6. Perugia: Lack of Interest or Poor Management (2)
At the University of Perugia for Foreigners, indifference to the students’ interest resulted in the Administration’s failure to oversee the classes. For example, in another class, the instructor had taken ill and had not appeared for several days, but no one from Administration seemed to know or cared. The class had to send a delegation to apprise the secretary that their instructor had not been turning up. I know about their predicament because our delegation met theirs in the secretary’s office when we went to complain about not having an instructor appear for two days. Who was in charge?
Our problem started with a change in our schedule. We had 27 contact hours but spread out so that we had mainly morning classes with one long day on Thursday ending at 7 p.m. Tuesday we had mornings free and classes in the afternoon ending at 7 p.m. I do believe that this schedule reflected a planning decision to ensure that we had some free time. We could participate in activities or even take a bus ride to explore neighbouring towns. More importantly, we could attend the film that the university sponsored each Friday, thus allowing us to develop our comprehension skills. But then our language instructor announced that the given schedule did not agree with her and that she had so advised the university in August. So our schedule was changed to suit her, and we ended up with one that gave us afternoon classes every afternoon with classes ending at 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday. Gone was any chance of participating in any kind of activity, whether film or excursion. With our new schedule, the only time for excursions was the weekend, when buses were infrequent.
If I were studying with a famous professor who is juggling research, administration, and public lectures, I could well understand if he needed to change the schedule. I would not mind the inconvenience just to have the opportunity of studying with him. But at Perugia the instructors are neither famous nor professors, and not even permanent staff. They are contract workers drawn from a very large pool because Perugia is the centre for marking Italian language and culture exams for the whole country. Frankly, if the schedule did not suit her, the Administration could easily have found another instructor. She should not be dictating to the Administration and making us adapt to her schedule. The university had an obligation not only to see that we were taught but that we were not made servants to the scheduling whims of the instructor. The only reason she succeeded in having the hours changed was that there was no one in control. Try telling the chairman of the English department at a North American university that you, a sessional appointee, can’t teach the given schedule. I’m sure the response would be that there are others who could.
Not only did the instructor have our schedule changed, she also could not teach all the hours and so had asked for another instructor to take over the teaching of grammar. She claimed that she had given the Administration ample warning and had been told that all was in control. No instructor appeared for two days, and so we lost 6 hours of class time. Finally, in frustration a group of us went to speak to the Secretary. She told us that organising the instructors was not her provenance and that we should speak to the Secretary of Teaching. This lady in turn told us that she was "just a secretary" and that she could do nothing! So we marched into the President’s Office. We explained our predicament to the secretary who met us. She spoke to another secretary deeper in the office. She in turn spoke to us and then walked into the inner sanctum to speak to the President. He -- or she for all I know -- NEVER came out to speak to us. To this day I don’t know who it is. I think it is a Professor Roberto Fedi but it may have been Frankenstein. I will call him "IT" since I don’t know if the President is a male or female. The secretary came out and said that we would have an instructor for the next class, our 6 hours would be made up, and our schedule would be changed. We did get a new instructor, who arrived half an hour late; we NEVER got the 6 hours made up; and we certainly did NOT get our schedule changed. And NEVER did President "IT" or a deputy come to our classes to check if our concerns were met.
6 hours was not the only amount of classroom time we lost. Instructors would often arrive a half-hour late, and the excuse of heavy traffic paled through repetition. As someone said to me, they should know the pattern of traffic, and what is to stop them leaving earlier from home? On the other hand, other instructors were always on time, and one in particular I would like to mention by name, Catia Mugnani our conversation instructor who was always punctual and ran a tight ship. Unfortunately, others were a little too cavalier with our time.
On separate occasions two instructors announced to us that they could not teach us the following day at the given class hour because they had other commitments, and we would have to change our schedule. Their absence was definitely not due to any major domestic crisis like a death or we would have heard about it. One made up the hours on the very last day when half the class was missing. Well, excuse me, but my understanding is that instructors are contracted to teach certain classes at specific hours. They represent the university and have to fulfil its contract with us, the students. We had travelled a long distance at a large expense, and since we were there for a brief period, time was of the essence. We too had a life outside the classroom, and we certainly didn’t want to be treated so cavalierly. If the Administration had been conscientious in its duty it would have overseen the instructors, and made it clear to them that changing the schedule even temporarily was unacceptable.
The Administration’s indifference was also manifested by the state of disrepair of the recording machines we used. If President “IT” had made even a modicum of effort he would have discovered that half the recording machines – sometimes even more than half – were not functioning. Each time we went to the audio-visual room, it became a game of musical chairs to find a recording machine that worked. And this happened for the whole month. Where were the Service Technicians and why were the machines allowed to decay to this point that it became a distraction to the class? To me, the state of disrepair of the machines was symptomatic of the indifference that characterised the attitude of the Administration to the students studying at the University for Foreigners at Perugia in September. This institution’s boast that it has “a long and illustrious reputation” rings hollow in my ears.
Our problem started with a change in our schedule. We had 27 contact hours but spread out so that we had mainly morning classes with one long day on Thursday ending at 7 p.m. Tuesday we had mornings free and classes in the afternoon ending at 7 p.m. I do believe that this schedule reflected a planning decision to ensure that we had some free time. We could participate in activities or even take a bus ride to explore neighbouring towns. More importantly, we could attend the film that the university sponsored each Friday, thus allowing us to develop our comprehension skills. But then our language instructor announced that the given schedule did not agree with her and that she had so advised the university in August. So our schedule was changed to suit her, and we ended up with one that gave us afternoon classes every afternoon with classes ending at 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday. Gone was any chance of participating in any kind of activity, whether film or excursion. With our new schedule, the only time for excursions was the weekend, when buses were infrequent.
If I were studying with a famous professor who is juggling research, administration, and public lectures, I could well understand if he needed to change the schedule. I would not mind the inconvenience just to have the opportunity of studying with him. But at Perugia the instructors are neither famous nor professors, and not even permanent staff. They are contract workers drawn from a very large pool because Perugia is the centre for marking Italian language and culture exams for the whole country. Frankly, if the schedule did not suit her, the Administration could easily have found another instructor. She should not be dictating to the Administration and making us adapt to her schedule. The university had an obligation not only to see that we were taught but that we were not made servants to the scheduling whims of the instructor. The only reason she succeeded in having the hours changed was that there was no one in control. Try telling the chairman of the English department at a North American university that you, a sessional appointee, can’t teach the given schedule. I’m sure the response would be that there are others who could.
Not only did the instructor have our schedule changed, she also could not teach all the hours and so had asked for another instructor to take over the teaching of grammar. She claimed that she had given the Administration ample warning and had been told that all was in control. No instructor appeared for two days, and so we lost 6 hours of class time. Finally, in frustration a group of us went to speak to the Secretary. She told us that organising the instructors was not her provenance and that we should speak to the Secretary of Teaching. This lady in turn told us that she was "just a secretary" and that she could do nothing! So we marched into the President’s Office. We explained our predicament to the secretary who met us. She spoke to another secretary deeper in the office. She in turn spoke to us and then walked into the inner sanctum to speak to the President. He -- or she for all I know -- NEVER came out to speak to us. To this day I don’t know who it is. I think it is a Professor Roberto Fedi but it may have been Frankenstein. I will call him "IT" since I don’t know if the President is a male or female. The secretary came out and said that we would have an instructor for the next class, our 6 hours would be made up, and our schedule would be changed. We did get a new instructor, who arrived half an hour late; we NEVER got the 6 hours made up; and we certainly did NOT get our schedule changed. And NEVER did President "IT" or a deputy come to our classes to check if our concerns were met.
6 hours was not the only amount of classroom time we lost. Instructors would often arrive a half-hour late, and the excuse of heavy traffic paled through repetition. As someone said to me, they should know the pattern of traffic, and what is to stop them leaving earlier from home? On the other hand, other instructors were always on time, and one in particular I would like to mention by name, Catia Mugnani our conversation instructor who was always punctual and ran a tight ship. Unfortunately, others were a little too cavalier with our time.
On separate occasions two instructors announced to us that they could not teach us the following day at the given class hour because they had other commitments, and we would have to change our schedule. Their absence was definitely not due to any major domestic crisis like a death or we would have heard about it. One made up the hours on the very last day when half the class was missing. Well, excuse me, but my understanding is that instructors are contracted to teach certain classes at specific hours. They represent the university and have to fulfil its contract with us, the students. We had travelled a long distance at a large expense, and since we were there for a brief period, time was of the essence. We too had a life outside the classroom, and we certainly didn’t want to be treated so cavalierly. If the Administration had been conscientious in its duty it would have overseen the instructors, and made it clear to them that changing the schedule even temporarily was unacceptable.
The Administration’s indifference was also manifested by the state of disrepair of the recording machines we used. If President “IT” had made even a modicum of effort he would have discovered that half the recording machines – sometimes even more than half – were not functioning. Each time we went to the audio-visual room, it became a game of musical chairs to find a recording machine that worked. And this happened for the whole month. Where were the Service Technicians and why were the machines allowed to decay to this point that it became a distraction to the class? To me, the state of disrepair of the machines was symptomatic of the indifference that characterised the attitude of the Administration to the students studying at the University for Foreigners at Perugia in September. This institution’s boast that it has “a long and illustrious reputation” rings hollow in my ears.
posted by Toby1939 at 10:57 AM
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