and a great teacher. 

As an undergrad, I had an instructor of one of my core classes routinely go 5+ minutes late. The problem was that my next class was across campus and I needed the entire 10 minutes to get to it. I finally got so annoyed that I started leaving as soon as time was up so I could get to my next class on time.

If I were taking classes now (older and wiser), I would probably talk to the professor before class to explain why I was leaving before he was done.

Just as it's wrong to be consistently late to class, it's also wrong to run consistently long in class. People schedule things around their classes and while a few minutes may not seem like a big deal to the instructor, it could be a problem for a student.

Alan

[ttguy]

It sounds bad, but then again you have to look at the whole package. I have a very senior colleague who is 10+ minutes late to every class.  He makes up for it by keeping the students ten minutes late! He is a very imposing fellow, no one says a word about it. He is also a tremendously valuable member of our institution and a great teacher. 

(Amyamy, the shift and punctuation keys are your friend and ours.)

It does not make any sense. You are contractually bound to come on time and go on time unless some accident happens to you. One more point: coming to the class does nor necessarily mean you are on time. You are on time you when you start your lecture. A lot of teachers come on time and then spend a lot of time setting up projectors/slides. Do they count on part of teaching? Certainly not. If your class starts at 11:00 am and you have to set up somethig, come 10 min earlier. Thats what is followed in my university and I think that is normal everywhere.

[supernumerary]

You are contractually bound to come on time and go on time unless some accident happens to you. One more point: coming to the class does nor necessarily mean you are on time. You are on time you when you start your lecture. A lot of teachers come on time and then spend a lot of time setting up projectors/slides. Do they count on part of teaching? Certainly not. If your class starts at 11:00 am and you have to set up somethig, come 10 min earlier.

Yes, profs should not set up their class on the university's time. They should do it on their own time. And what's more the clock starts running the moment the teaching begins, and in all fairness the clock should be stopped while the class indulges in jokes and other asides, and started up again when the teaching resumes. This way the prof is able to give all the time required by the contract, and not a minute less. We would all do well to remember the secret of being a good and effective teacher - you must do what you're contractually bound to do, especially where clocking in and out is concerned.

[larryc]

I was not saying my late-to-start, late-to-finish colleague is doing the right thing.  Hell, I was making a joke.  But also a serious point, that there is far more to professionalism than punctuality. Our department is built on this man's efforts in too many ways to describe.  He is also the finest professor I have ever know for connecting to marginal and failing students and coaxing them through the program.  He changes people's lives for the better in ways I never will.  His students adore him, even as they race across campus, always late to the class after his.

That is what I mean by looking at the whole package.

[humanitiesanon]

I know professors who are consistently 15-30 minutes early, set up all projectors and equipment before students arrive, greet students and chat with them and take roll as the students arrive.  These professors begin the class at the beginning of the class and end the class at the end of the time.  Whew!  This kind of behavior is intimidating, but the students love him.
Also, I think any extra time spent in the classroom setting up equipment should be counted as hours worked.  Also extra time in the classroom answering questions after class should be part of that weekly total.  It is all a part of teaching.

[voxprincipalis]

Although in principle I agree with this, I have run into trouble several times when the scheduling office or registrar of the department or school schedules back-to-back classes in the same classroom, one or more of which requires more than the usual setup or teardown time. In my dream world, no one would be in my classrooms for a full half-hour before or after I have to teach there, but that is just never going to happen. So, even if I am on time, I am sometimes late in starting because there just isn't enough time after the previous class clears out to set up properly.

VP

[supernumerary]

Yes, profs should not set up their class on the university's time. They should do it on their own time.

Just to clarify, this was my not-so-successful attempt at irony. I thought ttguy went too far with the 'contractually bound to start on time' thing because I usually give much more time to the students (generally) than my contract says.

[jeffrey_deutsch]

Very important issue which has not yet been raised: how does the professor treat students who come in late to class, hand in assignments late, etc? For example, does s/he accept excuses such as traffic, which has been cited here more than once as a possible reasonable excuse for the professor?

Among other factors, to be sure, the more slack one cuts students, the more slack one should be cut.

Jeff Deutsch

[grasshopper]

I know professors who are consistently 15-30 minutes early, set up all projectors and equipment before students arrive, greet students and chat with them and take roll as the students arrive. 

These professors are clearly not at my institution, where space is so limited that the classrooms are booked one right after another, with 2-3 minutes between when the last class finally finishes trickling out, and the next one starts to trickle in.

If the prof of the class before mine stayed an extra fifteen minutes to make up for his own lack of time management and lack of respect the time for others, I'd be pretty upset.

[velvetelvis]

I love how in this thread people seem to think that keeping your students late is doing them a service.  Like they don't have another class to get to or something.

[supernumerary]

Well, sometimes they don't have another class to go to and they want to stay and talk some more because the discussion is that rivetting and the prof is that great. Yes, it happens. But of course common sense must prevail and the prof musn't keep them if they need or want to go or, most important, if another class needs to come in and use the room.

[ms_collegiality]

I'm the kind of person who is occasionally five minutes late (or less) to things, usually because of traffic jams, kid-related issues, unexpected last-minute phone calls.  But I am NEVER late to class.  It's rude.  It's unprofessional.  And it shows a lack of solid time structuring.

I have noticed that there is a whole 'nother type of professor, and there is one in my department, who is frequently up to 20 minutes late to class, and who also frequently lets class go a few minutes early.  I don't think it's a coincidence that his lectures (according to ratemyprofessor) are unprepared desultory readings of the textbook.  Everyone in my department is well aware of the problems of this guy, who has tenure and a very defensive "the world is against me because I'm a member of a racial minority" attitude.  Any constructive criticism from the chair has been deflected with this defense.  I have heard nothing except cynicism in faculty meetings.

I think he's depressed, burned out, and doesn't care.  Hopefully amyamy's late teaacher doesn't have these kinds of problems.

[fiona]

I have a student who's consistently 20 minutes late, and disapproving looks have had no effect.

I just sent him an e-mail asking him to make an effort to be on time, because he interrupts my opening monologue.

We'll see if that works.

The Fiona