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[econ_anon]

It is difficult to imagine a male professor getting sick but being allowed to do this.  Nice work, at nice pay, if you can get it.

Male professor:  back problems.  Seen it.  I'm guessing you're suffering from the representativeness heuristic here. 

Though I bet chronically sick male professors get leave with pay!  (Possibly because they ask for it and stick to their guns about it and already have tenure since chronically sick male professors tend to be older than pregnant female professors.)


The important thing about classes, IMHO, is that the (majority of the) students learn the material.  If they need more practice, then taking time off is less ok than if everything has been going smoothly.  Some of you seem to be in pretty draconian situations-- I cannot imagine anybody checking up on me to see whether or not I was teaching class on any particular day.  What's important is that students can demonstrate the necessary knowledge in the next course they take or on the job.  The outcome is what matters, not the time spent getting there.

[prytania3]

I took a sick day when I first sprained my ankle because I had to stay off of it. I sprained my ankle at school, though, so maybe I didn't have to take a sick day---I need to check on that.

[eternal_adjunct]

On a side note, quite a few of my colleagues cancelled classes yesterday (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving), to the extent that the dean's secretary began to go around to the classrooms to see who was there and who was absent.  The scuttlebutt was that everyone who was gone without advance permission was going to be docked in pay . . . I held classes and had 10 out of 25 in my first class and 6 out of 25 in my second class show up.

I haven't cancelled in a while, but I mostly teach online now, anyway, so it's not so much of an issue.  However, I have cancelled classes for conferences (getting a sub meant having my pay docked - a story for another thread, I'm sure), birth of child, and a few other situations (a dead cat comes to mind).

I'm not sure how remarkable any of this would be in most other kinds of work.  Most professionals I know feel quite free to use their sick days as extra personal leave - to the point where some companies no longer try to distinguish between the two.

But ms. congeniality's situation has always been something that has particularly irked me.  I bet Dean Paydocker would cave in an instant, though, if all those missing students (or their parents) came in to complain about the zeros they got on tests scheduled for the day before Thanksgiving (because if my pay's getting docked for cancelling - I'm finding a reason not to be alone in the classroom).

Here's a thought, Dean Stupidhead (Simpson's reference) - don't take flippin Columbus day off, and use that day for the day before Thanksgiving - the busiest travel day of the year - idiot.

[notaprof]

I'm not sure how remarkable any of this would be in most other kinds of work.  Most professionals I know feel quite free to use their sick days as extra personal leave - to the point where some companies no longer try to distinguish between the two.

As my mother would say, "Just because everyone is doing it, it doesn't make it right."  It is a lie to take a sick day if you are not sick.  People who abuse the sick day policy impose a hardship on colleagues who have to take up the slack, (I am talking about in the other kinds of work that ms_c refers to, not in academia per se.)  I have no problem covering for colleagues who are out sick but I resent doing extra work for the sick day abusers. 

If you are going to cancel class for a non emergency reason, please do so enough in advance that your poor students who commute don't have to make a wasted trip.  If the OP is cancelling in order to save the gas money she doesn't have, (or was this a different thread?) then don't make students waste their time, money and gas either.  That would be the responsible thing to do. 

I have trouble with some of the reasons listed here for cancelling class.  If a student used some of these excuses, they would not be treated kindly.  I'll let everyone decide for themselves which ones are hypocritical in their particular circumstances. 

If the world is not going to be changed by the professor missing a class or two, then give students a break for the same, except perhaps for an exam day or a day of presentations.  People do get sick, have relatives and beloved pets die, people do have emergencies.  I know that some students have an inordinate amount of unsubstantiated reasons for missing class, but some legitimate problems get tarred with the same suspicion.  Maybe everyone (faculty included) should get a free pass for one day of missed class each semester.  Call it a mental health day for everyone.  But students should be advised to use that day wisely, and not too early in the semester. 

[walker_percy]

I average 1 or 2 somewhat guilty unannounced cancellations per class, per semester, usually due to a sick kid or sick (or, up until recently, pregnant) spouse, or exhaustion dealing with the same. I am conscientious to make it up to the students somehow, through tutoring sessions or extensive email exchanges on some school-related task.

Interestingly, students at my full-time gig are more forgiving than those at the school where I do some off-hours adjunct teaching, according to evaluations. I believe I am viewed as more human, less mercenary, to my full-time brood. I occasionally take a hit on evals from my "adjunct" students.

Good email habits, that is, the cultivation of student responsiveness and attentiveness to my emails, mitigate the jolt somewhat, by offering a warning to students who might otherwise waste a trip to a cancelled class.

[prytania3]

I'm not sure how remarkable any of this would be in most other kinds of work.  Most professionals I know feel quite free to use their sick days as extra personal leave - to the point where some companies no longer try to distinguish between the two.

As my mother would say, "Just because everyone is doing it, it doesn't make it right."  It is a lie to take a sick day if you are not sick.  People who abuse the sick day policy impose a hardship on colleagues who have to take up the slack, (I am talking about in the other kinds of work that ms_c refers to, not in academia per se.)  I have no problem covering for colleagues who are out sick but I resent doing extra work for the sick day abusers. 

If you are going to cancel class for a non emergency reason, please do so enough in advance that your poor students who commute don't have to make a wasted trip.  If the OP is cancelling in order to save the gas money she doesn't have, (or was this a different thread?) then don't make students waste their time, money and gas either.  That would be the responsible thing to do. 

I have trouble with some of the reasons listed here for cancelling class.  If a student used some of these excuses, they would not be treated kindly.  I'll let everyone decide for themselves which ones are hypocritical in their particular circumstances. 

If the world is not going to be changed by the professor missing a class or two, then give students a break for the same, except perhaps for an exam day or a day of presentations.  People do get sick, have relatives and beloved pets die, people do have emergencies.  I know that some students have an inordinate amount of unsubstantiated reasons for missing class, but some legitimate problems get tarred with the same suspicion.  Maybe everyone (faculty included) should get a free pass for one day of missed class each semester.  Call it a mental health day for everyone.  But students should be advised to use that day wisely, and not too early in the semester. 

I tell all students they must miss one day of class. Perfect attendance is unacceptable.

[oldadjunct]

A mental heath day for a college teacher?  You have to be kidding, right?  Think of it this way, on this site we often bemoan attendance problems and suggest all the answers to students for weak excuses.  But, if a student misses one  class, then that's ONE class.  If we miss one class, then that is 15, 20, 37, 120 (pick a number for your class size) missed classes. 

Each semester is what, 14 weeks?  Followed by 3-4 weeks.  Another 14 weeks, followed by 10 weeks?

No, not easy when doing a 4/4 (and to those bragging about how many credits they taught, think of your responses to a student who attempted to excuse their performance based on a "hard semester").  So get a grip people.  If you are scheduled, show up.

BTW, and for what it is worth, I missed a day last year.  First one in three years, including the semester I taught, non-stop, with a broken back.

[notaprof]

Thank you OldAdjunct,  I think we are making similar points and I was mostly kidding about the mental health day.    Get a grip is right.  Of course people get sick and of course there are some legitimate reasons to cancel a class but I was pretty surprised at some people in the other thread that were giving the OP permission to skip class because of lack of gas money when it sounded as if the OP could otherwise adjust another appointment.  Then people began to chime in with other reasons that they have cancelled class that were a bit surprising but I guess it is easy to confess in an anonymous forum.   

As a bit of a reality check, there are actually people who work at physically demanding jobs (physically demanding for 8 hours) that do get docked if they miss work so I don't feel much sympathy for those who complain about being docked for cancelling class if it was only cancelled because it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I know that is what some students may do but why would faculty want to lower themselves to slacker student standards?   

If everyone starts skipping class on Wednesday this year, next year they will want to skip Tuesday too, and if you  are going to skip Tuesday & Wednesday then you might as well write off Monday too.   If you want to escape early for the Thanksgiving break, then have a class vote for another day to make up the class to be missed. 

PS - OldAdjunct, your year lost about 10 weeks somewhere along the way. 

[econ_anon]

This is still bizarre to me.  How is lecturing just for the sake of being there and putting in the time a good use of anybody's time?  If learning is going on, why does it matter whether it happens inside or outside of the classroom?

Of course, I also don't require class attendance in non-discussion-based classes.  My students still come to class though.

[cc_alan]

This is still bizarre to me.  How is lecturing just for the sake of being there and putting in the time a good use of anybody's time?  If learning is going on, why does it matter whether it happens inside or outside of the classroom?

oldadjunct's post strikes a chord with me.

I *hate* canceling class. It's one reason I don't attend many conferences. I do make myself go to 1 a year to keep current in my field. As far as I'm concerned, a missed day is a missed opportunity for all of my students.

While I have yet to do it, I can see taking a day off as a "mental health day". I can't see myself doing it but I've been fortunate in my life and career so I'm not about to pass judgment on someone else who has done it. I could see having a class period to let them work on homework.

When I do schedule an absence due to a conference, I rarely can get a sub. I usually go with one of the instructors who could do the subbing and the other is usually teaching at that time. So, I work up projects for them to do and then we talk about it/them when I get back.

I did have an "amusing" comment on my evals one quarter. I was selected to do jury duty but I couldn't get anyone to sub for me because the person that could have done it was teaching. I discussed it with the students and I did only have to miss one day which required me to alter the schedule a little but nothing serious. Someone wrote on my evals that I missed a class day which threw us off and I was irresponsible for not getting a sub.

So much for discussing things with the class... at least for that person.

Alan

[kishter]

I've only canceled once for illness.

But at least once per quarter/semester I do an online discussion day (on a message/bulletin board, not a live chat).  I think it's pedagogically useful for the students to write to each other rather than speak to each other, and it gives me a much-needed break from facilitating discussion and preparing a lecture.  But the online day doesn't translate into less work for me--just a different kind of work, as I need to prepare them for it, write a guideline sheet, keep track of their posts, etc.

At my uni we have a "personal day" allowance so we can write a "no class" day into the syllabus once per year.  I just got here and haven't used it yet, but I plan to do so before the end of this school year!